The Paw Print

A news publication created by Baruch's College Now high school journalism class

Commentary

Incarceration Issues

by Leave a Comment

The United States has many flaws with its incarceration system.

Overcrowded prisons in the United States have become an issue throughout the years. When there are too many people placed in a prison, it causes the prisoners to use their time poorly. It may be assumed that overcrowding is caused by faults in the penal system. New laws may play a major role in the situation, due to the fact that it may cause more arrests and former prisoners returning to the system.

Over time, it seems that the number of prisoners sent to a facility has increased tremendously. This issue has been recognized to the point that sociologists have created the term mass incarceration to describe the issue. According to a study about prison policy, there are almost two million people in prison in the United States. The United States has more prisoners than any other nation, which raises the question, why are so many people being sent to prison? The crime rate does not get lower, even with this many incarcerations.

Private prisons introduce a major issue. They are for profit and cut down on as much as they can in order to make money without any regard for the prisoners’ benefits or health. Prisoners in these private institutions aren’t given as much food as those in state run prisons and are given clothes that are cheaply made. Prison labor is a massive source of income, paying the inmates pennies to make military equipment.

There are many reasons why people end up in prison,. The war on drugs has caused a huge increase in prisoners. There are now 11 times more prisoners due to drug crimes since 1980.

Mandatory minimum sentencing also proves to be a major issue. When a person commits a crime there is a set amount of time they must serve, no matter the circumstance. There is no one who candecide if a sentence should be higher or lower due to the word of these laws.

The school-to-prison pipeline has also been proved to be a major issue. Zero tolerance policies have made students much more likely to get in trouble for minor things, pointing their finger as if it was a gun. Schools have even brought officers in to control students with them arresting students for disorderly conduct for doing minor things that the school could have handled itself. This causes students to create a criminal record early on and made students of color targets, thus making the system racist.

Prisoners are also treated horribly by staff. They can face physical and mental abuse. Staff members rape inmates and offer favors in exchange for sexual acts. Some guards don’t ensure the safety of the inmates.

There are many issues surrounding the prison system, and many people attempt to ignore it or say that because they committed a crime they deserve it. But now its the time to fix these problems or they will get worse, and it is important to be aware of these issues. Prisoners are being punished in inhumane ways and, but who can punish those meant to punish the prisoner?

How Public Facilities Could Help Fathers

by Leave a Comment

Characters Baby Changing Area Changing Table Symbols

“I just want to change my daughter’s diapers.”

This is what a father said after he found out there was no place in the male restroom to change his daughters diapers.

Recently, Mr. Gu took his family to the mall to shop. While his wife was changing clothes, Mr. Gu found out that his daughter needed a diaper change only to find out that the male restroom did not have a changing table for the baby. Mr. Gu asked a staff member where he could change his baby’s diapers. They told him that there is a room for mothers and infants on 1st floor. Mr. Gu went to the 1st floor and was unable to go into that room. “I just want to change my daughter’s diapers,” said Mr. Gu, “why is there not a changing table in male restroom? Can’t a father change his child’s diapers?”

In ancient times, women had no power, all they did was take care of families. Now, with developing technology and the spread of knowledge, the idea that women are the only ones who have to take care of the kids is weaker than ever before in America. Many fathers are willing to share the work of taking care of the next generation.

“I usually wake up at night to look after my son, because my wife had taken care of him all day, I think it is fair enough for me to just watch him at night.” said Mr. Lin, a father of a three month baby.

However, most fathers feel that it is inconvenient to carry a baby in a public place just by themselves. “I had never tried to take my boy outside by myself. Because I feel like it is not gonna be easy…there is specific room for mothers to watch the baby, but no room for fathers, and when the baby need to change the diapers, it really gives me a big trouble…” said Mr. Lee.

On the other hand, many people think that men can’t take care of children well because “men are careless”. However, Mr. Lin said, “it is not about who can do it well, it is about how we take on the responsibilities. Taking care of a family isn’t one person’s responsibility, it requires the effort from both father and mother.”

 

The Invisibility of Black Autism

by Leave a Comment

Autism is known by most as the “White Person’s Disease”.

Autism: a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts.

I recently discovered this twitter thread:

 

It made me think of 3 very important questions:

Are black children and minorities less likely to even get diagnosed with autism? Therefore less likely to get treatment earlier on when it’s most vital.

Are minorities in general given less sympathy when it comes to learning disabilities like autism and other similar conditions?

Is autism in fact a “White Person’s Disease’?

 

My first response was to go to Google and see if this twitter thread was just an isolated experience for one black mom. The other immediate lightbulb that went off was “How many people of each race have autism? Maybe majority diagnosed are white and that’s why autism isn’t heavily focused on in the black community?”

I went to Google and typed “people with autism broken down by race” and thousands of results came within seconds. Articles with headlines like “Blacks are less likely to get diagnosed with autism” or “Autism Race Problem” or “Autism, Like Race, Complicates Almost Everything” were screaming at me. There’s a whole community of people who see and believe that there’s a real problem with blacks and autism, a divide that needs to be dealt with.

Of course, I don’t believe in a utopian society where race never has an affect on anything, but something as simple as a mental condition shouldn’t have any link to a certain group of people.

From its discovery autism has been linked to white people. It’s now became this unfortunate stigma that the black boy having a tantrum “needs a whooping” yet the white boy “must be on the spectrum and needs treatment.”

“In some of the first clinical descriptions of autism, psychologist Leo Kanner wrote that many of the families who sought his opinion were white and middle- to upper-class… Kanner failed to consider was that the parents who had the resources to seek out a specialist about their child’s developmental problems were likely those with resources to begin with. In 1940s America, those parents were almost exclusively white, and ever since, autism has been treated largely as a white disease,” says Carrie Arnold, a Pacific Islander magazine staff member.

1 in 68 people have autism. Autism has been found, by CDC, to not be linked to the race, culture or socioeconomic status of a person, but simply to the symptoms. Yet according to the Pacific Standard, “when you look at children and adults actually diagnosed with autism, white children are 30 percent more likely to receive an autism diagnosis than blacks, and 50 percent more likely than Hispanics, according to 2014 data from the CDC. Minority children are also diagnosed significantly later than white children.” According to the CDC, while many children are diagnosed with autism at around 4 years old, researchers have determined that African-American children may be diagnosed as many as 18 to 24 months later.

Research and statistics indicate that blacks and minorities in general aren’t being treated the same as whites, even in an area that should be as racially unbiased as the medical field. But the real question is why?

Some parents aren’t as lucky as Camille Proctor, who found a support group filled with other parents whose children have been diagnosed with autism. Unfortunately for Proctor, she was the only black parent in the room. She couldn’t identify with the other parents the way she wanted to and she couldn’t get responses to certain questions. The white parents didn’t know how to answer when she asked for advice on how to deal with her son encountering the police, no one else saw it as an issue, she explains in an interview with the Pacific Standard.

With the recent movements against police brutality, I’d say, and Proctor would say, that it is a big issue. Things like this never come into play when the average person thinks about autism. In this interview with NPR.org, Proctor explains her concerns regarding blacks with autism and the police. Most people have a lack of understanding about what being autistic really entails, which could easily lead to an officer assuming that a black person with autism raising their voice at them is angry or one who is hesitant to answer a question is being resistant.

Autism, like many other diseases should be viewed as having NOTHING to do with a specific race. Every person deserves access to treatment and support groups and all the things they need to deal and cope with their autism.

The Death of Cable T.V.

by Leave a Comment

its a tv
Photo Credit: arstechnica.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the early sixties. Television is wildly popular and becoming more mainstream each year in America. Families, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances gather together to watch T.V., and a revolutionary outlet for the spread of news is born. Who could have imagined that something so life changing could become obsolete so fast?

50 years later, and the consumers’ mind is beginning to shift.

The internet was created in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, but streaming video has been relevant for about a decade. Since the beginnings of companies such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and recently Amazon; people have steadily been making online streaming part of their daily routine, with Netflix alone having almost 82,000,000 members.

There are two main reasons for this. One, the $10 or less a month subscriptions to most online streaming services – with the exception of YouTube, which is free – is far less expensive than the hundreds of dollars a year that cable TV can cost. However revenue for these online companies reaches into the billions each year.

In addition, having things to watch online is much more convenient than watching live or even recorded TV. Not only can people watch on their computer, phone, or tablet, but they can watch anytime, with no restraints on the number of episodes or videos they can view.

The overall consensus by data gathering companies is that streaming shows are overtaking the popularity of traditional television; in fact, each year the number of new unique viewers rises by 146 percent, according to Adobe.

Older generations on average are more likely to have cable subscriptions than the younger ones, 80 percent of 32-48 year olds picked pay TV over online subscriptions, but as time progresses and the majority of content is produced on the internet, this will change.

“I never really thought of anything other than cable as being practical,” an anonymous senior living in New York City explained. “Everything’s on TV… when you’re paying extra on the internet for something you already own, it isn’t responsible.”

As practically all future generations will grow up with the internet, this view will dramatically change: Young people now aren’t used to the rituals of television, and don’t have patience for non-instant forms of media.

So now with the online streaming market taking off, who are the major players?

Most people have a Netflix subscription by now, and Hulu as well as Amazon both offer a vast selection of online stream-able content. But what’s interesting about these streaming companies, is that while buying the rights to certain T.V. shows and movies – they’re producing dozens of their own as well.

Traditional television networks like HBO and AMC, as well as CBS are putting almost all their content online – with dedicated streaming services. Also, virtually all TV channels have some sort of presence on YouTube, whether it be late night talk show clips, or small news segments.

While some say cable T.V. holds a lot of nostalgia with its name and history, it’s now an outdated way to consume programs. Online streaming will prove to become a much better and efficient platform to put shows on. Now that being said, the same companies that provide cable also happen to own the internet, (Internet Service Providers like Verizon, AT&T, etc.). So how the death of T.V. will play out, especially with new rollbacks on Net Neutrality, will ultimately be up to the companies who make the decisions.

 

Why Can’t You Say the N-Word?

by Leave a Comment

 

Asian, Middle Eastern, and Hispanic people in urban areas have seemingly become comfortable with using the N-word as their expression of friendship with black people which is in many ways insulting. This word has never been used to describe or belittle them and there is no need for it to be part of their vocabulary.

In the Oxford dictionary black (adjective) is defined as “of any human group having dark-colored skin, especially of African or Australian Aboriginal ancestry.” However, black should be defined as people with undeniably African or Australian Aboriginal features such as wide noses, thick lips, kinky hair, and darker skin because they are the “niggers.”

Many people use the excuse that their ancestors were black to use the N-word. A “Negro” is defined as “a member of a dark-skinned group of peoples originally native to Africa south of the Sahara” also relating to black people. Therefore, if someone’s race or culture is technically not black, these derogatory terms do not apply to them.

A black person may use the term as they wish. This is a word he or she cannot escape from because it’s been deeply embedded into this country that this is what “black” is and this is how the world will always see “black.” We are the so-called “nappy haired, horse mouthed, black bucks” that white America shaped us out to be. But we’ve come to own the stigma of being black in America and we have even reclaimed ourselves by referring to ourselves as “Niggas.”

Some people feel like since they’re being friendly, it’s fine to say the N-word. But that isn’t necessarily the case. For example, if two friends from the Middle East were joking around and calling each other terrorists, it would be funny to them being that it’s a word they’ve both felt personally victimized by. However, had one of those friends been of another race, it would be seen as an ignorant remark being that other races are rarely, or never, accused of being terrorists.

Many light-skinned Hispanics that I have confronted about using the N-word say, “but my ancestors were black,” to which I respond, “good for your ancestors.” Simply put, Hispanics are a mix of multiple races and peoples, whether they be African and Spanish or Native and Spanish or African, Native, and Spanish. Therefore, that makes them not one or the other but all. You are not black, your ancestors were. You have been able to escape the same reigns of terror black people have face. There are even black Latinx people who experience racism in their countries and are called “Negra/o” because they cannot escape their black ancestry. They cannot escape because the black African blood runs through their skin and features.

For mixed race people, possibly half black and half white, it is how white passing you are that determines whether or not you have the choice to say the N-word. If your features are predominantly black, you are prone to grow up manipulated by white America, you will fear their system. If your features are predominantly European, you have an advantage and are likely to have privilege.

A black person may as well be defined as someone who is manipulated by white America at birth. Someone angered and insulted by the terms “Nigger” and “Negro.” A person whose dark skin and African features apparently defines the content of their character. A person so connected to their African ancestry that they would have either been on the plantation or in the house looking after the white man’s child. And if you can’t personally relate to any of this… You’re not black.

The Wonders of Vandalism

by Leave a Comment

"Respect is the Strongest Compliment" mural
“Respect is the Strongest Compliment” mural

“It’s not adding to the mural—it’s subtracting from it,” twenty-two year old Theresa said.

Theresa doesn’t live in the neighborhood, but she noticed that people started to write their opinions responding to the sexual harassment young women experienced in the community. The “Respect is the Strongest Compliment” mural located at Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn was painted last year by females under eighteen, who want to display “the inner turmoil” they feel as women, according to Nekita Blue, an African American who painted four murals with Groundswell.

Groundswell gathers youths “to use art as a tool for social change, for a more just and equitable world,” according to the Groundswell site. Through this project, youths bring attention to the issues they face in their community.

Despite the time and effort these youths put into the mural, people scribble remarks over it, such as a “Very True” pointing at the butt of a painted female figure or “Hypocrisy” in another area.

When another fellow artist sent Blue a SnapChat message of the remarks, she said, “it made me sad that this person didn’t take the time out to understand the message we were trying to make clear.” She also said that the goal of the mural was not to change the world, but to get the people to stop and think about the bigger picture and recognize sexual harassment as an issue in the community. According to Blue, the figures in the mural represent real experiences of the artists.

Allison Keene, a twenty-four year old, who recently moved to the neighborhood, said that the responses from the community draw focus to a bigger question: what is art? She said, “The annotations can contribute to the overall artwork if the original artists meant for it to be a multi-artists project.” Keene also said that the mural is in a “public accessible place” so it’s perhaps “meant to be acted on.”

Blue also said, “The ultimate goal of the mural was to bring awareness and start conversations.” While the group was painting last summer, they engaged in many conversations with the general public addressing the sexual harassment issue.

However, Bailey, an individual who works at the Housing Authority, said the scribbles “take away from the value” of the mural. “It’s similar to bringing people to your house and they bring mud with them—it ruins the original image.” He considers the feedback to be “plain vandalism”.

 

 

 

 

The Looming Danger of Climate Change

by Leave a Comment

14710747294_7d228cff8c_k

New York City’s Greenmarket celebrates its 40th anniversary this season.

Stands of fruits, vegetables, produce, jams, and breads circle Union Square all year to offer its lively consumers fresh ingredients.

But the yield for fresh ingredients has become unpredictable due to climate change.

Demand for sustenance is high and many farmers are anxious about the looming danger of climate change.

“I can definitely see it affecting us in the future.” Steven, a vendor for Stokes Farm, one of the many providers for the Greenmarket system explained the complications that come with hotter summers.

“Every vegetable is on a different seasonal cycle. Broccoli and spinach don’t do so well in the heat, while tomatoes love hot weather,” he said.

Ahmad, a vendor for John D. Madura Farm, has worked in the field for 11 years.

He talked about unpredictable weather and yields on the farm, saying, “Every month, every week, there’s something different,”

Ahmad expressed concern about climate change and is unsure about the effect it would have on his farm.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency website, many weeds, pests and fungi thrive in warm, humid climates, and farmers currently spend more than $11 billion per year fighting weeds in the United States.

“You get something, you lose something– until you figure out what you need to change,” Ahmad said. To many farmers and vendors at the Greenmarket, climate change is a mysterious dark cloud that hovers over the fields and gives rise to anxiety.

Gentrification in Chinatown: What Do Teens Think?

by Leave a Comment

Chinatown,_NYC_(2014)_-_12“With every new blue-eyed blonde-haired person moving into Chinatown or starting a business in Chinatown, my fear of being left without a place to live grows and continues to affect the daily lives of my family,” said Andy Wang.

Wang, a 17-year-old student living in Chinatown, witnesses what he sees as the detrimental effects of gentrification everyday. He noted, “Many of the old businesses and markets in Chinatown have closed and been reopened as stupid things, like art galleries.”

As higher-income New Yorkers make plans to renovate and change Chinatown, the prices in the neighborhood rise. Rent, food, and general services rise and force long-time residents out of the neighborhood, as they can no longer afford to live there.

According to the NYU Furman Center, the percentage of Asian people living in the Lower East Side/Chinatown decreased from 35% to 32% from 2000 to 2014. The report also revealed that the median rent in this neighborhood rose a sharp 12% from $881 to $987 between 2005 and 2014.

Vanessa’s Dumplings is a popular store that has increased its prices over the years. The little store on Eldridge Street recently raised the prices of its dumplings to 4 for $1.25. “I grew up eating dumplings that were 5 for $1,” recounted Amy Lin. Although Lin moved to Astoria 3 years ago and no longer lives in Chinatown, she still feels deep ties to the neighborhood where she grew up. “Shops on Grand Street are empty and face bankruptcy,” said Lin of the various fish and vegetable markets that line Grand Street.

While gentrification has the most significant effects on the elderly in Chinatown who have nowhere to go, teens also see why the changes to the neighborhood are detrimental to its future. “Gallery openings with cheese and wine on Mulberry is not what Chinatown is known for,” says Maggie Loh, who lives on Mott Street. The transition from local businesses that sell herbs and tea to hipsters showing off their art is occurring at a somewhat alarming rate. “One benefit I can think of is the sharing of culture, says Loh. “But the line is drawn when people start to take over and try to profit or take advantage of a cheap living situation,” she warns.

While many teenagers enjoy the benefits of gentrification, such as modernization and cleanliness, many have problems with the erasure of Chinese culture that consequently follows. “Chinatown isn’t really Chinatown if the majority of the people are no longer Chinese,” says Sophia Wang, a former resident of Chinatown who now lives in the East Village.

“The drawbacks are that culture is going to be destroyed and Chinese families, who already make not a lot of cash, are going to have to relocate to cheaper neighborhoods,” says Nick Feng. This is already happening in New York. According to a New York Times article, Sunset Park in Brooklyn recently had an influx of Chinese immigrants from Chinatown. Many Chinese people have spread out from Chinatown in Manhattan and moved to other neighborhoods such as Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens.

Gentrification has threatened many New York City neighborhoods in the past and continues to creep up on many more. Chinatown is next. It is clearly an important issue to those directly affected by it and even those indirectly affected by it.

“Most teens are subconsciously aware because they experience it everyday but don’t fully try to grasp the detrimental effects,” said Loh.

Gun Control Laws: Necessary or Unjust?

by Leave a Comment

According to the second amendment of the United States Constitution, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” To most people in the United States, the right to bear arms is one of the most important civil rights. However, with the recent national crisis with guns and other arms, many people have considered the idea of “infringing” on the right in order to protect lives.

In recent news, in Orlando, Florida’s nightclub Pulse, a gunman named Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 53 people on the night of June 12, 2016. The shooter who was said to be connected to al-Qaeda was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Miami field office for over 10 months. Omar Mateen was under surveillance due to said ties to terrorism, but later Mateen, “told investigators he made the statements out of anger, and the FBI closed the inquiry,” The Atlantic reported.

As Hillary Clinton argued during a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, “If the FBI is watching you for suspected terrorist links, you shouldn’t be able to just go buy a gun with no questions asked.” For people like Omar Mateen who have been investigated by the FBI multiple times, it should not, and I reiterate, should not be easy to purchase or own a gun. Some measures of investigation should be taken in order to prevent certain people from obtaining arms in such simple steps.

Omar Mateen was required to pass a criminal background check and to be of good moral character. I must ask, as a citizen of the United States, what exactly does it mean to be of good moral character? Well of course, to everyone that means something different, but the frustrating part is that the government is using the term “to be of good moral character” in order to categorize what type of people are allowed to own guns.

Having access to guns gives people a spur of power, because with one pull of the trigger they can take away the life of another. One of the most horrifying facts is “At least 11 states now allow for automatic reversal of felons’ gun prohibitions after a certain period of time, either for all felons or those convicted of certain crimes,” according to Everytown for Gun Safety. This means that former criminals can easily obtain guns and possibly strike again using the weaponry they are able to get.

The government should not allow such actions to occur, because according to Everytown for Gun Safety, “On an average day, 91 Americans are killed with guns… America’s gun murder rate is more than 25 times the average of other developed countries.” Such high numbers show America gives its citizens too much power and right to own a gun, because simply these guns that the people own is what has caused unfortunate situations.

Indeed, infringing on the right to bear arms would be against the second  amendment of the Constitution, a right that our founding fathers lawfully gave us. However, what I find more important than the right to bear arms is the protection of American lives. With the easy accessibility of guns, it is more probable for lives to be taken simply because one man argued that it was his right to own a gun.

As citizens of the United States of America, we must focus on protecting each other and assisting each other in times of crisis. We should not attack Congress as they try to fix a problem that affects our nation. We should consider how they would in fact be saving some lives.

How Public is Public Space?

by Leave a Comment


retail-santa-monica-landscapeMost parks, beaches, roads and stores are considered public spaces because they are open and accessible to everyone. But private places have rules that owners have set the public’s access.

Lately many restrictions have been set on public places that limit people’s freedom. This is seen many stores and even streets especially in New York City.

In 2002 smoking was prohibited in restaurants and bars. This went even further in 2011 when a law prohibited smoking in municipal parks and public areas in New York City.Now whether public space is really public is questioned again because of an incident in the Apple Store on 14st.

On July 27 I went to interview a customers at the Apple Store to learn more about Apple’s customer service. I interviewed two women waiting to get their phones fixed and, like great journalists do, I interviewed the employees to get different points of view and a fair story.

Two employees gladly answered my questions but a third employee on the second floor told me that I was not allowed to do that and approached his co-worker and whispered something in his ear. My friend, who joined me suggested we see what the man was saying. When we reached him the man’s co-worker told us that to ask questions we “need to make an appointment and have permission.”

My friend and I approached another employee on the first floor who offered to help us and during the interview I noticed that the man who did not permit us to interview his co-workers or employees was staring us down.

Now you may ask what does that have to do with the new laws against smoking?

In all three cases public spaces that are supposed to be open and accessible now limit people’s rights, whether it is freedom of speech or smoking. Owners of these public places restrict activity they think is wrong and set rules similar to what private places do.

With so many restrictions and rules common public places are slowly becoming private.