Race and Poverty

Ethnography, described as customs and cultures of certain groups of people, goes hand in hand with the notion of globalization and migration of ethnicity. In today’s day in age, we are faces with the wonderful reality that different ethnicities are becoming a populated in different regions of the world. A lot of the progress made in globalization can be accredited to the numerous non-governmental organizations we have in the Americas. The main reason for the progress made by these NGOs is due to them being the intermediates of the world. Another way this can be described is by saying, “As intermediaries, they are the contemporary inheritors holding up the contemporary world system fragmented by neoliberalism: they are “gluing globalization” (par. 5).

NGOs help to provide resources and funding to researches while simultaneously advocating for different areas of improvement. For example, NGOs can help monitor governments and aids in healthcare research in the United States. However, in Haiti, the improvements are made to a different area than in the United States. NGOs in Haiti focus on more centralized subjects that include road networks, trash, and overall urban civilization. Thus, NGOs are responsible for making Haiti a place with habitual standards. This aids globalization because the funds and volunteers fill the gaps in society and benefit the population through those not affiliated with the state or government.

Billions of individuals have and use social media across the globe. These statistics are staggering because most individuals cannot even begin to envision the ramifications that come with this media population. Social media provides countless great outlets and resources for individuals to express and understand themselves and the world around them; however, social media present the same if not more outlets for hate and injustice. This is where racism is seen in many different forms of cyberbullying, hate speech, and even through the bystander affect (par. 2).

Most individuals believe that since they have never been racist, that they are automatically not the problem when it comes to racial injustice in the world. However, this is simply not the case. This is because if you are witnessing racism and just allowing it to happen with no consequence, you are aiding the discrimination. This is known as being a bystander to injustice and it is very common on all social media platforms. The best way to end the prevalence of racism among these platforms would be to implement strategies that help combat the rate of cyberbullying. Some of these strategies may include reporting and calling out bullies, condemn hate, and stop the spread of misinformation. Ideally, these strategies will decrease the prevalence of not only racism, but also bystanders on social media platforms across the globe.

Prison is one of the most heavily male and minority dominated places on earth. This place of punishment and rehabilitation is heavily dominated by Black/African American individuals. The vast disparity between the different races through the justice system makes some question the entire purpose of the branch. Ethnic and race disparities in prison are just the result of the immense corruption in the justice system. Moreover, the number of wrongful convictions is terrifying for the Black population in the United States. Thus, the real issue stems from the act of arresting and imprisoning wrongly convicted criminals.

We have seen from prominent stories such as The Central Park Five the sickening reality of being wrongly accused. But this is just one example of individuals being wrongly convicted. There are countless individuals and stories that remain unjustified and untold in their punishment and their stories. The Central Park Five are lucky because they were found not guilty and freed from the shackles of the justice system. This is so upsetting because being freed is considered lucky when, they should have never been locked up in the first place. The United States as a population must do better to ensure stories like this do not need to be told because they are not happening in the justice system. To do this, the judicial branch could eliminate mandatory sentences, allowing racial impact statements, and decriminalizing petty offenses. These changes will ensure that the justice system remains unbiased and not impartial to the entire population of the United States.

Nellis, Ashley, and Nicole D. Porter. “The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons.” The Sentencing Project, 1 Nov. 2021, https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons/.

When thinking about health, you may immediately consider the physical well-being of an individual or a population. However, health is more than just a physical illness. There is also a whole world of mental illness that can be provoked by racism and poverty in the Americas. Mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD can cause serious trauma to an individual in the same ways a physical illness can. Both physical and mental health are triggered is a negative manner when racism is prevalent.

Discrimination in the health care system has been far from an unusual occurrence. However, the injustice has been truly brought to light through the current health crisis that is known as the Coronavirus. Not only does the Coronavirus disease itself occur at higher rates in Black/African American and Hispanic individuals, but healthcare treatment is harder to acquire for these minorities. Minorities in the United States of America are often faced with the additional challenge of being from a lower socioeconomic class than most of the country. This factor is just one of the countless disparities that the Black/African American and Hispanic cultures must face in the Americas. However, society today can change this fact. Some techniques we can use to decrease the widespread racism in health are focusing on the actual healthcare, address misinformation of illnesses, educating those who do not have easy access to information, and build confidence in healthcare to eliminate stigmas and increase widespread ability.

Hurricanes as we know are known worldwide to be disastrous and harmful to everyone the affect. They can destroy buildings, trees, power lines, homes, and so much more. However, how do they affect intangible objects and things? The answer is by affecting people in a non-physical way. People can be harmed just by worsening the amount of poverty that is inflicted on them. Hurricanes worsen impoverished communities due to a lack of transportation, lessening income, destabilizing housing, reducing healthcare access, and overall leaving people less capable than before the natural disaster (par. 1).

The question remains, does anyone benefit from such disasters? The answer is “yes”. The government tends to benefit from natural disasters and in turn, poverty. We know this because the government obtains money through natural disasters like hurricanes. Thus, if the government is obtaining money, the money must be coming from somewhere. The money is coming from those who are negatively affected by the hurricane. When disaster strikes, loans and funds are necessary when trying to rebuild all that has been lost; however, the interest rates alone are enough to send individuals back into poverty. Thus, the systems put in place to help get people out of poverty are the same systems keeping those affected in such a low economic status.

Philipp, Jennifer. “How Hurricanes Affect Poverty around the World.” The Borgen Project, Jennifer Philipp Https://Borgenproject.org/Wp-Content/Uploads/The_Borgen_Project_Logo_small.Jpg, 15 Dec. 2020, https://borgenproject.org/how-hurricanes-affect-global-poverty/.

Linguistics can be described as the study of a language, its structure, and its application in the world. However, this simple definition can end up causing major implications to an entire race. In the article “Unsettling Race and Language Toward a Raciolinguitstic Perspective” by Rosa and Flores, the reader is faced with a term that theorizes a whole category of racism. This term is known as a raciolinguistic perspective and deals with the “co-naturalization of language and race” (par. 1). A lot of times, people forget that words can be one of the most judged features about a person. Furthermore, it is from this idea that a whole form of racism is uncovered.

The article by Rosa and Flores does a great job of highlighting exactly where the raciolinguistic perspective occurs in everyday life. This perspective comes into play whenever there is a gap in language between individuals due to socioeconomic class or race. This is a prevalent issue today because there are extreme impacts of culture on language; however, these impacts are not considered legitimate in school, work, and social settings. For example, a student born in Mexico whose first language is Spanish may be judged on the same grading scale as a student who was born and raised in an only English-speaking household in the United States. Moreover, the Spanish speaking student will face the consequence of a lower grade due to her indigenous language and Spanglish approach. This can pose a problem because similar populations suffer in life due to their nonstandard language and speech diversification.