Joseph Magbagbeola

The data shown in the table above explains Prostate Cancer Hospitalization rate in specific different ethnic backgrounds the state of Massachusetts.  The ethnic groups are Whites only, Blacks only and Asians only. The geographic locations that explain this data include Town of Ware, Town of Taunton and Massachusetts as a whole. The Health disparity examined in this table is Prostate Cancer focusing on the hospitalization percentage across the state.

In examining patters, the results were not contrary to what I expected. As always, White is the dominating ethnic group of all races in the United States. In the town of Ware, the results show no rates of hospitalization for Asians and Blacks. This is because there is little to no diversity in this town. White is known to be the central race in these geographic locations, hence why Taunton, Ware and Massachusetts as whole appears to be the ones with the most with data

Asians are very selective about where they reside, thus explaining why we are shown zero rates in hospitalization in Ware. In all my 6 years of residing in this country, I’ve moved around enough and I have experience a great deal of diversity int owns like Ware in comparison to the Asian ethnic group and where they would rather live. I’ve noticed many Asian likes convince and are more widespread in cities with lots of ATMS, Restaurants, fast and easy access to public transportation, schools etc. Like Ware, Asians have also, zero hospitalization in Taunton. This helps to fully comprehend that Asians are very particular about where they live again. To make sense of these stated patterns about Asians despite the amount of Asians that we have living in Massachusetts, we are only able to prove their hospitalization rates up to 9.6. This isn’t because Asians reside in these geographical locations of the State and they do not fall sick, but because there aren’t Asians living in these parts of the States and so therefore it would not be pertinent to have hospitalization rates for Asians in Taunton and Ware.

The same logistic goes for Blacks.  African Americans are known to have a high preference for living in urbanized geographical locations. Whether it is a decision to perhaps prevent profiling or the act of feeling belonged. As stated in the chart, Taunton yielded no data for prostate cancer hospitalizations for African American demographic. Ware is completely indistinguishable to this notion as it appears to stress zero tolerance for any other demographic other than the White ethnic group. Of course no one/law is desisting Negros from residing in Ware but from a personal perspective, I wouldn’t live in Ware because I as Black male would not feel belonged.  I would be limited in access to personal choices of interests – such as ; barbershops, preferred nourishments etc. So with all being said, this explains why some of the reasons why we have zero hospitalization rates for African Americans in the town of Taunton. Negros will not be found hospitalized in this community because there aren’t any available. They don’t live there, so there is absolutely no reason to have them hospitalized in Ware as all the major medical facilities are within the metro Boston area.

In conclusion, I think race as the underlying factor that explains these findings. People chose where to live based on the their personal interest and career related motives. If some towns are isolated from everywhere else then there is no need for me to live there. I’ll benefit nothing fromit.

Source: MassCHIP, Department of Public Health. Found at: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/researcher/community-health/masschip/topics/prostate-cancer.html

White Privilege is a special unearned advantage of white people; with references to social relations and also a possession of an advantage white people enjoy over non-whites. The results from the interviews I conducted in identifying the role of white privilege in my social network didn’t seem much of a surprise at all except for one. His perspectives of the term seemed somewhat complex and differ from the others.

I will refer to my interviewees by their preferred nicknames to deter confusions in assimilating this work. The first interviewee is my roommate – Yems, He is a Bentley University graduate who I’ve known for over eight years. The second interviewee is an international student from Nigeria, D-Nice. She is an Undergraduate student at Harvard University. The third individual is one of my nightlife buddies – Teddy B. He is a College dropout. Lastly, the forth interviewee is Selah, from Bronx-New York. She is an undergraduate student at Mt. Holyoke College in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Juxtaposing the interviewee’s perspectives and personal experiences on white privilege, it appears to be a very sensitive topic to Selah – who classifies the term as “other-side of racism”, while Yems, view it as a “coincidental factor”. Teddy B and D-Nice seemed to be very defenseless with their responses. Both of their answers have the same concept. Selah and Yems seem to have been the highlight of my interview out of the four. Their take on this topic seemed very steamy to the core. Though the two have very little in common, but the fact that white privilege does exist remains the center conflict of this work.

Selah elaborates on her take on white privilege being the “other side of racism” where she further explains the implication it poses on the people of color that:

“What makes me most angry about white privilege is that white people don’t even realize they have it. While they are at an advantage, they are putting others (non whites/people of color) at a disadvantage. Their ignorance to their own whiteness is beyond me. They believe (of course not all white people) they got where they are because of their own merit. There are other “invisible ” factors that helps elevate them, white privilege is the form in which racism is still able to live in this country”.

In Selah’s argument, we are able to see that white privilege is a big deal that calls for eradication in our society. It stands as a form of racial oppression that is still dominant under the minorities’ racial umbrella. Selah’s argument in contrast to Yems are two completely different wrangles. Yems believes that White privilege is a “coincidental factor”. He further elaborates on his take on this matter stating that;

We/black people get in our own way. We need to have better work ethic, we need rely less on the government for support as a result of bad decision-making and lastly, though there is white privilege – we shouldn’t use it as an excuse not to strive for the or forget the fact that, us black people have our own privileges too.

Yems feels as though white privilege is real, unlike Selah – he believes it cannot be eradicated; “You can’t get rid of it, we can only minimize it to our benefit. It will always be around”. He believes that people of color could achieve what we want to achieve if our mind is set to it. “we have a black president dammit, If we drop down the crime ratio, increase our high school graduate percentile as well as higher institutions, then road to minimizing is just a step closer. “no one is going to do it for us, we have to do it by ourselves. What Yems is implying is that, laziness is associated with many color people when it comes to decision making.

I asked Selah if white privilege has impacted the way she is treated in her community. Her response was very swift and concise;

white privilege doesn’t have anything but a negative effect on me in my home community. Being from the south Bronx in terms of police protection, I feel like if I lived in a white community, police officers wouldn’t be roaming around my neighborhood as much. White people have the privilege of feeling safe around police, while I feel like I’m being watched over. Schools resemble prisons…

The same question was asked to Yems, his response reads: “we emphasize too much about white privilege, hard work got me where i am today, there are privileges that are available to blacks as well”

In conclusion, whether we acknowledge it or ignore it, it will always be around. In my findings, I realized that, though some people may perceive the term as they wish due to their point of view; the fact of the matter is that, it does exist in our community – posing as a form of institutionalized oppression that appears to be beyond our control.

References:

Selah : Mt. Holyoke College –  Holyoke, MA

Yems: Bentley University – Waltham, MA

D-Nice: Harvard Univesity – Cambridge, ma

Teddy B: Boston, MA

Social Structures

For decades, majority of African Americans have been victimized and oppressed in the Capital Punishment sector. Alleged African American suspects have been oppressed in such a barbaric and depressing manner to the extent that most of these folks are executed without a physical or solid evidence of proof. The death penalty does not affirm the sacredness of human life; it promotes only violence but spiritual healing and well being of victims. For any crime that is so horrific or calls for a sentenced to death row, I think a majority of people would agree that someone should be punished and logically that person should be an identified suspect.

For instance, the state of Georgia refused to grant clemency and executed Troy Davis on September 21^st 2011.  Davis was convicted of shooting and killing an on-duty officer; Mark MacPhail in 1989, leaving behind a wife and two young children. What is baffling about Davis’ case is not the horror of his punishment but the lack of evidence supporting his conviction. In 1991, a unanimous jury found Davis guilty of the murder and sentenced him to death. The primary evidence presented by the prosecution against Davis was the testimony of nine non-police eyewitnesses who claimed that they saw Davis shoot cop. In the last 20 years, seven of these nine came forward and with written sworn affidavits saying that police pressured them to name Davis as the shooter. Despite the horrendous agony of loss constituted upon the family of MacPhail, I feel like a scapegoat was used for retribution. What happened to the Fifth Amendment that guarantees due process for all citizens? – or “Innocent until proven guilty?”.

I view Davis’ execution as a form of oppression, discrimination that undermines the fundamental value that courts punish the guilty and protect the innocent. If we cannot produce evidence(s), then there should be no execution. This case often reminds me of that of Casey Anthony’s. Anthony – by all means killed her daughter but was found “not guilty”, how did she manage to pull it off, is it because of her defenses such as “ugly copping”, falsified information given to the police during criminal investigation or is the fact that her story changed many times without numbers? or able to be appointed a well qualified attorney because of white privilege? or simply because she was white?

It all gives me goose-bumps at the end of the day, how the black communities are oppressed and probabilities of winning cases in the judicial system is extremely low to the core. In Davis’ case, we see an utter failure on the part of every government entity responsible for putting him on death row. There should be no mistake to cause a potentially not guilty man to face lethal injection. This happens every time and it really breaks my heart. Any minority could be a victim of such act, especially me. I can’t handle pressure. I’ll probably be one of the vulnerable entities who police are more likely to beat a confession out of, just so I can be left alone. I don’t wish for the circumstance but every single step from the original arrest to the impending execution speaks to systematic oppression. The likelihood of Davis committing the crime is low, but as the cases of too many black men end in execution, we lose legitimate faith in the practice of conviction or the process that leads to it.

In conclusion, till death, Troy Davis did not confess despite the probability of getting life (had he committed the crime) – instead, he resisted in confessing what he didn’t do. He held on tight to his dignity and the sovereignty left in his command. Davis’ refusal to admit guilt struck for a public protest to get the oppressors attention and stress that, lethal execution without proper evidence is irrational. Our social structures system is still bias and this only makes a vast majority of the African Americans more vulnerable to oppression and cruel ways of prosecution like capital punishment.

SOURCES:

CNN.COM, “Public Discomfort leads to plunge in death sentences

http://topics.cnn.com/topics/troy_davis ,

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP.ORG) – Help Save Troy Davis. http://www.naacp.org/campaign/davis?source=bsdads_googlegrant_news_TroyDavis&gclid=CLeq57Kwoq4CFWYTNAod-mQJPQ .

LOS ANGELES TIME – Troy Davis’ death shines light on Rick Perry’s execution record.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/22/news/la-pn-davis-death-perry-20110922 .

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2011/08/chinese-workers-excised-out-of-amcs.html

This is a very sad story to read (link up above), what is even more upsetting is that – they weren’t even invited to the Promontory Summit to at least show dignity and pay the respect to where its due. Hollywood have in-fact made a prejudicial decision in releasing the premier without any acknowledgement of the workers “who worked and bust their asses off and died for the construction of this railroad”. Hell on Wheels, having read this blog isn’t the same in my eyes any more.

You all should have seen my face  - especially when Gayton was giving his sweet-nothings’ speech. smh

Joe -

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