Solution to NCAA Exploitation

The massive profits of the NCAA and the incredible salaries of college athletics coaches begs the question, why are players not being paid? The issue has been long debated and even been brought to court. A 2014 court case known as the O'Bannon case ruled that the NCAA rule that athletes were not allowed to be paid violated anti-trust laws. This decision allowed universities  to offer basketball and football players to trust funds that could be tapped into after graduation. This would give players the opportunity to share in the profits that they brought in. This ruling does not mandate that players could be paid, but it did make it a possibility.

Strauss, B. Tracy, M. (August 8, 2014). Nytimes.com. NCAA Must Allow Colleges to Pay Athletes Judge Rules. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/sports/federal-judge-rules-against-ncaa-in-obannon-case.html

Data Collection as a solution to Racial Profiling

Fifteen years ago a study was conducted to examine whether police treated minorities different than they treat whites. In July of 2015 Governor Raimondo passed a law to help discover if racial profiling exists. The Law requires police to collect data on race at traffic stops and requires all police departments to submit annual report to the Department of Transportation Office of Highway Safety. The collection of data will reveal if there are trends of racial profiling in the police departments. Additionally, this will act as a method of accountability for police departments. Departments cannot continue to discriminate without revealing discriminatory trends that will be met with corrective actions.

Gregg, K. (July 14, 2015). ProvidenceJournal.com. Raimondo Signs Legislation to Curb Racial Profiling, Requires Police Collect Data on Traffic Stops. Retrieved from http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150714/NEWS/150719640

Racial Profiling History and Manifestation

The issue of racial profiling is not a recent problem, in fact racial profiling dates back to the 1700's. Racial profiling is rooted in stereotypes and assumptions that have been projected upon entire races. Racial profiling is the use of race, ethnicity, or national origin by law enforcement as a factor in deciding whom to investigate, arrest, and detain.

In 1704 South Carolina founded the slave patrol. In this patrol white men policed black slaves on plantations and hunted for escaped slaves. Black people had to show passes to prove they had permission to be off the plantation, or they had to carry freedom papers if they were freed slaves. Black people were the targets of interrogation and harassment by white patrols. Like in modern day racial profiling it is the color of a persons skin that makes them subject to discriminatory treatment,not their actions. After slavery black men were forced into convict leasing through the black codes. Convict leasing meant that criminals would be leased to work on plantations or private corporations without pay for the duration of their sentences, The black codes targeted black people to control black populations and through numerous laws forced blacks back into forced labor. 

The current incarnation of these same discriminatory policies are taking place through The War on Drugs. This war places increased scrutiny on black and urban neighborhoods for anti-drug efforts, despite the fact that whites and blacks use drugs at similar rates. 

the historical and present day policies of discrimination occur through acts of racial profiling for the purpose of racial subjugation and control. 

Rushing, K. (March 1, 2013). Huffingtonpost.com. Dissecting the Long, Deep Roots of Racial Profiling in America. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-rushing/dissecting-racial-profiling_b_2740246.html

Community Commissions as Solution to Discrimination

In Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown a 16 person commission was established to examine the criminal justice institution and push for reforms. This panel was started by the Governor of Missouri. The commission presented over 150 reforms that would help to reduce inequality in the state. These reforms included expanding and improving social services, and establishing strict standards for use of police force. The one downside of these commissions for reform is that there is no way to ensure that any of the proposed reforms will be passed.

Horowitz, A. (September 14, 2015). Huffingtonpost.com. Ferguson Commussion Calls For Broad Reforms To Address Racial Inequality. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ferguson-commission-report_us_55f68350e4b077ca094f785a

Discrimination in Death Penalty

In Louisiana there is a serious discrepancy in the use of the death penalty for white and black criminals. An examination of all death penalty sentences imposed since 1976 in Louisiana found that capital punishment use is heavily impacted by race. In Louisiana a black man is 30 times as likely to be sentenced to death for killing a white woman than for killing a black man. Regardless of an offenders race death sentences are 6 times as likely when the victim is white rather than black. The Supreme Court was presented with a study that found people accused of killing white victims were four times as likely to be sentenced to death as those accused of killing black victims. The court ruled 5-4, that this did not demonstrate a constitutionally significant risk of racial bias.After retiring, the Judge who delivered the ruling opinion stated he should have voted the other way. In addition to being consistently racist it is also highly prone to error. For example, of the 155 death sentences the state handed down since 1976, 127, or 82% were later reversed. These errors are the result of major errors in trial that violate constitutional rights. While Louisiana's results are terrifying, many other states are not significantly better. Nationwide the reversal rate for resolved death sentences is 72 percent. The death penalty represents an irreversible level of punishment. for a system like this the level of error is unreasonable and immoral.

Editorial Board, (May, 9 2016). NYtimes.com. Louisiana's Color Coded Death Penalty. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/opinion/louisianas-color-coded-death-penalty.html

One Solution to Police Violence is Training

Training of police officers is becoming increasingly difficult in a time of ever increasing budget cuts. Police training could help police to understand the significance they have in our society and how their actions affect us all. Training has been reduced and trimmed down to focus only on life and death self-defense skills that police may need in the worst case scenario situations. When all police are trained in is how to shoot and handcuff individuals, it is no surprise that these are the actions that are carried out most frequently on the job. An officer will always resort to a skill that they know.
To further demonstrate the issue, the state of Florida allocates just 67$ per officer, per year for training. a recent study found that the Justice Department has reduced grants to local police forces by 43 percent since 2010. This inadequate funding for police training leads police to acting out the things they are trained in. Those things are generally the violent self-defense that police are taught for life-threatening situations. In all probability police do not need to use their weapons as often as they do, but this is all they have been taught. The heart of the issue lies in the lack of funding to adequately prepare officers for non-violent altercations. Changing this could have massively positive impact in police encounters with all members of society.

Swarts, P. (January 13, 2015). Washingtontimes.com. Police Need Better Training and Community Relations, Presidential Task Force Is Told. Retrieved from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/13/police-brutality-solutions-are-training-community-/?page=1

Are Body Cameras Enough to Stop Police Violence?

I do not think body cameras are a sufficient reform to prevent future police violence against African Americans. Police cameras may be a useful tool to begin to hold officers responsible for their actions during interactions with the public, but video evidence has not been sufficient to result in indictments in some cases. The most vivid of these was the Eric Garner Case. A positive example of video evidence was the case of Walter Scott who was shot in the back while running away from a police officer in South Carolina. The police officer was seen on camera shooting the unarmed man. The police officer was indicted and charged with murder. The different results in these cases demonstrates that video evidence can be a useful tool to discover the true interactions between police and black civilians, but it also demonstrates that the results may vary by case and are by no means a 100 percent effective way to hold officers accountable.
I think that there must be more substantial reforms within police forces including in training and department policies.

Racism and March Madness

61 percent of all Division 1 college basketball players are black. The NCAA makes close to 800 million dollars annually just from selling rights to the March Madness Basketball Tournament to television broadcasters.The athletes receive non of these profits. In 2010, the NCAA signed a 14 year contract, worth 11 billion dollars, with CBS for rights to broadcast the tournament. These profits don't include the profits the broadcasting companies make off of the advertisements, or the profits that the private arenas make by hosting the games. The sole reason people show up and tune in to watch the basketball games is because of the athletes that play in them. Unfortunately for these athletes, they are not allowed to receive even a single cent for their efforts and talent. The NCAA is taking advantage of these student athletes, and 60 percent of these athletes are black. This is exploitation at its finest, and has been compared to modern day slavery.
In addition to the exploitation by the NCAA, the NBA and other professional sports leagues are contributing to, and allowing this exploitation by requiring these athletes to attend at least one year of college. by forcing these athletes into colleges they allow the NCAA the broadcasters and anyone else involved to profit from the athletes unpaid hard work. This system is corrupt and should be changed to allow athletes to be paid for at least a portion of the profits that they are responsible for bringing in.

Moorehead, Monica. (March 25, 2013). Workers.org. Racism, Exploitation and Profits: The Real "March Madness". Retrieved from http://www.workers.org/articles/2013/03/25/racism-exploitation-profits-the-real-march-madness/

Reagan and The War on Drugs

Richard Nixon officially started the war on drugs in 1971, but his war was modest in comparison to the attacks launched under the Reagan Administration. The Reagan Administration marks the start of increasing incarceration rates due to expansion of the drug war. Between 1980 and 1997 the number of people in jail for non-violent drug offenses increased from 50,000 to 400,000. The issue was that the Reagan Administration did not push for whites and blacks to be targeted equally for their offenses. This was demonstrated when the Reagan Administration did not push for Ronald Reagan's own daughter to serve hard time after she developed a cocaine addiction. The war on drugs under Reagan unfairly targeted African American populations, and this is demonstrated by the grossly disproportionate numbers of African Americans in jail for drug offenses, even when considering the equal rates of usage between whites and blacks.
In addition, the Reagan administration and it's war on drugs also led to blockage of scientific studies about AIDS reduction. Reagan's war on drugs blocked syringe exchange programs that have been proven to prevent AIDS, and also DO NOT cause increased usage of drugs. This led to increasing numbers of people contracting AIDS and HIV. These outdated drug policies are still in place today and continue to proliferate institutional racism in the criminal justice system, and continue to treat addiction as a crime rather than a disease.

Newman, T. (March 7, 2016). HuffingtonPost.com. Nancy Reagan's Role in the Disastrous War on Drugs. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-newman/nancy-reagan-war-on-drugs_b_9400628.html

Stereotypes and Labels in Professional Sports

Isiah Thomas was basketball player for the Detroit Pistons in the 1980s. Thomas started a conversation about racial labels in sports that continues today. Thomas argued that professional athletes were stereotyped. Thomas said that whites were stereotyped for their work ethic, and black athletes were stereotyped about their natural ability. Thomas felt that black athletes were not given credit for their hard work and instead their success was simply attributed to natural ability. This conversation continues today where black athletes are highlighted for their physical skills, and white athletes are continually praised for their character, their intellect, or their hard work. This can be exemplified by the way announcers describe Tom Brady versus Marshawn Lynch. Tom Brady is frequently described as the hardest working person in the locker room, or the best team leader the game has ever seen. Marshawn Lynch had a nick name when he played professional Football. It was Beast Mode. in something so simple as a nick name or the way Tom Brady is described comes years of stereotypes that continue to promote the idea that white athletes are hard working and highly intellectual while black athletes are good only because of their physical characteristics.

Johnson, R. (June 5, 1987). Thomas Explains Comments on Bird. Nytimes.com. Retrieved From http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/05/sports/thomas-explains-comments-on-bird.html

Racial Disparity and Prison Sentences

There is an inherent difference in the way Whites and Blacks are punished in the United States Criminal Justice System. Black men are sentenced to nearly twenty percent longer prison terms than White men for similar crimes committed. This discrepancy in sentencing based on race has worsened since 2005 when the Supreme Court allowed judges to use their own discretion when sentencing. The 2005 Supreme Court case, US v. Booker, ruled federal district judges are not required to impose sentences within the Federal Sentencing guidelines. Since the Booker ruling, Black men are sentenced to more than fifteen percent longer prison terms than Whites in similar situations. In addition Black men were significantly less likely to receive sentences below the guidelines range than whites.

This means that Black men are consistently sentenced longer than whites for similar crimes, and they rarely receive lighter sentences than Federal guidelines suggest even though judges are not required to follow the guidelines. These trends combined with the increased likelihood for police to target black neighborhoods while looking for crime put 1 out of every 3 Black males, in the US, behind bars at some point in their life. This clearly becomes a systemic issue when those numbers are compared to the 1/17 white men going to jail in their lives. This is in addition the fact that black males make up significantly less of the overall US population numbers. Our criminal Justice System unfairly targets Black Americans, and comes down more harshly upon those targeted.




Palazzolo, J. (February, 14, 2013). Racial Gap in Men's Sentencing. WSJ.com. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324432004578304463789858002