Fighting Racial Profiling: An Occurance & Examination

This blog will be a venting session of something that I witnessed first-hand last week. This is NOT another punching bout against the majority culture of our country. However, this IS a challenge to all, both those of the majority and minority cultures, to take a more active and responsible approach to making our cities, states, and country, a more welcoming environment for ALL individuals regardless of how they look. Racial profiling is not restricted to only being done by the majority so, this is why I opened this blog up as such to help with understanding that anyone can perpetuate racial profiling. The next paragraph will briefly explain what I encountered on last week.

As I was leaving my office one day last week, a Middle Eastern middle age male, was outside of my office almost in tears. He stated that the police at an academic building on campus had racially profiled him. The man stated that he had a daughter who attended the university and often drive her up for classes from Lawrenceville, GA, which is approximately 45 minutes away. Since the beginning of the school year, he drives his daughter up and walks around the campus and around the building his daughter takes classes. According to him, he was merely sitting outside of the building on a bench when the police drove up and questioned him about being near the building. They identified the man, then drafted documentation barring him from being within 90 ft. from the building for 90 days. The police stated that they had received a call from someone in the building about him loitering around the building. Again, the man was in tears and wanted to know how I could help him, as he merely wanted to know a place where he could wait until his daughter finish with classes. I suggested that he try waiting in the library as this could pose a less threatening act to the campus community.

In my previous blog entitled Christianity & Islam: Are We Heading To Another Crusades?, I examine briefly the relations of between Christianity & Islam, however, this fear that I refer to of supersedes religious warfare. Since September 11, 2001, so many Americans have feared another terror attack. The focus of this fear has been against Muslims, particularly those with any ethnic visible traits people in Middle Eastern countries. Many Muslim in America have been hated and even kicked out of stores, etc. Why is it that people assume that all Muslims are Terrorists or “anti-American?” This assumption and fear makes Americans group anyone that looks as if they have any ties to Islam or Middle Eastern countries with the terrorists and extremists who were responsible for the attack in New York. Given that we are, naturally, creatures who like to categorize everything to help our minds make sense of the world, a lot of these assumptions are simply in result of our minds simply trying to process and make sense of our society. However, we must continue and always challenge this thinking to help educate the greater community that all people with Middle Eastern decent are not terrorist and not even Muslims, not all Hispanics are illegal immigrants, not all Blacks are thugs, lazy, athletes, or any of the other stereotypes that comes with these ethnicities.

Police typically don’t feel as if they are being wrong in profiling individuals after all, they are merely trying to keep our neighborhoods safe. However, according to Harcourt (2006), racial profiling is ineffective because it assumes that terrorists are not going to adapt to changing circumstances, and, as a result, putting the police one step behind. Now according to this source, they are referring to using profiling as a counterterrorism approach. However, this can be applied to any racial profiling situation. For example, the police can’t assume that every Hispanic is an illegal immigrant because if that’s the case, then those from other countries could “dress” themselves as a citizen when they themselves are illegal.



Harcourt, Bernard E. 2006, Muslim Profiles Post 9/11: Is Racial Profiling an Effective Counterterrorist Measure and Does It Violate the Right to be Free from Discrimination? The Chicago Working Paper Series. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Lawecon/index.html

How Has Hip Hop & Rap Influenced Society Today?

It’s obvious that Hip Hop has been a significant influence in today’s society. Hip hop has managed to shape thinking, crossed cultural barriers, and have been considered, by some, to be a lifestyle and not just a music genre. Hip Hop has been a “movement” in today’s society. Although all of this is true about hip hop, there is still controversy on whether hip hop, as a whole, has effected society more positively or negatively. This blog will try to present both arguments of hip hop and allow YOU, as a reader to provide your comments about which you feel more about.

According to hiphop-history.com, the culture/lifestyle started in the late 1960’s and the Official Birthday of Hip Hop is November 12, 1974. Most current rap/hip hop listeners didn’t know that this culture/genre/lifestyle started at such an early time. Also according to hiphop-history.com, hip hop music was first introduced in the Bronx located in New York City by a Jamaican DJ, named Clive Campbell a.k.a. “Kool Herc”. Hip hop music and rap are two inseparable terms. The word “rap” derived in the 1960’s, from a slang word that basically meant conversation. Rap was speaking up rhythmically in rhymes with style and is generally along with beats. Rap currently represents the recording aspects of hip hop. According to an article called Hip Hop: Negative Effects on Today’s Youth on bookrags.com, hip hop branched off into “rap” near the end of the 1970’s.

On the negative side, hip hop and rap is believed to have caused a generation of young adults to be more violent, abuse drugs, and be more sexually promiscuous. Hip hop & Rap music contains some violent lyrics and can be interpreted as endorsing violent and illegal behavior in order to get material things such as gold and/or platinum chains, expensive cars and clothes.

Positively, according to ehow.com in an article entitled Positive Effects of Hip Hop Music, violence, drugs, and mysogyny is only a small portion of hip hop and suggests that there are many positive effects hip hop provides to its listeners. The article also suggests that hip hop promotes critical thinking, political awareness, and have the ability to provide role models(can be good) for youth. Since hip hop/rap is such a pop culture phenomenom, then it has the ability to affect the most change in the young generation.

In my opinion, there is no doubt that hip hop has its negative and positive contributions to society. Just as anything, parents and others have to be selective in what type of music we're allowing the youth to listen to. Just as there is bad hip hop/rap, there's also bad music in ALL other genres. Hip Hop does indeed expresses a lifesyle of many African Americans and currently, even others outside of the African American culture.

How do you see it influencing society?

College Athletes: Paid or Played?

As we embark on this 2010 College Football season, I can’t help but reflect on my college football experience as a college football player at Mississippi Valley State University, a Division 1-AA Historically Black College & University in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

I can remember the rigorous schedule that I had to keep with maintaining both my academic and athletic schedules. This schedule consisted of early morning classes until, at the latest, 2pm and, from 3pm until 6pm being in football practice and meetings. After dinner, there would be either study hall, or more meetings and afterwards, it was time to start preparing for the next day. Although I was a student who always wanted to be involved in campus life, it was often very difficult to be involved in other student organizations outside of the classroom and off the football field.

My college experience at Mississippi Valley State University is certainly different than more high profile athletic programs such as Ohio State University, University of Georgia, University of Florida, University of Southern California, etc. These athletes not only have to manage a rigorous schedule, they also have to be able to deal with a heightened profile in which they are now role models to many youth, in the light of every press/media outlet near and far, etc.

Over the past several years, there have been some debate on whether college athletes, especially the athletes from these high profile programs, should be paid other than the form of scholarships, etc. According to Rod Gilmore of Espn.com, he feels that at one time, college football was consistent with the mission of a university to educate and provide for the well-being of its student body. However, college football is no longer very different from NFL. He feels as if college football is a part of the entertainment industry. Adam Powell, of the Blue & White Flash, the official student newspaper at Jackson State University, feels that paying student athletes (cognizant of the word student before athlete) would also ruin the greatest part of college athletics, which is its tradition and innocence.

In contrast, according to allsands.com, college athletes have traditionally been prohibited from taking on outside employment, and although the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has recently begun to allow scholarship athletes to take part-time jobs during the school year, the fact remains the majority of college athletes have severely restricted earning potential during their college career. Some also argue that college athletics, particularly at large and more successful programs, generate large amounts of revenue. Although coaches at these successful programs receive, sometimes, million dollar contracts, players, who are putting themselves at more risk, aren’t able to receive any earnings from their consistent sacrifice from being a traditional college student.

So, the debate continues on which prospective holds more valid on whether college athletes should share in the large revenue generating business or should they simply be contributors to this growing industry?