Different Forms Of Injustice 6b6g

Cumplido 1 Guadalupe Cumplido Professor Santosh English 113B 21 April 2016 Different Forms of Injustice Race, Gender and age are inevitable things we cannot change about ourselves making it impossible to escape the cruel injustices that we face on a daily basis. Although we are bound to fit in somewhere in life, that still does not eliminate the discriminations in our world today, thus making it a global crisis. Gender inequality exists all over the world even in the United States from work positions to not being able to have a driver’s license in Saudi Arabia. Lastly, elder abuse and neglect exists all over the world from abandonment at a retirement home to homelessness that swarm our streets. Each injustice may vary for most countries, but they all have the same effect on how it makes us feel. Injustice is a sensitive subject to talk about, since it is a violation of human rights of others. People are victimize with unjust treatment because of their color, race and age. Injustice is a very complex topic because, there are many more forms of injustice just as religious, social, and economic. However, I focused mostly on racial, gender, and elderly injustices because they are not as talked as much as they should be. These violations happen globally, even in the United States. Although many believe that America is the place of opportunity and there is no more segregation, and everyone can vote. There are still injustices done to minorities, women and elderly. Many government systems are corrupt all over the world. You might ask; has it always been this way? In view of the fact it has for a long time; there is a cycle where injustices from the past repeat in the present such as racial injustice.

Cumplido 2 In the history of the United States, it is clearly portrayed the reflection of racial discrimination. When the founding fathers of America stated that “all men were created equal”, not all men were equal. Because “in 1787, they wrote into the Constitution a provision that implicitly legalized slavery: the number of representatives each state would send to Congress would be determined by the number of ‘free persons’ and ‘three fifths of all other person,’ the code phrase for slaves” (Takaki 75). They did not considered slaves to be people but as objects of labor. Abuse, neglect and hardships were the lives of many African Americans for centuries. A quote from Thomas Jefferson: he said, “Blacks and whites could never coexist in America because of ‘the real distinctions’ which ‘nature’ had made between the two races” (62). This kind of thinking brings a reasonable explanation why the US had segregation for the longest time and violent crimes against the black community such as “lynching” and crimes of abuse. I still cannot understand how all of this was acceptable in the past. However, something that really bothers me the most is the racial injustice that still exist today in the US. There is a sad reality of racial discriminations in our country today. It is clear that there is more police brutality towards people of color than there is for whites. An example is in a video where a teenager is being shoot multiple times by a police officer; “The release of the video showing Chatman being fatally shot by a police officer follows the Nov. 24 release of police dash-cam video from 2014 showing white officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty” (Tan 1). The police officer was not found guilty because according to his testimony he was just self-protecting himself because he saw the teen with a dark object and so he decided to shoot him sixteen times. Let us imagine this situation with

Cumplido 3 another teenager. A white teen carrying the dark object do you believe he would of shoot him sixteen times? No, he would not or at least not as many times as they did with Laquan McDonald because there is always a different treatment with white people. An example to answer this question is with another situation at the Charleston church shooting, this white supremacist from the picture was arrested after killing nine innocent people at a black church. Why is he not hold down at the floor? But, he is escorted to jail and there is even declarations that “Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof got a free meal from police on his way to jail. They went to Burger King” (Silverstein 1). He gets food after killing innocent people, can you see the unjust reality that we live in today’s world. There are more cases of police brutality towards people of color than ever before. This truth follows an ongoing history of racism and discrimination. The similar pattern of racial discrimination happens in other countries such as Mexico. In Mexico, there is color discrimination towards the Afro-Mexican community. Many do not know about African Mexicans because they are not aware about the history of the Americas but “the first black people arrived with the Spanish conquistadors. After the fall of the Aztec Empire and the establishment of a Viceroyalty in what is today Mexico City, Spanish rulers began importing slaves from Africa to replace indigenous slaves who died from disease and epidemic. Soon the term “Mulato” was coined to describe mixed-race generations of black people and white Europeans” (Simms 228). Color is important to Mexicans. The idea that white skin is better than dark skin has ed down from generation to generation. How did this idea come to be? Well, when Mexico was discovered by the Europeans; indigenous people considered them to be superior because of their skin color and advance technology. The conquistadors’ discovery of

Cumplido 4 the new world caused a drastic loss of most of the population of the indigenous groups that habit the Americas (Lockhart 11). Most of Mexico is now a race of mixed indigenous and European blood. You might ask how it is possible for Mexicans to be discriminatory to its own race. Well, an example is in the rejected population of African Mexicans. Mexicans have neglected Afro Mexicans for the longest time in Mexico. As the LA times describes that the mixture of indigenous and European heritage is what Mexicans most embrace; the African legacy is overlooked” (Mitchell 1). They are neglected and mistreated by the Mexican population because of their skin color as Padre Glyn Jemmott, a Roman Catholic priest from Trinidad and Tobago said in an interview; "What they are not saying is that in ordinary life in Mexico, lighter-skinned Mexicans are accepted and have first place" (1). Mexicans of lighter skin have more privileges than dark skin Mexicans because of the ideology that Mexico is only a mixed race and they feel offended to know that there is such as a community of black skin Mexicans. They are not even consider Mexican citizens at times according to the LA Times, “Some tell stories of being confronted in other parts of the country by police who refuse to believe they're Mexican and sometimes accuse them of being there illegally” (1). I feel for this community because I have observed how judgmental Mexicans can be towards people with darker skin. My friend Carmen Dimas of Mexican descent says “since, I was small I have been called the dark one out of my family because most of my sisters and cousins are of lighter skin, this bothered me a lot when I was young because I felt like I was being treated differently throughout my life but I know longer care”. To be of lighter skin in Mexico for sure is a privilege because you will not encounter discrimination but iration. Racial/ color injustice is one of the many injustices done in our world today.

Cumplido 5 Gender inequality is a worldwide issue as well. Many do not see it as so in United States because women are capable to do anything as men. However, there is still gender discrimination when it comes to work pay. For example, “While women's rising qualifications are one factor, a considerable portion of the decline in gender earnings gaps is attributed to unobserved characteristics and gender-based discrimination” (Mandel 123). Throughout the years, women are not being pay the same as men at work. The opposite side claims that women do not choose the right careers to make the same pay as men. Men tend to do the hard stuff, and women do jobs that are not as risky and hard, thus receiving more pay. However, when it comes to the same jobs done by women and men, “women still earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns" (125). Is mind blowing to learn that there is an unequal system where men are paid more than women are with the same qualifications for the same job in the US. In other parts of the world women in Saudi Arabia, there is still the talk about “women’s right to drive, where women could and should work, and the types of education appropriate for women” (Hamdan 46). How could it be that women’s lives are been managed in every perspective? In a way, the lives of women become dependent on men 24/7. Men are able to drive, work where they please, and go to the school they preferred; study what they want. I do not really agree with the rules that governments have for women in different countries; not just, that men can have that intense control on women’s lives. Other victims of injustice acts towards is the elderly. Elderly injustices are very common on every country. The sad reality in the United State is that most elder parents left in nursing homes where abuse can be prevalent. Very recent media items about the horrendous abuse of an elderly patient in a nursing home. For example, “A shocking video of an old woman being hit with a book, kicked, pushed and verbally abused by a

Cumplido 6 caretaker went viral on Facebook today, prompting many messages to the nation to get involved” (Nation 1). The picture in the left is the outside of the Roseville nursing home. The victim taken to the hospital and the police came back to the nursing house to continue with the investigation. The fact that no one in the nursing house notice the caregiver’s abuse toward the elderly in the nursing house sickens me. However this is not the only incident because in recent news there have being more cases of violence in nursing houses. Families decide to take their grandparents and grandmothers to these nursing houses or senior homes but the reality is that they are not going to be cared for as much as a family member, because they are blood related. The most heart-breaking thing is that seniors spend most of their lives taking care, and nurturing others so at the end of the day, they would end abandon at a senior home. In other countries, the situation tends to worsen for the elderly because the struggle of a stable financial life gives a pressure on struggling families that can barely afford to sustain their families to take drastic decisions with their elderly parents, such as throwing them out to the streets. An example is this women found in the streets of Mexico asking for money. Most elderly people on the streets have health problems and die on the streets. I still the elderly begging for food and money on the streets. Every time my parents and I visit Mexico, it brakes our hearts to see that there are not as many programs to help the elderly. They need the most help because they do not have strength like the youth to work and most of the market places do not hire elderly because they are not as efficient as a seventeen year old. Elderly from worldwide suffer the most because there is not as much aid for them as there should be. In addition, they feel forgotten by their love ones and the world.

Cumplido 7 Lastly, we can conclude that injustices happen all over the world and they are not right; this is a global crisis when it has been ignored for so long. Racial and color discrimination is very prevalent in United States and Mexico. People are subject into a category of race and color; if they do not fit the accepted race or color, there is discrimination and crimes that can happen against these people. Another injustice is gender inequality where women are abject to lower wage payments than men in the United States and in other countries; they cannot even make their own decisions without the permission of the state or husbands. The last injustice is about elderly discrimination such as mistreatments and abuse at nursing homes. Elderly in Mexico tend to suffer the most because of the financial needs of their families, so they end up in the streets with health problems and no aid from the government. All of these injustices are a global crisis and although we cannot control our race, gender, nor age. We can make a difference by being outspoken of all of these issues and hope for a better future with no more discrimination.

Cumplido 8 Annotated Bibliography in MLA Style Hamdan, Amani. "Women and Education in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Achievements." International Education Journal (2015): n. pg. Web. 19 May 2016. This paper talks about the historical socioeconomic and political conditions of Saudi Arabia are an essential aspect of understanding a woman’s position in Saudi society. The persistence of women’s exclusion from public life in contemporary Saudi Arabia is one of the most heated debates not only among Muslims but also worldwide, as Saudi society comes under more and more scrutiny internationally. Mandel, H. "The Role of Occupational Attributes in Gender Earnings Inequality, 1970-2010." Social Science Research, 55 (2016): 122-138. This paper is a research on the important role of social structures in forming gender inequalities; this study examines the effect of occupational attributes on the gender earnings gap over four decades. Using the IPUMSUSA from 1970 to 2010, the paper shows that occupational attributes cannot be reduced to the aggregate attributes of their individual incumbents. Mitchell, John L. Mexico's Black History Is Often Ignored. Los Angeles Times, 13 Apr. 2008. Web. 19 May 2016. This article of the LA times describes the story of the country's black population in Mexico, which has been largely ignored in favor of an ideology that declares that all Mexicans are "mixed race." However, the mixture of indigenous and European heritage that most Mexicans embrace; the African legacy is overlooked. Nation, Barbados. "Police Investigating Case of Alleged Abuse." Nation News. N.p., 17 May 2016. Web. 19 May 2016. A shocking video of an old woman being hit with a book, kicked, pushed and verbally abused by a caretaker went viral on Facebook today, prompting many messages to the nation to get involved. Investigations revealed the

Cumplido 9 woman being struck was Jasmine Hall, who has been living at the Roseville Nursing home in Durants for the past three years. Lockhart, James, and Stuart B. Schwartz. "Iberian ways." Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1984. 492. Print. This chapter talked about colonial Brazil and colonial Spanish America. By learning about the Iberians first, the treatment of the Iberians towards the indigenous made since. Early Latin America as one unit with a center and margins, all parts of which were characterized by variants of the same kinds of change, regardless of national and imperial borders. Simms, Ellen Yvonne. "Miscegenation and Racism: Afro-Mexicans in Colonial New Spain." Journal of Pan African Studies, 2.3 (2008): 228-254. This paper concentrates on two salient factors that caused the decline of the Afro-Mexican population in Mexico from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries: the prevalent miscegenation ethos and pernicious racism. Silverstein, Jason. Cops Bought Dylann Roof Burger King after His Calm Arrest: Report. Daily News, 23 June 2015. Web. 19 May 2016. After about 16 hours on the run, the itted mass murderer complained to cops arresting him in Shelby, N.C., that he was hungry, so police got him food from the nearby fast food t, according to an of his arrest in The Charlotte Observer. Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. New York: Back Bay, 2008. Print. This book is great new retelling of our nation's history. Beginning with the colonization of the New World, it recounted the history of America in the voice of the non-Anglo peoples of the United States; Native Americans, African Americans, Jews,

Cumplido 10 Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and others groups who helped create this country's rich mosaic culture. Tan, Avianne. Video in Chicago Police Killing of Black Teen Released. ABC News, 14 Jan. 2016. Web. 19 May 2016. Attorneys for the teen’s family released video of the Chicago police officer’s fatally shooting of a 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman. A federal judge ordered the release of footage showing the 2013 shooting today after the city withdrew its objection was for the public. This gave the public an opinion on the situation. The movement of “Black Lives Matter” begin because of this unjust event.