Diabetes between races
April 11th, 2012 by armandoromero001
Diabetes among different races
What damages children these days? Candy and sweets right, of course, the one person that always says we have a sweet tooth in us. Among different races are a rare look how what race are more tend to get diabetes and what town they live in, but also have the severe effect of the troubling cost of the disease. Some people say it’s the parents fault that their child gets the disease, and others say its genetics like it’s passed down from generation to generation. I researched this disease because my own mother is affected by diabetes, and has to inject herself everyday with insulin to keep her blood sugar in check. So you might say this topic I chose hits close to home! Among the races in Massachusetts I picked three, white, black, Hispanic/ Latinos in two different towns, Brookline, Salem, and the state of Massachusetts. The different percentages of diabetes in each town, depending on race, and totals, not by age. When I began this study of diabetes, it troubled me that the most that get diabetes are the minorities, White people get it less than Blacks and Hispanic/Latinos, why is this case like this? I ask you as the reader to understand these numbers that I got off the MassCHIP, Department of public health shows us statistics on the problem in two different towns and the State in general. In Salem Hispanics/Latinos are in higher percentage’s to have diabetes then whites and blacks. The Black population was not available for that town. In Brookline, the numbers were flipped, but except one, the whites again, had the lower percentage of diabetes in that town. Black and Hispanic/Latinos had the higher rates of diabetes in the town of Brookline, but Blacks had the highest with 11.8% over the Hispanics/Latinos that had 9.0%. In the State of Massachusetts, whites had the lowest and the Hispanics/Latinos had the second lowest, African-Americans have the highest percentages of diabetes in the State. I read in articles that the State of Massachusetts have banned sodas and candy machines in schools, to help protect the kids from eating bad junk food, but also help to fight against child obesity. The different patterns I see in this chart helps me judge what role does each race have in these towns, for example, look at Salem, it has no percentages for Blacks, is this because there is a small population of Blacks in Salem? The Hispanics/Latinos are high percentage in Salem, and I figured Salem to be a rich town compared to Brookline. Brookline is a rich town, mostly populated with Whites than minorities, just because the population is mostly White Jewish. I grew up in Brookline, but in the projects, yes Brookline has projects, or housing authority. Most of people that lived in the projects were Hispanics/Latinos and Blacks. Living in the projects meant of eating junk food and candy. Me and my best friend always ate candy, every day, to school, during school and after, and he was a minority also, he was Black. Is this common, that Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos have a higher risk of getting diabetes, just because where they live and how much wealth we have? The numbers are right in front of you, and they don’t lie, or maybe they do, or maybe they messed up? Is the case of the Whites having diabetes it less, because they have better health insurance? I Being a Latino gets me worried about family and myself, to watch the sweets, diet and exercise. These diseases already is affecting my own family and potentially harm another in the future, this makes me think about everything, because the disease can kill you or a loved one. Eat healthier and watch what you eat, the pattern has it that minorities get diabetes more than Whites, and the numbers keeps growing.
Diabetes, all ages,
Town, State.
Salem Brookline Massachusetts
6.9 5.9 7.0
White (5.2-8.6) (5.1-6.8) (6.7-7.3)
NA 11.8 11.0
Black (NA-NA) (9.8-13.8) (9.4-12.5)
11.2 9.0 9.3
Hispanic (4.6-17.8) (6.7-11.2) (8.2-10.3)
Source: MassCHIP, Department of Public Health. Found at: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/researcher/communityhealth/masschip/topics/Diabetes-data.html#cities_towns
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Different income and poverty between 3 races
March 21st, 2012 by armandoromero001
Different income and poverty between
3 races
We ask ourselves who makes more money, between races, and who
are the ones struggling, and are in poverty.
I choose 3 different ethnic groups, White American, Black- African American,
and Hispanic- Latino American to get statistics of income and poverty between
the three races, and depending what state and towns. The reason I choose
Massachusetts, is because I’m from here, and I chose Brookline, because I grew
up there, and Salem, because I was assigned it. It seem like the minorities are less to have a
big income and be in poverty over white families in two towns and even in 1
state alone. Could this be that Blacks
and Latino families just have a bad job?
It looks like in Brookline and Salem, the majority of the population is
white and the income they make surpasses the minority of blacks and Latinos.
There can be different reasons for this, first these two towns in Massachusetts
are really expensive to live in, and their known as high class areas, like rich
privileged people to live in. In many
case’s I see the difference of income between black and Latino families are
similar, but the lowest income family race is Latino, why is this? Could this be a lot of them don’t have papers
to be here or documentation for work or even they can’t speak English and don’t
have the education like the white and black families have. There are question around where ever you
live, it depends on the income you make, look for instance in Brookline the
highest income for white families are$100,000 and in Salem their $59,000, these
numbers are from 2000 census I got online, just imagine how much they are now!
Just the average white family in Massachusetts makes $65,000, and that is from
the table chart from the census I got this information from. The percent on poverty for white families are
low compared to the black and Latino families that are high, even higher is the
Latino’s in Salem, However in Brookline it’s not much at all for Latino poverty
is at only 5%, out of 2,964 Latino’s in Brookline. The numbers say the income
of each, but knowing these are just numbers taken from an old census, it could
be different today, but the Latino’s are the ones that are going to have the
less income and higher poverty rate then the whites and blacks. I believe that Latino’s have this rate for a
reason, because being a Latino myself, and growing up in the projects myself
and my family living on welfare and food stamps, yeah I know what is like
living in poverty level. We Latino’s
work hard and get taken advantage from, just because we are the ones that get
the job done. The income on Latino’s in
Salem is lower the Latino’s in Brookline, just because I think they have good
jobs in Brookline, then Salem, in my opinion, Because their employers are
filthy rich, and pay very good. Over all the population of white families and people
have the highest income and lower poverty rate then Black and Latino’s, just
because the statistics show the proof of numbers, of Latino’s struggle with
poverty and getting the lowest income between the whites and blacks. The only difference I see in numbers that there
are more Latino’s in Massachusetts then African- Americans, that number surprised
me because almost 170,000 more difference, and I really thought it would be
more equaled out number between the two.
The white people out number all the races, in millions then hundreds and
thousands. At 81% of population, I can say they out number us, and will always
have the better income, and less poverty rate than any other ethnic race out
there. The Latino’s have the end of the
rope, and didn’t surprise me to see those numbers of poverty, and wondering
what are the numbers of today? With the
economy going bad and unemployment going up, I wonder what those numbers could
be in a few years from now. The chart I made
show old numbers used but just take a look for yourself that even only one
state these numbers are from, imagine across the country, yeah I see a
similarity that those numbers could be the same as in Massachusetts.
| Massachusetts | Brookline | Salem | |||||||
| Estimate | Number | Percent | Estimate | Number | Percent | Estimate | Number | Percent | |
|
White family
|
|||||||||
|
Median family income (dollars)
|
65,327 | 101,449 | 59,236 | ||||||
|
Percent below poverty level
|
4.60% | 2.90% | 4.70% | ||||||
| Population | 5,300,245 | 81.40% |
45,021
|
76.70% | 34,361 | 83.50% | |||
| Black family | |||||||||
|
Median family income (dollars)
|
38,565 | 63,482 | 42,014 | ||||||
|
Percent below poverty level
|
18.30% | 5.30% | 9.00% | ||||||
| Population | 436,108 | 6.70% | 1,977 | 3.40% | 2,650 | 6.40% | |||
| Latino family | |||||||||
|
Median family income (dollars)
|
27,885 | 54,773 | 30,469 | ||||||
|
Percent below poverty level
|
28.50% | 5.10% | 21.80% | ||||||
| Population | 607,993 | 9.30% |
2,964
|
5.00% | 7,041 | 9.30% | |||
Source:
Census 2000 Summary File 4 (SF 4) –Data:
DP-3 – Profile of Selected Economic Characteristics: 2000 more
information. factfinder2.census.gov
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Interviews around white Privilege
February 29th, 2012 by armandoromero001
Interviews around White Privilege
1st interviewed, that was born in Guatemala, and
immigrated to the U.S in the late 70’s with her sister and soon to be husband,
in search of the American dream. I around
asked about her situation when she came to us, and what she thought about when
she got to this country, she was also thinking about the future for her kids,
and also thinking about how she would overcome her leaving her family to start
a new life in America. When I asked her about
what she thought about white privilege, she told me about when she first got
here, she stayed with a white family that gave her a job, and stayed at her
house with the family. Her job was to
clean and take care of the kids. She had
no papers, meaning legal papers to stay in the country, like a visa or working
permit. She said she didn’t speak English
at all and communicated with her boss, just with hand signals. What she thought about white privilege is
that she and her sister were vulnerable, because they were in desperate needs
of a job, and a place to stay. They were
taken advantage of by the white family. She also told me that she couldn’t get
a job, because she had no social security number and legit papers to get a
job. She said every white person had a
job, a good one, also it seemed that all the bosses were always white. Even till this day she still sees white privilege
at her job, and they always have a good position and always have an easy job,
sometimes it all depends what they do.
She struggled from coming up here, and for the future of her kids to
live the American dream, and she told me that it’s not easy at all. People come
to this country to get away from the problems from their own country, and to
live everybody’s dream about living free.
The second interview also someone born in Guatemala and I told
him about his ideas about white privilege, and he told me a lot about the
topic, I mean a lot. Just to start off the conversation, he said it’s corrupt
and is discrimination against everybody that is not white. What he meant was that he said, when he got
to this country back in 1976, it was a different era, but he said he couldn’t
get jobs because 1st he didn’t know English, and second his skin
color. He said his first job was
cleaning yards, throwing trash away, removing it. What he told me about the issue with white
privilege was that they always get the good jobs and always are the bosses and
when they apply to a job they always get the job over you then anyone else,
because they are white, but also they were born over here. What he told me about changing the system to
dismantle the issue, is to succeed before them, meaning education, and out
smarting out the position for the job, and also to think about the community
getting together and help each other out, he told me to many come to this
country, and forget where they come from, and even their family too like they
don’t exist. Imagine that they come here to compete for jobs like dogs and also
they step over their own people, just to get to the top. He also told me
everybody, wants one thing, and that’s money and wealth, Rich get rich and the
poor get poorer. White privilege is here and it’s going to stay around, until
us as minorities keep fighting each other, and help each other out. He also said the conflicts of immigrants
coming here to this country and the white people think we are taking their jobs
away from them, and where not, imagine that, this started off as immigrants,
except the native Indians, that about it.
Even if this country is free, this country still is stereotyped and at a
point of discrimination, just because your color of your skin, or language you
speak and where you were born.
3rd interview was with the sister of the first
interview back in the 70’s and She said the same thing what the 1st
and 2nd interviewee told me about the issue with white privilege was
that she said she saw, they had everything, money, car, house and especially
the money. White privilege is a given
people that are born in the U.S. and their skin is white and they have money
also. She told me even people from the same race, when they make it big; they
turn white, meaning they look down on their own people. In order to change this situation, she said
the same thing that 2nd interviewee said, “we all must help each
other and support one another”.
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Arizona Immigration law
February 16th, 2012 by armandoromero001
Arizona Immigration law
Armando Romero 16 February 2012 Race and Ethnic relations
In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer signed into law Arizona’s discriminatory
immigration enforcement bill which requires law enforcement to question
individuals about their immigration status during every day police encounters.
The law creates new immigration crimes and penalties inconsistent with those in
federal law, the power of authority to detain and transport persons suspected
of violating civil immigration laws and prohibits speech and other expressive
activity by persons seeking work. This is a direct oppression against
Hispanics/ Latinos and I strongly condemn the governor’s decision to sign the
unconstitutional law and angered by her disregard for the serious damage it
could cause to civil liberties and public safety in the United States. “Governor
Brewer and the Arizona legislature have set Arizona apart in their willingness
to sacrifice our liberties and the economy of this state,” said Alessandra
Soler Meetze, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona. By signing this bill into law, Governor Brewer
has just authorized violating the rights of millions of people living and
working in Arizona. She has just given every police agency in Arizona a mandate
to harass anyone who looks or sounds foreign, while doing nothing to address the
real problems we’re facing. The new law, which requires police agencies across
Arizona to investigate the immigration status of every person they come across
whom they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe is in the country
unlawfully. To avoid arrest, citizens and immigrants will effectively have to
carry their “papers” at all times which is horrific. Meaning if you were born here but look Latino
you have to carry a birth certificate? The
law also makes it a state crime for immigrants to willfully fail to register
with the Department of Homeland Security and carry registration documents. It
further creates the free speech rights of day laborers and encourages unchecked
information sharing between government agencies. The law is like stereotyping everyone that is
not white. Forcing local police to demand people’s papers and arrest those who
can’t immediately prove their status will do nothing to make us safer. What it
will do is divert scarce police resources to address false threats and force
officers to prioritize immigration enforcement over all other public safety
responsibilities. It is a dark domination of Arizona, putting these laws into effect
that is a racist act against everyone that is non-white and look like they are
from another country, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indian etc. Before the governor signed the bill,
President Obama criticized it harshly, calling it “misguided” and
saying that it threatens to “undermine basic notions of fairness that we
cherish as Americans.” Obama promised to “closely monitor the
situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this
legislation.” The president’s statement is consistent with his
longstanding opposition to anti-immigrant laws that attempt to bypass the
federal government. As a senator, he lauded the 2007 legal ruling blocking the
anti-immigrant law in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, calling the law “unconstitutional
and unworkable.” Despite the
president’s statements, his administration has not taken strong action against
state and local anti-immigrant laws, paving the way for extreme laws like the
one signed in Arizona. Furthermore the
President being an minority himself, and having family that is not American,
and from another country, should take in consideration and attack the problem
what the state government in Arizona is doing oppressing the Latinos in that
state, and marking them as targets. Actions speak louder than words, as the
federal government sits on its hands, Arizona’s anti-immigrant brushfires have
turned into a firestorm. I call on the administration to file a brief
categorically opposing Arizona’s employer sanctions law to demonstrate its
commitment to stopping anti-immigrant laws that interfere with federal
authority, wreak havoc on businesses and cause discrimination against Latinos. My final thought that Latinos face in Arizona
is hard and not constitutional by the eyes of the Government and us as
Americans, either we came from another country or were born here, because we
should stop this act against immigration law in Arizona, because it’s not American. If we oppress one, we oppress all, and the
domination of the Arizona government is a tremendous act against our Latino
brothers and sisters.
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Hello world!
February 8th, 2012 by armandoromero001
Welcome to UMass Boston Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
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