Joanna Sanchez

Soc 122 M W 3:30-4:45

Entry 7 of 9

 

This video discusses a lawsuit amongst the fire department against New York whom has been racially discriminating in their hiring practices. As the video states in 2007 90% of New York's Fire Department was white even when half of New York's population was Latinos and African Americans. In 2002 is when complaints first started to arise in the fire department. A test was given to applicants to the fire department that showed no indication of how good of a firefighter the person would become, rather African Americans would score lower than the white giving the whites and advantage. It's undeniable that racism and discrimination still is present in today's society but I was surprised to see New York being one of those societies's to support it. You would think in a city filled with such diverse cultures and people, many of the residents would become accepting to everyone's cultural background. After the 2007 lawsuit the fire department had to change their recruiting policies and a grant of almost 100 million dollars was offered to those who were impacted by the discrimination the New York Fire Department was participating in.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/19/black_latino_firefighters_in_new_york

This second video discuses another issue in the state of New York. Their police department is in a controversial issue that targeted Muslim communities.  A so called "Demographic Unit" in the police department was sending out South Asian or Arabian detectives to watch the every move of some Muslim people. From spying on them in mosques to eavesdropping on conversations in restaurants, barbershops, and gyms.   As the video claims they began this unit in 2003 two years after the 9/11 attacks. After all the years of collecting data the demographic unit never discovered anything that led to clues of terrorism or anything like that. It's sad how Americans target specifically one religious group of people just because of an incident that occurred. Yes 9/11 was a catastrophic disaster and many innocent people died but not all Muslims are terrorist. It is a bad stereotype that is carried heavily in society to judge Muslims as terrorist or potential killers but they are not all the same.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/16/new_york_drops_police_unit_that