Racism at Emory?

Students marched in protest against Dr. Wagner on Friday.

         We may not want to admit it, but we still live in a country where racist terms are part of some people's everyday vocabulary. Will this ever come to a complete end? Probably not for a while. "Racial wounds" are being "opened" at the highly renowned university, Emory, in Atlanta, Georgia. Yesterday, the New York Times published an article about the President of Emory, James W. Wagner, and a column he wrote for the current issue of the university magazine. In the column, Wagner, "praised the 1787 three-fifths compromise, which allowed each slave to be counted as three-fifths of a person in determining how much Congressional power the Southern states would have, as an example of how polarized people could find common ground." This is not a first time event that Emory has been noted to target different minority groups at the University. In September, Emory announced "sweeping cuts." Some say these budget changes also target programs popular to racial minorities. Minorities at Emory make up 31 percent of its student body.
          John Emory, for which the school is named, was a Methodist bishop who owned slaves 177 years ago. Generations later, many of Emory's leaders favored a segregated school system, but in 1962 the school decided to sue the state of Georgia in order to allow the enrollment of African American students. Despite the fact that Emory took action to enroll a more diverse student population, Emory continues to demonstrate conflicting sides of its personality, such as the flying of a Confederate flag outside of a fraternity. On the other hand, the University is also home to many African-American artifacts and literature including "what is thought to be the nation's most complete database documenting American slave trade routes." Although Wagner has "reopened the wound," he did apologize for his clumsiness and insensitivity.  Our generation has grown up in a time when we have to learn what is and is not right to say about other people. Will there ever be a time when it is just natural to accept?

Responsibility Abroad

        The 100th self-immolation in China-occupied Tibet which took place on February 3 was reported last Wednesday. Lobsang Namgyal died on scene after setting himself on fire and the International Campaign for Tibet reported that he "called for the long life of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans." The Tibetans' self-immulations are a protest against China. The Tibetan's "vast homeland came under Communist rule after Chinese troops occupied central Tibet in 1951." Out of these 100 self-immolations in Tibet at least 82 people have died.
        In America, we are pre-occupied with peace, gun-control, racism to name a few. I ask, can we have peace at home and be at peace with ourselves if there is no peace abroad? When our international community cries out for help, such as these Tibetans who suffer under their occupation of China's harsh government, what responsibility do we have as Americans- for ourselves and for our country - to help? How does our government decide which countries to help and which to watch as mere bystanders?
        Is it appropriate for countries like the United States to step in and help our international community in times like these or do we leave it to China to take care of "their" people? I will leave you with a heart-breaking picture from the New York Times 2012: The Year in Pictures. Jampa Yeshia was a Tibetan exile who "set himself on fire at a rally in New Delhi to protest the impending visit to India by China's president, Hu Jintao."

A Majority of Latinos

"Students after school in Glen Avon, east of Los Angeles.
Latinos now make up more than two-thirds of many cities
in that region."

          California's majority population is now Latino. Reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao about a Dominican-American boy's life between New Jersey and Santo Domingo, is not the only reason I chose to write about the gains Latinos are making in the United States. Only a generation ago, "California voters approved a ballot initiative that was seen as the most anti-immigrant law in the nation. Immigrants who had come to the country illegally would be ineligible to receive prenatal care, and their children would be barred from public schools." Yes, that's America for you, a great melting pot, accepting of ALL backgrounds, races, and languages. The law was later deemed unconstitutional and never achieved its true goal of its "backers": to push immigrants out and keep the demographics at a steady white majority.
           So now, the numbers just keep rising. Immigrants, mostly from Latin America, are pouring in awaiting their American Dream. The current and future estimations of demographics in California truly show what kind of country America is: accepting.
         
           In 1990, Latinos made up 30 percent of the state's population; they will make
           up 40 percent -- more than any other ethnic group -- by the end of this year, 
           and 48 percent by 2050, according to projections made by the state this month.

           Accepting. Is our melting pot accepting? We see many immigrants come in to make up extremely diverse demographics, but I don't think we are quite there yet. Our own Chicago remains the most segregated city. We don't mix in the melting pot. The course for the Chicago marathon takes you through many of Chicago's different ethnic neighborhoods, each one unique with lanquage, script, scents, sounds, colors, costumes of diverse parts of the world. The effort needs to come from both sides - it takes at least two to mix up the melting pot.

Could it be Fukú?

A driver digs out her car in Portland, Maine.

        Many East Coasters are suffering through the daunting two to three feet of snow that fell in the past few days. In fact, the storm was a result of the collision of two weather systems, affecting more than 40 million people! More than 300,000 people still remain without power, mostly in Massachusetts. Federal aid helped people in local towns of Connecticut after President Obama declared it a State of Emergency. And to think that I thought we got a lot of snow here in Chicago!
         Natural disasters. First Hurricane Sandy, now Snowstorm Nemo. When natural distasters appear such as Sandy and Nemo, now I can not help but think of fukú. Junot Diaz offers a unique way of looking at why events happened in history in his book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. What is fukú? It is a curse. Many families try to stay as far away from it as possible, but sometimes it is inescapable. It was said to be "carried in with the screams of the enslaved" (1). Fukú is also often described as being related to disasters whether privately, locally, or nationally. In the point of view of Yunior, the narrator of Oscar Wao, would people say that is it fukú creating Sandy and Nemo? What have we done to deserve this type of fukú? Could it be as big as destroying our environment one gas tank at a time or as little as disobeying a teacher? Can fukú somehow be related to karma? After all, what goes around comes around.

"Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions"

        It has taken over one year for Richard Fee's story of abusing prescription drugs for ADHD to surface in national news, The New York Times. Growing up in Virginia Beach, Fee was never diagnosed, nor did he show any symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. It started in college when he could easily access Adderall, the ADHD drug, to focus and really zone in to study for tests and write papers through the night. Adderall can go for $5 to $10 per pill on college campuses. Richard Fee's parents first found out he was using prescription drugs for his 'disorder' because it showed up on his mother's insurance plan. He committed suicide, hanging himself in his closet, years later. His death is attributed his addiction to the ADHD drug.
        It is frighteningly easy to obtain a prescription for Adderall from doctors. In some cases, a patient can meet with a doctor two times for under five minutes and be diagnosed for ADHD. A prescription for a drug to enhance focus follows. Doctors frequently "skip established diagnostic procedures, renew prescriptions reflexively and spend too little time with patients to accurately monitor side effects." Is it the doctor's fault for not taking proper procedures leading to Richard Fee's suicide? His father begged his doctor not to prescribe him any more drugs, "You keep giving Adderall to my son, you're going to kill him." Richard Fee became "violently delusional" and spent a week in a psychiatric hospital. It was there, believe it or not, that he received prescriptions for 90 more days of Adderall! Two weeks after they expired, he was found in his closet.

        Richard Fee's experience included it all. Conversations with friends and 
        family members and a review of detailed medical records depict an
        intelligent and articulate young man lying to doctor after doctor, 
        physicians issuing hasty diagnoses, and psychiatrists continuing to 
        prescribe medication -- even increasing dosages -- despite evidence of 
        his growing addiction and psychiatric breakdown.

     
        Fee's sad story is not new news. In fact, abuse of ADHD drugs have become prevalent not only on college campuses but in high schools across the country as well. High schoolers, especially in affluent areas, find that taking the drugs will give them an edge for college standardized tests and help them focus to achieve the GPA that is expected of them. Last June, right around the time of finals, SATs and ACTs, the New York Times printed an article about the use and abuse of amphetamines and other focus drugs in high schools.
        It's not hard for kids in these well-to-do areas to get their hands on these drugs - they have the money, the support, and the skills to convince parents and doctors of their supposed needs. It is not unheard of to imagine that similar happenings go on right here at New Trier. Do people realize that "prescription stimulants like Adderall and Vyvanse (amphetamines) and Ritalin and Focalin (methylphenidates) are Class 2 controlled substances - the same as cocaine and morphine - because they rank among the most addictive substances that have a medical use"?

More Hit in Bangladesh

         In December, I reflected upon the tragic story of what happened in Bangladesh at the Tazreen Fashions factory. 112 workers died in a fire in the midst of making clothing for American companies. Nothing has changed. Nothing has been changed to make safer factory environments for workers. No preventative actions have been taken to improve factory conditions and fire hazards in them that see, pervasive.  Nothing has been changed to prohibit teenagers as young as 14 to work in factories.
        Devastatingly, an almost exact parallel to the Tazreen factory tragedy happened in Dhaka, Bangladesh at the Smart Export Garments factory.  Seven women were killed and many were left with injuries from an unnecessary fire as the New York Times reported. And again, big name clothing companies such as Inditex, makers of the well-known Spanish brand Zara, claim they were unaware of their associations with these Bangladeshi companies because "the actual receivers of purchase orders have given the work orders to Smart Export Garment in a sneaky way without informing the buyer." This, in itself, seems unbelievable! Isn't it the responsibility of the distributor to know where their clothing is being made? Is it possible to put an end to this?    
        As consumers, we need to take some of the responsibility for these unacceptable practices and conditions. With this information, should we still be going to buy brands that we know are overseen by irresponsible companies? The question is, how can we know where everything that we buy is made? Do we need to footprint everything we buy before each purchase? If the label says 'made in Bangladesh', do we assume it's made under poor working conditions? Global brands have promised us consumers "that clothes are manufactured in safe factories that are inspected through regular audits." Yet, again, the Bangladesh factory offers another horrifying example of "loopholes" in the system.
        As we discussed in class, often business gets done by a string of contractors and sub-contractors. In this way, making clothes doesn't differ much from constructing a railroad. The general contractor or distributor is at the top, who in turn hires sub-contractors, who hire their own labor and so on. This implies that often people on the top may not even know who is actually getting the job done. This is what goes on with clothing manufacturing: "the factory was filling many orders on subcontracts with other suppliers for clothing brands." Can industries be regulated by international governments to try to prevent unsafe and life threatening working conditions? How can we put pressure on big chain stores such as Walmart and Sears to have more scrutiny over brands they purchase and support? The sad fact is, I'm not sure that people really care about where their clothes come from.