By Lotus Chen
A Rally and March in the City of Seaside,Monterey on Juneteenth(June 19th,2020)
The world appears to be chaotic with the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement in the US which has taken place since the murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020.
I have attended three “Back Lives Matter” rallies in the Country of Monterey,CA,US,respectively on June 9th in downtown Monterey,in the City of Seaside on Juneteenth(June 19th,2020), and at Devendorf Park in downtown Carmel.
The rally in Carmel on June 20th,2020
The March in Downtown Monterey,June 9th,2020
What can we do to fight against racism and systematic discrimination?
Changing systematic racism and discrimination in the US is difficult, but we can do something step by step towards the ultimate change as time goes by. Here are some examples---
Discretion Elimination
Discretion has the meaning of acting on one's own authority and judgment. In law, discretion as to legal rulings, such as whether evidence is excluded at a trial, may be exercised by a judge.Those in a position of power are most often able to exercise discretion as to how they will apply or exercise that power.
Is there evidence that discretion elimination works to fight against systematic discrimination and inequality? What we know comes from the rare occasions in which the effects of discretion elimination have been recorded and reported. A classic example of discretion elimination is when major symphony orchestras in the U.S. started using blind auditions in the 1970s. This was originally done because musicians thought that the auditions were biased in favor of graduates of certain schools like the Juilliard School. They weren’t concerned about gender discrimination.
But as soon as auditions started to be made behind screens so the performer could not be seen, the share of women hired as instrumentalists in major symphony orchestras rose from around 10 percent or 20 percent before 1970 to about 40 percent. This has had a major impact on the rate at which women have become instrumentalists in major symphony orchestras.
Anonymous Data Collection
For example, instructors can usually arrange to grade almost anything that a student does without knowing the identity of the student. In the digital era when you don’t learn to recognize people’s handwriting, instructors can grade essays without the students’ names on them. I used that approach when I was last grading undergraduates in courses. It’s easy to use, but it’s often not used at all.
And in many other circumstances, it is possible to evaluate performances without knowing the identity of the person being evaluated. But employers and others rarely forgo the opportunity to know the identity of the person they’re evaluating.
Artificial intelligence
The historical databases used to develop the algorithms to make these decisions regarding public policies turn out to be biased, too. They incorporate the biases of past decision-makers. One example is how biases affect facial-recognition technology, which inadvertently categorizes African American faces or Asian faces as criminals more often than white faces.
The coping methods include “thinking slow” or pausing before making decisions. Another method that has been tried is meditation. And another strategy is making people aware that they have implicit biases or that implicit biases are pervasive in the population. All these may seem reasonable, but there’s no empirical demonstration that they work.
Anonymous Data Collection
And in many other circumstances, it is possible to evaluate performance without knowing the identity of the person being evaluated. But employers and others rarely forgo the opportunity to know the identity of the person they're evaluating.
Demands of an African American, my classmate Nathaniel Sawyer who wants policy changes
1. Transparency of disciplinary records
2. Ban choke holds
3. Attorney general as special prosecutor ( for police shootings/ investigations on police misconduct)
4. Intercultural training for every organization working with the community!
5. De-escalation training
6. Increase educational opportunities at all levels for low income communities so that schools for the poor give the same education as those for the rich.
7. Lack of affordable housing. African Americans and other predominantly low income minorities should be assisted with affordable housing.
8. Health care system needs to be affordable for all. There should be no reason a low income person should owe, a ridiculous amount of medical debt.
9. If Agencies have excessive amounts of money and they are defunded. The money should go to women’s shelters, counseling/ psychological programs, increase salaries for social workers and educators, and other social service programs. Also, the homeless community should not be addressed by Law Enforcement.
10. More black and brown leadership in law enforcement to police their own communities. Systemic reform and change is the key. We need to create systems that build up black and brown people and not introduce ourselves to another alternative to systemic racism. I invite my policy makers to steal this information and apply it to your conversation.
As Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York said:
“Carpe momentum”( seize the moment )
There are some toolkits suggested by former US president Barack Obama---
We have power to make change!
Where to start to find against racism and systematic discrimination as an Asian?
We are witnessing history and we hope that social changes happen in the US!
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