Thirteen year-old Cody Alicea was asked to take an American flag off the back of his bike because it caused "racial tension." This happened in California where there is a rather large Mexican population. The students in the school had complained about the flag that Alicea displayed. The superintendent of the school expresses that there are many Hispanic students that will bring the Mexican flag to school to display their pride.
The fact that there is a racial tension because of an American citizen's desire to be proud of his country is absurd. The large population of Mexicans that have immigrated, whether legally or illegally, have obviously had an impact on how race is viewed. America has always been a country where we are known to take pride in ourselves and in our history. To have racial tension because of that pride is something that is a product of immigration.
Alicea had the flag on his bike in remembrance of the veterans of his family.
Link to the article:
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/11/11/Student-told-to-take-US-flag-off-bike/UPI-77081289511876/
Friday, November 12, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Disciplinary Power through Police Violence
This Friday there were widespread protests over the execution style shooting of an "unarmed black man" by a member of the Oakland California police force. The policeman was sentenced to 2 years for involuntary manslaughter. Last weekend in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez a peace activist was shot in the back by police forces. In both incidents the police forces claimed that the shootings were accidental. In Oakland, the officer had the suspect face down when he "accidentally" pulled his pistol instead of his taser and shot Oscar Grant in the back of the head. In Mexico the official statement is that a "shot got away" during the police response to an anti-militant university protest.
Both of these incidents exhibit Foucault's, "disciplinary power to create docile bodies". The Ciudad Juarez shooting shows how governments monopolize violence against those in their midst whom they deem to be a political threat. While the heavy police response to the protests in Oakland shows how police forces often see political threats through a racial lens. This is clear because the Oakland protests were immediately compared to race riots following the Rodney King decision. Even though the recent protests were first and foremost about abuse of police power, with both white and black individuals participating. Furthermore, doesn't an incident as egregious as this warrant a strong public response to highlight the racial and class biases of our justice system? Incidents such as these are always one sided. If someone, accidentally shot a police officer it would be life in prison or the death penalty.
Needless to say police officers have always used racial classifications to determine criminality. It was surely no different in this case, than as in historical cases. Such as the case of my friends grandfather who was killed by a police officer in the Bronx because he, "looked to be a Hispanic that was robbing a car" really he just forgot his keys. If it had been a "white" man in a wealthier neighborhood it would not have happened, most likely this is the same with the Oakland shooting and response.
Oscar Grant Shooting
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/06/national/main7029257.shtml
Ciudad Juarez Shooting
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2010/11/20101131033622877.html
Both of these incidents exhibit Foucault's, "disciplinary power to create docile bodies". The Ciudad Juarez shooting shows how governments monopolize violence against those in their midst whom they deem to be a political threat. While the heavy police response to the protests in Oakland shows how police forces often see political threats through a racial lens. This is clear because the Oakland protests were immediately compared to race riots following the Rodney King decision. Even though the recent protests were first and foremost about abuse of police power, with both white and black individuals participating. Furthermore, doesn't an incident as egregious as this warrant a strong public response to highlight the racial and class biases of our justice system? Incidents such as these are always one sided. If someone, accidentally shot a police officer it would be life in prison or the death penalty.
Needless to say police officers have always used racial classifications to determine criminality. It was surely no different in this case, than as in historical cases. Such as the case of my friends grandfather who was killed by a police officer in the Bronx because he, "looked to be a Hispanic that was robbing a car" really he just forgot his keys. If it had been a "white" man in a wealthier neighborhood it would not have happened, most likely this is the same with the Oakland shooting and response.
Oscar Grant Shooting
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/06/national/main7029257.shtml
Ciudad Juarez Shooting
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2010/11/20101131033622877.html
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Post Mid-Term Reform
With many new seats won by the Republicans in the senate, they will gain house majority, and have an impact on the immigration reform bill I talked about in the post below this one. Several republic can senators like Mike Kirk for example ran with the bases of their campaign being against the recently proposed reform bill. Hence the pathway to citizenship for some 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US is likely to be of little concern. Though you can be sure beefing up the border security is at the top of the list. Kirk recently voted yes in favor of the minute men project we discussed in class recently.
I think that the news in the near future over immigration will be deeply concerned with deportations from now on. I think President Obama may have to go back on his promise... "We are not going to ship back 12 million people, we're not going to do it as a practical matter. We would have to take all our law enforcement that we have available and we would have to use it and put people on buses, and rip families apart, and that's not who we are, that's not what America is about." Only time will tell i suppose. Arizona's bill 1070 is likely to stay in the news for some time as well because of Jan Brewers win for governor. It's likely that she will continue to set the tone for other states reform policies. Obama said that it would take too many recourses, too much manpower, and rip families apart to deport that many people. He said that it wasn't practical, and I personally couldn't agree more. Then he went on to say..."that's not what America is about". That last statement reminded me of a Cold War era promotion of the moral democratic image. I couldn't help but think... well that's clearly what American voters are about! However I did hear some good news for Latinos. Yesterday at the polls history was made by "more than doubling the number of Republican Hispanics in Congress and giving our nation 3 Republican Hispanic Governors for the first time." This is a significant increase of presence in leadership positions that i believe is a vital part of the process in Latino assimilation.
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