Well Informed Racism 2.0

Racism 2.0 

This particular subject tends to draw a lot of conflict in situations where conflict has no merit. The video with Matt Cook does a fair job keeping close to the reality of the situation that Americans, both black and white face today. 

The facts illustrated in the video are nothing new, though it may be surprising to some just how poorly the treatment of African Americans has actually been in the US. 

As a Latino it is kind of interesting to be able to look at this from a (slightly) exterior perspective. The realty is that no one wants to be called a racist, yet the term gets thrown around  ubiquitously.

The Black Lives Matter movement brings along some very interesting facts. Lets put it like this. Police officers: People from within our own communities, hard dedicated workers who come from different backgrounds are the people whom exist to uphold our justice system. The job description is to protect and serve! Now, Matt claims in the video that 70% of black males DO NOT trust in the justice system, a.k.a: police officers. The rate for whites is only 57% . The distrust is obvious and when there is no trust, there is no order and chaos breaks out.  

The end focus of the video is to bring attention away from the radical sides of Us vs Them in race. Rather Matt Cook explains that the real issue should not be to take pride or shame in matters beyond our control. He argues that the real battle is in poverty. 6 Major corporations in essence control the world. They feed and manipulate us in whichever way is more convenient for them to remain and grow in power. The incarceration analogy he provides is mind-blowing. even after removing all the minority groups we would still be in a deficit. 

Well Informed Religion 3.0

Religion 3.0 

This week's discussion in class over religion was easily the most interactive one we have had thus far the semester. Each person that contributed to the conversation did so freely and openly so there was little hesitation and for the most part everyone seemed truly engaged in listening to what the others had to say. What this signaled to me was that individually we have all been through much in our lives, we have all had the chance to reflect on what we put our faith in and why.

Going into class I was somewhat worried that this discussion would turn into an argument. Faith is something that many people set as the zenith of their existence and build the rest of their lives around it.Our class is small but seemed diverse enough and that we could easily all be in polar opposite views. Professor Young was able to guide the discussion in such a way that made clear that despite our relatively young age we have found our own interpretation of religion and faith. I understand that normally well informed posts are designed to push us to research outside of what we know. However, religion is a topic that Is so broad, I could spend the rest of my life researching, learning and debating and never feel complete. The beauty of faith is in our inability to explain it.

I love this topic, because it is infinite. There are many faiths I have studied in my life in religion such as the LDS, Catholic, Jehova's Witnesses, Jewish, Muslim, and many others. Yet my overall takeaway is almost always the individual testimony of the members. I can learn much more from my fellow man, than written text.

Although I am not a member, Once or twice a year (excluding missionary farewells and homecomings) I make my way to the LDS Church on Sunday. However I only ever attend on the first Sunday of the month to the Fast and Testimony meeting. I fondly refer to this as "Open Mike Sunday" due to the nature of the meeting, which is centered around any individual given freedom to bear their experience and testimony of the church. Despite any disagreements I have with the church it is impossible of me to deny the faith that someone else has and the passion with which they implement it in their life. Thursday's class felt very much like this environment, and despite being part of the Millennial generation of skeptics, open discussion is always a learning experience,

On the Media #2

What we know about the border

This Week's NPR Deals with speaking about the exact limitations that each and every person faces upon entering the US border, both from the north and the south.

The show focuses on the stories from people that arrive so widespread from folks who have suffered Border patrol abuse, Physical and verbal as well as denial of food, water and medical care by the CBP (customs of border protection) 

One such story comes from a 6 year old  US citizen who was detained at the border, held for over 24 hours with no food and water and was deported under false accusations. The child then returned 3 weeks later and was diagnosed with PTSD. The issue that comes is the lack of transparency that One US citizen spoke with the CBP manager about the issues and maltreatment that they faced at the border. Both in physical and verbal abuse. the manager avoided all the questions and would not admit to a lack of transparency from the agency. They are operating under slim if non-existent authority because there is no system of checks upon the agency. they are monitored from within. These agents have even been reported to search through US Citizen's phones without any cause and even question the religious beliefs of Muslim travelers. This violates the religious protections under the bill of rights. The guest speaker agrees that in theory the CBP operates to protect against potential dangers. However, the impact that they have in a blatant disregard of standard human rights and procedures within the United STATES, It blatantly Ignores any sort of Miranda Rights.  

To me the subject of this show goes hand in hand with the documentaries that we have seen lately and that is the fact that government agency's roam around unchecked and have no real authority to treat american citizens as though they are criminals. With the recent issues that have been popping up in the country such as the Ban- and subsequent repeal of Donald Trump's ban on Muslims. This show brings up the issues that Citizens face by the stigma that comes from targeting a group/religion full of hate. The CBP is continuing to operate unchecked, under those questionable authorities. 

Well Informed: Privacy 2.0

Privacy 2.0

Our professor is right on the money when he says that there is an inner fallacy with the illusion of online privacy. At any point do we ask ourselves exactly what we are giving up in exchange for conveniences on our technologically driven lives? The answer is simply that too many people cannot be bothered to care. To me, online privacy has always been a concern in the back of my mind. I am and have been aware from early on in the rise of technology and the internet that by contributing any information anywhere, I have forfeited my privacy. 

For example, at a very basic level anyone can dig into your personal information through the use of social media. Although sites like Facebook, Instagram, and twitter claim to protect the profile of their users, they also leave them very vulnerable at the same time. During the summer of 16 I lived in OKC and one day my friend an I went to buy a swimsuit (shorts) from Ross. As we walked in I found the cashier to be very pretty and my friend egged me on to get her number. After finding her on Facebook the idea of how scary and vulnerable social media is occurred to me. Purely as an experiment I decided to be that friendly neighborhood creeper and find out any info that would give me an insight as to who this girl was. It took me all of 15 minutes to find her name,age, family, school, address. vehicle license plate number and an approximate idea of what her schedule was. Mind you I didn't have any interest in bringing her harm, but what was there to stop someone with more malice from doing it? Sure there are privacy settings but although this girl's accounts were set this way, it was fairly simple to extract the information I needed by accessing all her social platforms and a quick google search.

 Taking some Inspiration from what we learned in class, I decided to do some research into the realm of protecting online privacy. After sorting through countless posts from many sources I came across the Article in Forbes which deals with very simple procedures one should take in order to minimize their online exposure. I found a few of these Tips to be very interesting, as they do not clearly specify to stop using social media, but they do point to it. Mostly they dealt with stopping the use of mainstream platforms to track history such as browsers and search engines. The point that I aim to make is to reaffirm that of what I have always know. Privacy is a joke. there is no guarantee from anyone or anywhere that any information you input, knowingly or not. Can and MIGHT be used to harm you in the wrong hands.