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Ferguson: Blind Justice?

Julian , T4 On Monday, November 24th, a grand jury chose not to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed un-armed black teenager Michael Brown over three months earlier in the town of Ferguson, Missouri. The decision sparked a national controversy over the fairness of the justice system as well as police-community relations, with widespread protests occurring in major cities including New York and Los Angeles. At the start of a football game the following Sunday, five members of the St. Louis Rams walked onto the field by making the “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture now synonymous with the Michael Brown case. In Ferguson itself, reactions to the news incited not only protests but also riots and looting, with multiple buildings and local businesses being burned down as a result. Although the degree of violence to these various protests has differed, a common cause and purpose has clearly united them all. Indeed, the heart of the issue stems from charges that police across the United States continue to mistreat, and act with a prejudice against, people of color. This issue has gained particular relevance given multiple cases of alleged police brutality during the past year, including that causing the death of Michael Garner on Staten Island over the summer. Others admit that there are obstructions to equality in the U.S. system of policing, but argue that Michael Brown should not become a symbol of “black oppression” given the actions he took leading to his death. Either way, the passionate calls for reform resonating from these events seem likely to remain prominent for some time, demonstrating that civil rights sti

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UNIS Alumna and Tony Award Winner Sarah Jones Dazzles and Informs at Homecoming Performance

By UNIS Student Ruth T4 September 2014

  Jones plays to a full house (Photo: Luca )

Dignified, pithy, and challengingly humorous is how one could describe UNIS Alumna and Tony Award winner Sarah Jones’s short one-woman, homecoming performance for an audience of T1s, T3s, other select students, staff, and faculty on Thursday, September 4th at the Sylvia Howard Fuhrman Center for the Performing Arts.  Her performance brought together an ensemble of multi-dimensional caricatures loosely based upon the individuals she encountered during her time at UNIS, some of whom were in attendance. Jones moved fluidly between her cast of characters through the clever use of various scarves, hats, and jackets. She demonstrated her mastery of accents, inflections, and bodily minutiae, delighting the audience with her seemingly instantaneous transformations from elderly Jewish ‘Lorraine,’ to college hipster feminist ‘Bella,’ to veiled Jordanian ‘Habiba,’ amongst others.

  Some of the characters were familiar (Photo: Luca)

Despite the comedy of her superb performance, each of her characters was a statement within itself. Rashid, an inner-city black man wearing a snapback hat atop a do-rag, casually informed us of the true message of Jones’s performance: “Just because someone doesn’t speak the same English as you, doesn’t mean you can’t learn something from them.” Indeed, Jones later explained that her intention was to humanize, rather than dehumanize, the media’s stock stereotypes. She urged us to respect the “dignity of the people who let [her] borrow their stories” and implored us through the character of a mesmerizing ‘house-less’ woman to acknowledge the man on the side of the street, for he is first and foremost a person.  

Through the voice of Habiba, we are bluntly told to “remember that the people [who seem ignorant] are doing the best that they can; if they could be less ignorant, they would be.” In reality, Jones’s art is a form of activism that she uses to inform her audience of key issues, presenting them in a way through which they can be easily received: with laughter. According to Jones, “comedy and activism go hand in hand; behind an open, laughing mouth is probably an open heart or an open mind.” She uses her passion and her art to bridge the gap that she would otherwise find difficult to overcome.

Jones cites “the cultural petri-dish” that is UNIS, and her familiarity with the real individuals behind the stereotypes, as being the main inspirations for her one-woman show. Championed by megastar actress Meryl Streep, Sarah Jones’s Broadway show “Bridge and Tunnel” was a critical success, with the New York Times calling her “a master of the genre”. Acclaim also came in the form of a Special Tony Award for her efforts. Jones continues to inspire, inform, and amuse through her published TEDTalk, her post as UNICEF’s Official Spokesperson on Violence Against Children, and her current project, a commission from the Lincoln Center Theatre. Ms. Jones is truly an activist and an artist in every sense of those terms.

[armitageandmcmillan]

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What does Racism look like in 2014? The Promise of Post-Racial America

By Wiley 2014

Post-racial Promises: image by Wiley 

    In the LA Times Op Ed “Obama’s Post-Racial Promise,” written just hours after the polls closed, Shelby Steele asked whether President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory meant that “America [was] now officially beyond racism.” Today, if we open any newspaper, access any website or turn to almost any television channel, we know this is not the case; everything is not the ‘colorblind’ utopia we would like it to be. A slew of abhorrently racist comments, courtesy of Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, were recently caught on tape; one of which declaring “don’t bring blacks to the games;” games that are, in fact, played by over three quarters black players, according to racial equality activist Richard Lapchick. Cliven Bundy (a regular on Fox News) was recently quoted in the New York Times as asking whether blacks were “better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?” Racism still clearly exists. As Huffington Post journalist Joseph A. Palermo wrote in an article on April 30 of this year, “Bundy and Sterling have exposed attitudes about race that most people would prefer remain subterranean.” Maybe it’s worth examining just how ‘post-racial’ ‘post-racial’ America really is. 

    In many ways, I am the exemplar of Steele’s Post-Racial Promise. I am a white boy, living in a country led by a black president, in a city famous for its racial diversity, and attending a school with a student body drawn from almost every racial and cultural background in the world. And I, like my friends and family, am appalled by the racist comments of Donald Sterling and Cliven Bundy. But does that make me, or any of us for that matter, post-racial?

    Shelby Steele asks “Doesn't a black in the Oval Office put the lie to both black inferiority and white racism?” We would all certainly like to believe that it did; and after a term and a half, I’m sure many of us do. In the article, however, Steele proposes the idea that maybe Obama wasn’t elected solely, or even chiefly, for his political philosophies. Instead, he determines that voting for Obama was, in itself, a racially-driven act, and an attempt to prove that we, as a society, had overcome the plague of black discrimination: “When whites -- especially today's younger generation -- proudly support Obama for his post-racialism, they unwittingly embrace race as their primary motivation. They think and act racially, not post-racially.” 

    When we think of racism, many of us think of lower class, Middle America, so deep in the South that one would never be able to find one’s way out. It couldn’t be in New York, one of the world’s icons of cultural diversity. And yet, when I think about it, even though I live in this cultural Eden, I am still a white boy, growing up in a white family, in a predominantly white neighborhood. And if you look even further, it turns out that New York City, the essence of ‘post-racial’ society, really isn’t ‘post-racial’ at all. In fact, it’s almost as racially restricted as it gets. According to Huffington Post writer Christopher Mathias, in his April 14 article on segregation in New York City, it “may be one of the most diverse cities in the world, but it's also one of the most segregated cities in the United States.” Almost all of the city’s neighborhoods are either less than 10 percent white or less than 10 percent black, and the number of those less than five and two percent don’t follow far behind.

    And while I may attend one of the most culturally diverse schools in America, that can’t be said for New York schools in general. In an article entitled The Nation's Most Segregated Schools Aren't Where You'd Think They'd Be, written just over one month ago, Joy Resmovits allows that “the nation's most segregated schools aren't in the deep south.” From a 2010 poll, over 73 percent of NYC charter schools are considered apartheid, where less than one percent of students are white, and over 90 percent are extremely segregated. The city best known for its racial diversity really isn’t that racially diverse at all; just the opposite.

    Even in the United Nations International School, where the skin colors of the student and teaching body are so varied that it’s almost impossible to categorize people by black, white, Asian and Hispanic, and whose mission and principles are quoted on its website as “promoting the appreciation of the diversity of persons and cultures,” is far from post-racial. Whether in the classroom, in the cafeteria or on the, for lack of a better word, playground, there certainly seems to be an inherent predisposition for my fellow students to drift towards others with, not similar ethnic backgrounds, but similar skin tone. It’s not about dislike of other races, it’s not extreme, and it’s certainly not offensive -- usually. But it does suggest that being racially-driven, in one form or another, is a fundamental of human life. And until we overcome that predisposition, we can never be truly post-racial, opening the door to racism, even at a school like UNIS.

    Something that is truly appalling is a story my little sister came home from school with last year: during their recess periods, a child in her grade would refuse to let the black children join into his games because he openly stated that he “didn’t play with black people.” That’s not very far from Donald Sterling saying he didn’t want black people being brought to his games. But it happened right here, at perhaps the most diverse school, in the most diverse city, in the country whose election of a black president signaled the promise of a ‘post-racial’ era.

    I am not implying that not being post-racial is the same as being racist. Nor am I equivocating the behaviors of a middle school child with those of men like Donald Sterling or Cliven Bundy. I am, however, saying that as long as our perceptions and behaviors remain racially-driven, there will always be the potential of racism. According to the recent study, Children are not Colorblind, conducted by Dr. Erik N. Winkler of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, “research clearly shows that children not only recognize race from a very young age, but also develop racial biases by ages three to five.” Another of his studies showed that, “when asked to choose a potential playmate from among photos of unfamiliar white and black boys and girls, all of [a group of 30 month old children] chose a same race playmate.” Even before the age of three, children become partial to one race.

     In his Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama sparked the promise of a post-racial America when he said that “there is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." As much as I would like this to be true, I know it is not. White kids, like me, grow up in white neighborhoods, black kids in black neighborhoods, and Hispanic kids in Hispanic neighborhoods. It is clear that racial preference is embedded into our society’s mind from a young age. This is a loop that is hard to escape from. The only way we can ever become truly post-racial is to break the pattern. 

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Developing the “Developed World”

By Carl,  2014

They are two co-workers, who have the same job as secretaries to a male CEO, of a private company. Both of them are working the same hours, with equal contribution to the company. But one is a man, and the other a woman. As a result, she earns less than him.

Discrimination has been around long enough, but it was only in the late 19th, and early 20th century that society became aware of it, as the Industrial Revolution gave birth to a growing American economy, expanding upon the upper-middle class of society. This lead to a higher availability of education for both genders, and most importantly, gave women a higher chance of changing reforms of the country, since jobs created an availability of jobs, outside of the typical “garment factory”.

A protest during the Women's Era, displaying radical changes in society.

Discrimination against women happens worldwide. The UN defines this as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field”, and as such it becomes easier to recognize the grasp which discrimination has on our lives, today, although it may not be completely evident.

How does this issue apply to us? And what can we do against the further spread of gender discrimination? Why is this necessary?

First and foremost, it is necessary to realize how big the issue is, globally, when you talk about gender discrimination. Just by listening to important modern feminists (such as Sheryl Sandberg) you are given a good impression of how discrimination affects women with jobs in either the private sector, or in the free market, today. While significant improvements have been made since the 20th century, in which a woman could expect 60% of a man’s pay (if they were have the same job), this bias is far from removed. A study made by Stanford University shows that women still only earn 80% of men’s wages, as a comparison.

That is why feminism was created in the first place. Because of the desire for a truly equal country, the educated women of the 19th century (specifically the 1890’s-1920’s, also known as the “women’s era”) rallied together, in order to further create reforms. Aided by the momentum of the progressive era, which saw the new social activism, and political reforms in the country, as well as new legislation allowing women to own property, thus giving them a fairer say in society, these educated women of the time saw to change the next few decades quite a bit. As women’s unions started popping up, such as the highly influential WCTU (Woman’s Christian Temperance Union), along with the “Women’s Trade Union League”, “National Women’s Party”, and “League of Women Voters”, the necessity of women was realized in society.

But while they argued for so much more than just equal wages, one of the most important issues today regarding women’s equality comes from the wages. It is not only the issue of earnings, however, which shaped, and continues to shape, the role of women in today's “developed society”. It is also about how fairly women are treated in their workplace, and whether they even have the opportunity to get the jobs, or promotions they deserve. For, exactly as Sheryl Sandberg mentions, “from a very young age, we encourage our boys to lead, and call our girls bossy”. So there is a sense of gender divide, as boys are praised for accomplishments, but girls are judged for them. That is exactly why the women’s movement was thought of as a controversial topic, during the rise of feminism, for exactly as Sheryl mentions, women weren’t expected to lead. 

But what was really done during the women’s movement? While it took some time to change society’s view of the rights of women, and their role in the community, the women’s movement created fairer legislation, as the government realized that the human rights, and their rights under the American Constitution, were not overheld. Supported by examples by happenings such as the “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire”, to underline their just cause, the women of the Women’s Era pushed for legislation which not only gave women the right to vote, but also the right for a say, and representation in the government.

A Danish feminist by the name of Mia Steninge, working for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, agreed to be interviewed about her strong feelings on feminism. As a person who studied law, and extensively worked on cases about human rights, she has highly developed ideas on feminism, gender discrimination, and gender equality.

“Why, do you think, is the kind of gender discrimination still happening, in which a woman, with the same job as a man, will get paid less?”

“I think due to cultural values, and norms, what is considered ‘female behaviour’, as in not being too “bossy”, and being caring, and not being too self reliant, are not considered positive qualities, but on the contrary are considered weaknesses of a worker. Primarily because most managers are, so what they consider strength, is very much shaped by their own “male” values.”

“Why is feminism, and the empowerment of women important?”

“Half of the world is made up of women. However, women don’t have the same political and economic influence as men. Therefore, they don’t receive the same possibilities as men. So if you believe in human rights, and you believe that all people are born equal, then of course women should get the same possibilities as men, and thus be able to decide for their own future, and use their own potential, the same as men.”

“How can we mitigate this sexism, in our own developed countries, and in others alike?”

“I think first and foremost, it is important to be aware of sexist behavior. And that all human beings shouldn’t be judged by their sex, but by their character. Education is the way forward, on any issue relating to discrimination. Teaching kids to believe in themselves, and respecting others is fundamental, and necessary, for a well functioning, equal society.”

As Mrs. Steninge says, the way forward is truly education. Education raises the worth of a person in society, and ultimately can bring the greatest change to the social structure. For, as history proves, through the Enlightenment Era, the many revolutions that happened afterwards, and the Progressive Era, a higher education rate leads to people who can single-handedly change the world they live in.

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The Enduring Scourge of Racism: Do we really live in a ‘post-racial’ era?

By Luca 

Every day I walk into a bubble of racial diversity, filled with people from all over the world where there is no trace of racial prejudice.  As a student at the United Nations International School, I am immersed in a community made up of countless cultures. But is this an anomaly? While I am exposed to some stories of racism in the news, it has always seemed like a distant problem. Surrounded by tolerant and cultured people, I have never experienced racism first-hand, which made it all the more shocking when I discovered the extent to which racism exists for other people living in my city.

A street performer and interviewee in Union Square (© Luca Photography)

Microphone in hand, I went to Union Square, a busy intersection in New York, which Business Insider calls the ninth most racially diverse city in the US.  I interviewed a total of twenty people of various ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds. Only six people, all white men (four of whom were police officers), refused to talk to me when they heard the topic.  The first person willing to answer my questions was a middle-aged white woman.  She told me that racism is a prevalent issue in the US that is downplayed by the mainstream media. Seventeen others agreed with her.  This consensus that the media does not cover racism enough seemed very curious to me, as recently the news has copiously covered the case of Donald Sterling, the NBA manager who was caught on tape telling his girlfriend that he did not want her to be seen in public with black people.  If the mainstream media is covering Sterling so profusely, then why do so many people think that it downplays racism? 

 A middle-aged black man wearing a business suit told me that the media picks on a sensational story and blares it from the headlines, but does not cover the racism that goes on day to day.  Donald Sterling’s recorded sentiments against black people quickly became a top story, but he has a history of racism, with “alleged acts of housing discrimination, for which he was sued twice, in 2003 and 2006” (Huffington Post).  Yet, these allegations have received very little publicity.  According to a black female NYU student, this is because “the media has a yearly scapegoat that allows victims of white-guilt to feel good about themselves.” She told me that the media’s excessive coverage of the Trayvon Martin case was another example of spotlighting one act of racism while ignoring thousands of others. This perspective raises the question of whether the media covers these stories because of their inherent importance or because of a moral ‘obligation’.  According to a blogger from One Black Girl. Many Words, “America is a lot more concerned with appearing post-racial than actually being post-racial.” 

In contrast, a white man in his mid-thirties told me that “the media covers racism all the time. I always see stories about racism in sports and in rural America.”  He was one of a few people satisfied with the amount of coverage racism gets in media.  Although I did notice that the idea of ‘racist scapegoats’ being used to satisfy ‘white guilt’ was common in my interviews with black people, many of the white people (particularly men) did not agree.  The contrasting opinions about the media’s presentation of racism seem to mostly break down along color lines. 

When asked about encounters with racism in their own lives, absolutely every African-American, Asian and Hispanic person said that they had been subject to racial discrimination in one way or another.  One black street performer said that “we still haven't gotten what we deserve as a race - people are still being treated as scum - a piece of gum on the floor.” A Hispanic man agreed and added: “it doesn't matter how much money you make or what your status is, it’s always there.”  Only two white people said that they had experienced racial prejudice.  The first was a businessman from New Zealand, who told me that when he goes to Uganda for his work, “they [the Ugandan locals] look at me as being a bit higher up on the food chain.”  He added that it is a saddening truth and a result of the global “glamorization of the American lifestyle.” The racial prejudice that this man experienced is anything but harmful towards him. He was the only person to describe a judgment that presented him as above those who were doing the judging. 

The other white interviewee who said he had experienced racial intolerance was an elderly homeless man.  He told me that he had been a victim of discrimination against white people, saying: “we [white people] are the minorities.”  I asked him to elaborate and he said that he had been “denied certain things that black people get” like “cash assistance”. This somewhat radical opinion could just be based on the subject’s frustration over issues with government welfare, and certainly came from a man with a particularly negative outlook on his life. And I will point out that he was the only person who felt that white people are the victimsof racism today. 

Nearly every other subject said that racism is predominantly against dark skinned people.  In fact, fourteen subjects told me that when they see an act of racism, it is usually by an older white person, against a black or Hispanic person.  Several subjects made it clear they did not mean to indicate that most elderly white people are racists, just that many of the racists in the US are white and of an older generation.  When I asked why, they said that this is how people used to be raised.  A black veteran who was selling umbrellas said that “racism stems from something that was imposed on children, and they tend to act it out as adults.”  Others, like the New Zealander businessman, said that the older white racists “simply enjoy feeling superior to others” and that elitism coincides with racism in the US.

According to this random assortment of New Yorkers, it is clear that racism is still alive and well in the United States. What surprised me was how willing people of all races and ages were to discuss this loaded topic with a stranger on the street. The few who dismissed me when I brought up the topic were all white men. The four policemen I tried to engage seemed scared to even go near the subject.  The media presents our society as ‘post-racial’, with the occasional bad apple who is publicly condemned. But the perspectives of real New Yorkers indicate, as one woman told me, that "the cycle of racism has not yet been broken.”

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A World Paralyzed by Poverty

By Seána , Tut 2 

    As 2015 draws nearer and the Millennium Development Goals begin to really come into perspective, what has been accomplished and what has not proves the true priorities of humankind. It seems as though we care about ourselves too much, that we are too selfish to achieve even mutually aiding goals.

     Although the Millennium Development Goals' target of halving the amount of people living in extreme poverty has been reached, with about 700 million fewer people living in destitution, there are still over a billion people suffering through the inhuman conditions of penury. Even though goals have been achieved and many people’s lives have been greatly changed for the better, we must ask ourselves: is this a sustainable solution to poverty? We must ask ourselves whether the world’s poverty problems are solely economic.

     With global greenhouse gases on a steep upwards slope, overfishing, dramatic increases in the extinction of animal species and many more issues of this nature, it seems as though the more effort we make to better humankind, the less effort we make to guarantee the health of planet earth, the most valuable resource available to us. Maybe if more focus were placed upon environmental stability, the people inhabiting this planet would be able to more successfully reap the benefits that it has to offer them. Earth is the source of the entirety of our wealth and prosperity, yet it is the only Millennium Development Goal that has increasingly been harder to fulfill, with carbon dioxide emissions increasing by 46% since the year 1990. On this starving planet it isn’t shocking that we are failing to satisfy the needs of every suffering person as the supply of raw materials dwindles and the demand for these supplies rises along with the population.

     The idea of “relative poverty” is based on the idea that, in different times and places, we may be subject to poverty simply because of the conditions of this place and time. The relative poverty line is usually calculated on the median income per household of a country.  Certain countries rely entirely on natural resources for a vast majority of their economic value, for example Kuwait and its oil industry. With many independent countries having reached their oil peak already, it is a mere matter of time before the total of all global oil begins to decline and, eventually, is completely spent. This will result in a major economic downturn, as well as the close of life as we all now know it.

     The changes we are making now in order to eliminate poverty are simply temporary, as future generations will have to learn to live with the true destitution that comes with living in a world paralyzed by the poverty of its own flesh. In fulfilling the aim of the “Eradicat[ion of] Extreme Poverty and Hunger”, and not fulfilling that of environmental sustainability, we show that we are a somewhat egocentric species, fixing only what we see to be wrong with ourselves but not undoing damage that we have caused, and that is hurting the other inhabitants of planet earth. If earth was to be successfully preserved,  we would find the figures of those living below the poverty line significantly decrease. A healthy earth would result in a more efficient production of food, a reliable source of renewable energy, and the guarantee that many future generations to come will not have to face the same problems that we are trying to solve now.