DEINDUSTRIALIZATINO AND CRIMINALIZATION

BY STUDENT

The United States is notorious for its overt and covert racism against African Americans and Hispanics, who basically built this nation. Ever since the slave trade, racial minorities have been exploited, marginalized and labeled as “criminals.” Especially, in densely populated areas of the country, such as the Bronx, Brooklyn and San Diego, were we focus most of our class discussions. These densely populated areas are usually hyper policed, which was evident in a video we watched by the Sugar Hill Gang, “Rapper’s Delight.” The rappers were arrested for simply ‘walking while black’. This type of hyper policing in urban areas, led to the racial disparity in incarceration, that is still evident today. As of 2008, blacks and Hispanics accounted for 58% of people incarcerated in the U.S. and percentage is steadily increasing (“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”). To put this into perspective, the combined percentage of blacks and Hispanics in the U.S. is around 25% so, of that 25%, over half are incarcerated (Carroll, 2001). You might now be asking yourself, what factors contributed to the mass incarceration of African Americans and Hispanics?  

           

The mass incarceration of blacks and Hispanics is primarily due to politician’s “Get Tough on Crime,” and the “War on Drugs” initiatives (“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”). The Get Tough on Crime initiative began with the Clinton administration, it featured harsher sentencing, the three-strike rule and mandatory minimum sentencing. Most states in the U.S. adopted these policies, because they were incentivized with federal funding (Yearwood). The ‘War on Drugs’ was coined by Nixon, in efforts to decrease drugs usage in America, this featured harsher drug sentencing which mainly affected people in the low ranks of the socioeconomic hierarchy (racial minorities). It also led to the creation of the 100:1 crack to powder sentencing, which gave longer sentencing for crack rock possession over cocaine. Which is ridiculous because they are the same drug, the only difference is cocaine was the drug of choice for middle class whites (Yearwood). Most of these policies have gone obsolete due to changing times, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are readopted under a different name. Today, we have policies like stop and frisk in New York, that blatantly violates the fourth amendment (“Stop and Frisk Practices,” 2017). Targets for these random searches are usually young blacks and Latinos deemed ‘suspicious,’ mostly by white cops that don’t understand the community they are patrolling.

This blog barely scratches the surface of the criminalization of blacks and Hispanics in the United States. The origin goes back to the Progressive Era, were corrupt government leaders would relocate white red-light districts to black and Hispanic communities, to conceal their wrong-doings ‘under the cover of blackness’ (Muhammad, 2011). According to statistics, racial minorities are no more prone to violence than their white counterparts, who have significantly lower incarceration rates. In fact, if blacks and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rate as whites, their incarceration rate would decrease by 50% (“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”). Interesting don’t you think?

Works Cited

Carroll, Joseph. "Public Overestimates U.S. Black and Hispanic Populations." Gallup.com. June 04, 2001. Accessed March 01, 2017. http://www.gallup.com/poll/4435/public-overestimates-us-black-hispanic-populations.aspx.

Contributor, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. "The Tough on Crime Era Needs to End." TheHill. September 26, 2016. Accessed March 01, 2017. http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/crime/297446-the-tough-on-crime-era-needs-to-end.

"Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." NAACP. Accessed March 01, 2017. http://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.

Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.

"Stop and Frisk Practices." New York Civil Liberties Union. February 21, 2017. Accessed March 01, 2017. https://www.nyclu.org/en/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices.

LATINA/OS TAKE CENTER STAGE: CENSUS 2000

LATINO EXPLOSION IN THE UNITED STATES
BY STUDENT

The Latino population has been shown to be the biggest it has ever been since Latinos started migrating to the United States. Why did the Latino population expand in the 20th century and who exactly were migrating to the United States? The census has shown that in the past 30 years there has been a Hispanic explosion leading 52 million and 16.7% of the total population to be Latinos in the United States. Latinos have surpassed blacks and have become the biggest minority group in the United States, as well as being the second Spanish-speaking nation (El Nasser, 2013). The Census has also shown that 36 out of 50 states have shown to surpass the minority-majority population threshold, only leaving 34% of under age 5 representing at least one minority (Berg, 2012)

Latinos started to migrate to the United States in hopes for better jobs. Cubans were moving to Union City, New Jersey to work in factories because of their lax rules and more opportunities. In 1970 and 1980 the census showed that Hispanics were the only ethnic group in the United States that maintained representation in blue-collar employment. (Bose, & Acosta-Belén, 1995) Half of the firms were made up of women working for electronic factories, in which most of them were immigrants and came by themselves in the United States. The factory spaces had created new opportunities for women. They were able to be independent for their first time and they were able to escape machismo from their homes. Women started to reconceptualize their subjectivity by entering the workforce as a sign of liberation.

A HBO documentary series called Latin Explosion came out in 2015. This documentary highlighted that in 1950, one in fifty Americans were Latinos and they expect by 2025 for it to increase to one in three Americans.  The Latino explosion is not only seen through increased numbers in the census but also in the way in which Latinos are using their space to expose themselves. The arts are prime example where Latinos are surpassing boundaries and making a difference in the American culture. Latinos have also been extremely present in politics, in 2009 Sonia Sotomayor was the first Latina Judge who was sworn into the Supreme Court Justice. Catherine Cortez Masto was elected to be the first Latina Senator and Adrian Espaillat is the first Dominican man elected into congress.

I think it is amazing to see how Latinos have come a long way in the United States. From barely having any Latinos in the Early 1900’s, to now being the biggest growing minority population. I think that the United States is diversifying more in urban and rural places. Gender figures is still something that we see today as women are taking on more roles in society and continuing to shape their subjectivity. A lot of Latinos are now present in the city of certain states as we all the suburbs. Groups like Young Lords have fought for moments and opportunities that Latinos are now surpassing. Although there is still more work that needs to be made, it is important to see how many changes Latinos have made and how they continue to break the Internet.  

Work Cited

Clip of the trailer Latin Explosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR865uS7F74

Berg, N. (2012). U.S. Metros Are Ground Zero for Majority-Minority Populations. CityLab. Retrieved 27 March 2017, from http://www.citylab.com/housing/2012/05/us-metros-are-ground-zero-majority-minority-populations/2043/

Bose, C., & Acosta-Belén, E. (1995). Women in the Latin American development process (1st ed.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

  

El Nasser, H. (2013). Retrieved 27 March 2017, from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.libproxy.albany.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=a897c821-d582-4653-9a93-2180df9726a2%40sessionmgr120&hid=111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=J0E317575474113

           

TRANSNATIONAL URBAN LATINIZATION

LATINA/O WORKERS AND GLOBAL CIRCUITS

BY A.M.

The area known today as the US-Mexico border is a region which fuels a lot of dispute in the political world, especially when talking about transnational urban Latinization. Surges in migration between the United States and Mexico brings work opportunities for many immigrants in the country. However, many of these migrants face the issues of being labeled as “illegal”, and being subjected to deliberate forms of racism and class domination (Schmidt, 2). The lack of rights for Latina/o workers in the US has caused many migrants to seek incorporation in their places of work, and build a platform of what they can do to benefit themselves, the working force, and their countries of origin. Certain policies in the United States advocate against all migrants from Mexico, whether they are legal or not, and their working in the United States to gain money for their own country. However, the opposite is believed by migrants, who instead view this as their way of aiding those less fortunate in their home country. This is a form of modern day transnationalism, which leads to the question of what exactly transnationalism is, and why it would be beneficial to grant privileges and mobility to all Latina/o workers in the contemporary era?

The text, Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the U.S.- Mexico Borderlands, reinforces the positive side of granting mobility to Latina/o workers. Before addressing the question proposed in the previous paragraph, the process of transnationalism must be addressed. According to the text “transnationalism refers to the space in which distinct national localities are linked together by migratory flows, and the diaspora formed by this migration” (Schmidt, 5). Essentially, people migrate between borders with the intent to work and, in many cases, still support their country of origin from afar. Transnationalism is not a new theory created for the contemporary era, it in fact has been applied at an earlier time. According to the article, Transnational Migrants: When “Home” Means More Than One Country, European immigrants were known to remain active in prominent forms of political and economic affairs in their countries of origin, while still located in America in the 1900s. At first glance this process seems to only benefit the foreign countries, such as Mexico, and not the country that the work is being performed in, the United States. However, this could possibly bring not only revenue into the United States, but cultural affinity and political ease between nations.

As stated earlier, there have been migrant accounts of being mistreated on behalf of them being immigrants. It is not possible to track the location of every person who has migrated into the United States from Mexico, so there is still an issue of whether migrants to the United States are in fact “legal” or not. This sense of not knowing has been the fuel for the “historical racialization of Mexican [migrant workers]”, who sought naturalization but were deemed ineligible (Schmidt, 9). The text describes the issue of certain United States politicians believing that Mexican workers pose a threat to national unity, on the basis of differences in language, culture, and ethnicity (Schmidt, 10), not to mention whether they are American or not. From and alternate perspective, it can be argued by some that Mexican Americans only serve as a forced “transborder laboring class” (Schmidt, 9), but if given the opportunity sans the stigma, they can evolve into a social movement focused on the liberation of political issues across borders. Such issues include the relationship between migrants and the Mexican government, as well as the Mexican government and their demands for the United States. By allowing free movement, along with the working opportunity, the process of migrants aiding their town/ country of origin will thereby relieve monetary stress off of those areas; overtime evolving into the relief of stress between the countries themselves.

Sources

R., Schmidt Camacho Alicia. "Introduction." Introduction. Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. New York: New York UP, 2008. 1-17. Print.

Levitt, Peggy. "Transnational Migrants: When "Home" Means More Than One Country." Migrationpolicy.org. N.p., 01 Oct. 2004. Web. <http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/transnational-migrants-when-home-means-more-one-country>.

TRANSNATIONAL URBAN LATINIZATION

BY STUDENT

As a person who has family in a different country, I tend to see transnationalism on a firsthand basis. There are times when my family sometimes has to send money to our family back home to help them afford some of the things they need to buy because the prices keep going up but their wages aren’t. This is one of the major reasons that people are migrating to the United States. They are coming here knowing that they are going to lose the majority of the civil liberties they would be have in their homelands but they can no longer afford to live there. And I began to wonder why we allow so many U.S. corporate companies to pay these undocumented immigrants and international workers such low wages as well work in such degrading conditions?

In the film, Sixth Section, by Alex Rivera we see how the undocumented workers from Mexico, Grupo Union, contributed to both of their economies regardless of their status. They worked grueling hours and most weekends in Newburgh, New York doing odd jobs to earn money for their families as well as to be able to send money back to their hometown of Boqueron, Mexico. Grupo Union was able to get more done than the actual government itself in Mexico and I think that is unacceptable. People are working so hard and there is absolutely nothing to show for it when they stay in their homelands. They feel as though they need to leave to prosper even though they aren’t actually ending up in ideal situations most of the times.

With the new transnational urban system most of the forms of economic activity have switched over from manufacturing to more service based industries according to Saskia Sassen. Workers went from working in factories in terrible conditions for very low wages to working as maids, nannies, or as construction workers. This has created a larger division of labor between the classes. It has also increased spatial inequalities that are effecting the people that are living in these cities.

Work Cited Sixth Section, Alex Rivera, 2003 [23 min.]
Sassen, Saskia. 2002. “National and Transnational Urban Systems” in Cities in a World Economy [35] 

TRANSNATIONAL URBAN LATINIZATION

BY STUDENT

One of the most marginalized people in all history is the immigrant. For hundreds of years, immigrants have been categorized as “outsiders” in their new countries and face discrimination and stereotyping on a large scale. Here in the United States, the stereotypes that surround Mexican immigrant workers that originated due to the Bracero Program and the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900’s still have strong effects today. But, as seen through recent research, the dynamic and goals of modern immigrant workers are changing rapidly, especially with the pressure added by the recent presidential election. One question I’ve had is: How will the promise of Trump’s wall affect the Mexican immigrant worker and the Mexican economy?  

In reading an interview of Alex Rivera, the director of The Sixth Section, and watching the film, I’ve learned about how modern Mexican workers are working harder to improve their hometowns in Mexico while still trying to achieve “The American Dream”.  Not all of these workers are trying to immigrate to the US permanently; many have plans to return to their homeland once work become readily available again.    They are referred to as transnational workers because they have roots in both the US and Mexico. But in leaving Mexico for the US, they lose a lot of their rights. For example, transnational workers don’t have the right to vote in the US and are forced to participate in the US system that exploits them while living in constant fear of deportation Because of these concerns, organizations like the Grupo Union and MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) work to protect the rights of transnational workers. The difference between these groups though is that MALDEF works to protect the rights of all Mexican transnational workers for decades while smaller groups like Grupo Union help their specific pueblo in Mexico. As a counter argument, Rivera stated that it can be said that these workers are exploiting the US by using the money they make here to improve Mexico instead of the US. But as the documentary showed, the funds Transnational workers sent back home weren’t always used with the Mexican community’s best interest in mind. This is because it was hard for them to gauge what the community back home needed when they were hundreds of miles away. One example Rivera used was a town that received its first ambulance, which wouldn’t be useful because of the damaged roads the community needed fixed more urgently and because the town couldn’t afford to hire an ambulance driver. Because of the increased tension caused by the most recent presidential election, I wondered how Transnational workers from Mexican would be effected.

Because of the election, it’ll now be even harder for transnational workers like the ones in the Grupo Union to reenter Mexico if they choose to visit home. It might also cause a decrease in Mexican workers that will be willing to come to the US to work which will eventually cause a decrease in money being sent from the US to Mexico. This will hurt the small Mexican pueblos that depend on remittances to develop their community. MALDEF was flooded with the questions and concerns of hundreds of Mexican American that were scared for both themselves and their undocumented family. For the time being, there isn’t any way for MALDEF to give these people the answers they look for because there’s no telling how the next for years will affect the Mexican community.

Sources:

Decena, C. U., and M. Gray. "Putting Transnationalism to Work: AN INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKER ALEX RIVERA." Social Text 24, no. 3 88 (2006): 131-38.

"Immigrants’ Rights Under a Trump Presidency - maldef.org." Accessed March 12, 2017. http://www.bing.com/cr?

“The Sixth Section.” (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/pov/thesixthsection/

DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND CRIMINALIZATION

CRIMINALIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS AND LATINOS

BY STUDENT

There has been a movement throughout the millennial generation of modern day America. This movement has pointed out many injustices in our judicial system and shined a light on systematic racism in our country. Unfortunately, African Americans/ Latinos are on the short end of the stick in terms of this systematic racism and this has been a trend throughout our country's history. Looking back towards the 19th/20th century, African Americans and Latinos were abused and used in order to benefit middle class, ethnic whites. In 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed which allowed African Americans to flee to the North to fight against the South. This was the start to the 13th-15th amendments, abolishing slavery and allowing African American men to vote, tipping the scale of socioeconomic America. Because a majority of ethnic whites in America at this time felt threatened by these amendments, lynching’s of African Americans because frequent throughout the country. At this point in history, the police became a combative force for racism, which was a central starting point for systematic racism in this country.

African Americans and Latinos all across America have been affected by this systematic racism. Jeff Guo of the Washington posted sparks a fact saying, “the prison population has quintupled. [Due to] disparities in arrests and sentencing, this eruption has disproportionately affected black communities. Black men are imprisoned at six times the rate of white men. … For some high-risk groups, the economic consequences have been staggering. According to Census data from 2014, there are more young black high school dropouts in prison than have jobs.” (Washington Post, Feb. 26). People have argued that many African Americans have been freed of “slavery” but are yet still slaves to the system we have in America. Law enforcement have served the capitalistic middle class interests’ which is a major reason why we have so many men of color being marginalized in prison to this day. These men that are already at higher risk of being marginalized in prisons would then be working for major corporations for basically slave wages.

As Muhammad points out in his book The Condemnation of Blackness, “police officers were often on the wrong side of the law.” (249). The racial inequality in the U.S. can also be seen in the unemployment rate of African Americans. Every socio-economic aspect of the criminalization of African Americans/Latinos play a part to criminalization. “Taking at least 2.2 million people out of society profoundly affects the rates of poverty and labor exploitation and further marginalizes large segments of the working class and poor by the U.S, ruling class.” (Abayomi Azikiwe). In order to make progress, everyone in America needs to fight the system and help every single American from discrimination. 

Works Cited:

"The racist criminalization of African Americans." Workers World. N.p., 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard U Press, 2011. Print.