Ryann Beemsterboer on Andrea Richie's "Invisible No More"

   In her writing "Invisible No More," Andrea Richie successfully captures the disproportionate disadvantage that black women face when it comes to law-enforcement. Through her work with sexual abuse survivors, residency in Chicago, and common access to the news, Richie was able to form a well-informed and socially justified perspective on the topic.

   Her point of view is not hard to back up with facts considering the amount of black women who died at the hands of officers during her time. She discussed cases that she got from the survivors themselves or by word-of-mouth from local people, meaning that she knew or at least lived near the survivors of these crimes. She was fully involved in this topic because she saw happening around her every day. Her first hand view of the police brutality on women of color has surely shaped her opinion in a way that most of us could not imagine.

   Because she realizes that most individuals do not have the background she does, she created an entire book to raise awareness. She does this in hopes to expand and transform the mindsets of those who were previously unaware of this situation occurring every day. She wants to keep black women safe from police violence in their homes, schools, places of work, as well as on the streets. Her ideas of spreading the word to gain support allows for more awareness and help towards the common goal of safety from discrimination in violence for everyone.

   This topic is still relevant today. We see all over social media that a new black individual is killed by a policeman almost daily. It's hardly a shock anymore to hear about a person of color being killed by an on duty officer. According to the HuffingtonPost, 250 black people were killed by police in 2016 in America. Increasing rates of this issue makes it clear that people like Andrea Ritchie, who want to spread the support, are much-needed in our society today.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-people-killed-by-police-america_us_577da633e4b0c590f7e7fb17

What are some issues that disproportionately affect people of your culture?

Daisy Abrego on “Contested Membership Over Time”

In  "Contested Membership over Time”, Robert Gonzalez discusses the struggles of being an undocumented immigrant in the United States. With immigration policies such as DACA, it doesn’t seem enough to help immigrants in need of help.

Many young undocumented immigrants have lived in the US since they were very young. And when DACA and other immigration policies were created to help these youths, this was viewed as an opportunity for many undocumented students to have some legal status. Unfortunately, some individuals cannot obtain any legal status from immigration policies because there was a belief that there “good” and “bad” immigrant. Which I find extremely unfair because these people are too complex to be marked as good or bad because of circumstances.

So if you are pursuing an education, providing for your family, or being a productive member of society then you are a “good” immigrant. While “bad” immigrants are apart of gangs, had a felony on their record, or an overall criminal. Also, what happens if that person has clean up their act and trying to change? While these policies could help so many undocumented students, I feel that this would prompt more problems to rise because this would lead to the idea that some people are deserving of the safety and programs connected to citizenship while denying many things for the ones who is characterized as an “bad” undocumented immigrant.

In an article that I read, while people benefited a lot from DACA, this is not always a permanent solution for all undocumented immigrants. The DACA narratives tended to only highlight model immigrants and with DACA out of the picture, this caused all undocumented immigrants to be categorized in the same group. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/09/07/how-daca-pits-good-immigrants-against-millions-of-others/?utm_term=.0733282eb561

Do you believe that these policies would help immigrants who deserve it or would it only encourage more people to behave a certain way?

Daisy Abrego on “Undocumented Young Adults in Los Angeles”

    In the chapter “College Go-ers and Early Exiters”, Gonzales address the issues of the U.S. immigration system that left many undocumented teens and young adults in Los Angeles at a disadvantage when they try to pursue a higher education.  

The authors start out with the layout of L.A Metropolitan area that makes up more than half of the undocumented immigrants that live in California-- with Mexican descents making up the largest ethnic group. The author, Gonzales, discusses how undocumented teens were facing difficulties due to their immigration status. As they got older, they took on more responsibilities that eventually cause many to drop out of school because of their legal status hinders any opportunities that might come their way. Also, those who were lucky enough to get into college had no guidance from school personnel and lacked help from their families because parents are often forced to work long hours so that they are able to provide for their families.

In addition, undocumented individuals have a lesser chance of finding employment. However, many workers that do manage to secure a job are only able to get jobs that require the most labor for less pay than the even minimum wage. Often many employers take advantage of their situations them knowing that they are undocumented and that they are scared to speak up for their rights. Not only are they required to work hard for long hours, but they are also mistreated and work in dangerous workplaces.

While reading this article, I fully agree with all the points that the author made because many undocumented immigrants that reside in the U.S. do indeed struggle in their everyday lives. Since U.S. President Donald Trump decision to remove Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), this has affected undocumented families and students like taking away DACA. Without the protection of DACA, many youths are not allowed to work legally in this country and have a harder time being at school because they don’t have access to federal financial aid. At the moment, Dreamers are constantly are fighting for their rights that the president is taking away which will make it harder for them to continue their education.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-trumps-daca-decision-affects-colleges-and-students-2017-09-07

Do you believe that these US immigration systems will get worse over time? If yes, why do you think so?

Jennifer Gaytan on "Policing Gender Lines"

In chapter 6: "Policing Gender Lines" of Andrea Ritchie's book, she focuses on the overpricing of women, gender nonconforming people, and people who didn't dress like their assigned sex. She explains that this ideology was based upon what it meant to be a "real woman" in a white supremacist world. A women needed to be white, gender conforming, and upper class to be treated like a "lady."

The fact that she focuses her paper on the over-policing of women and gender non-conforming people is very interesting because when people talk about the over-policing of a group of people, they talk about black men and people of color. However, women and people who don't associate with their assigned sex often get ignored. Ritchie explains that if a person is not dressing or acting like the sex that they are being categorized in. In several stories in the chapter, many people talked about their experience with the police and how they were wrongly arrested for not conforming to the law's thought.

Also, Ritchie talks about the fact that during encounters with police officers, women are often abused. They are either sexually, verbally, or physically abused and harassed. They do this to try and maintain the gender norms already in place because in our society a man is supposed to be more tough and the women is seen as a man's object and very fragile. Therefore, male police officers believe they can do whatever they want to them and it's okay. Not only are women abused, but so are gender non-conforming people. They are often criminalized because they are seen as deviant and not normal.

To apply this into the real world, I read a news article that closely relates to the topic. Anna Chambers, a 19-year-old woman was raped by two NYPD detectives after she was caught smoking marijuana in her car. The two detectives handcuffed her and in the police van asked what she would do so she won't go to jail and that's when they began their attack. They both took turns in abusing her and then she reported it and got a rape kit done to prove it. However, this wasn't the end of the story.

When in the hospital, she was visited by 9 police officers demanding that she doesn't report it and exclaiming that won't be the last time that she would have encounters with the police. The two detectives justify their actions by saying that the sex was consensual and saying that Chambers was posting provocative photos on social media. This news article makes me so uncomfortable because cannot even trust the authorities who are supposed to be there to serve and protect. However, they seem to be doing the opposite and taking advantage of their badge.

Here is the link if you want to read further:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5116565/Woman-tells-nine-NYPD-cops-visited-rape.html

It is important to discuss why this is happening and what we can do to stop this from happening? Why isn't this kind of behavior talked about as much as the police brutality and killings happening to men?

Jennifer Gaytan on "Undocumented Young Adults in Los Angeles: College Goers and Early Exiters"

In the second chapter, the authors are focusing on undocumented students or as they call them "college goers." They explain that when it comes to undocumented immigrants, college is hard, especially when you don't have someone to guide you through it.

I think it is interesting that the authors decided to focus on the experiences of undocumented people's school experience. A lot of the times, they haven't finished high school, and when they do finish high school and decide to go to college it is way harder for them. Many of them do not have parents with experiences of going to school especially not in the United States. Therefore, they need to look for guidance somewhere else.

They explain that because a lot of them decide on not going to college, then they earn "meager" wages. I find this very true for anyone and especially undocumented people. It is definitely hard to have a stable life with a very unstable or low income. With undocumented people, a lot of the times they have family to look out for, so it is even harder for them. I think it was important for the authors to explain this idea.

Gonzalez and Vargas made very good points in this chapter because I think it is an issue going on everyday that affects the way that undocumented people live. I have an undocumented nephew who is currently in his senior year of high school. He has a minimum wage job and of course, can't pay everything he needs to pay with that job. Also, he has decided on not going to college because of the cost and because he thinks school isn't for him. He dislikes it very much that he was going to drop out of high school.

Like my nephew, many young people think that once you're out of school it is easy to make "good" money. They believe that school isn't going to do much for their benefit. However, that is not true. Not only are you being taught math, grammar, and science in school, but we are being taught discipline, determination, and perseverance. My nephew doesn't see that and has decided on not continuing with postsecondary education, and maybe one day he will think back and maybe even regret it.

This is a picture of undocumented students with a sign about wanting to go to college:

It is important to discuss why are these patterns being seen? Why are undocumented people less likely to go to college and if they do, less likely to graduate? What can we do to change this? 

Giulia Oros on "Contested Membership over Time"

In the chapter titled, "Contested Membership over Time," Roberto Gonzales explains the obstacles undocumented immigrants in the United States face in modern times. He discusses how immigration policies like DACA do not meet the needs of many of whom these policies are made for.

Undocumented immigrants include adults as well as children who have lived as long as they can remember in the United States. However, some cannot obtain legal status from immigration policies because of the differentiation between a good and bad immigrant. Some immigrants were a part of gangs or had a felony on their record, but their criminal history was in the past and since then they could have changed their ways. They might have been on a gang list in their teens, but now they could have put the past behind them and now have a family to take care of. The author is critical of this distinction between “felons” vs. “families” and I share a similar opinion. People are too complex to be categorized into ‘good’ or ‘bad’ because life circumstances change. So does that mean immigration policies fail to acknowledge that humans are variable and can turn their lives around for the better or worse. Does that mean that these immigration policies are a failure to the government? The policies could help out those who are accepted as “deserving” of legal status, but even then problems arise. Even if someone is deemed as deserving of legal status, it might come too late for them to build a career, like in Esperanza’s story. Although I admired Obama during his presidency, I feel like the author was not all that glad when he talked about the immigration policies.

The issue at hand is comparable to universities and how they select their future students. Just like certain immigrants are granted legal status in the United States, certain applicants are granted acceptance into a university. Just like when we applied to UIC, they checked at our background, our record, and high school GPA. A university selects the 'good' students and not the 'bad' students, essentially giving acceptance/membership to those deemed deserving of acceptance of the college education. If all universities failed to accept a straight A student  into their school because of a failed class in their freshman year of high school, they would be putting this person in the 'bad' category simply because of one thing done in the past. When an immigrant applies for legal status, the immigration policies ideally should recognize the person for who she/he is and not was.

How can immigration policies recognize who would be deserving of legal status without categorizing immigrants as good and bad?

Brenda Barrientos on "Undocumented and Coming of Age in America"

In " Undocumented and Coming of Age in America," Gonzalez and Varga have expressed their frustrations with The United States poor handling of immigration, framed in a dichotomy of "good" vs. "bad" immigrants that have not only prevented undocumented immigrants from fully becoming a part of the nation, but have also prevented the children they'd brought with them from receiving their promised chance at success. It is in their interactions with the 1.5 generation that Gonzalez and Vargas observe how these distinctions have created difficulties in transitioning into adulthood for illegal immigrants who’ve lived in the US since childhood.

The dichotomy of "good" and "bad" have stretched beyond adulthood for the 1.5 generation: the beginning of a process of exclusion starts as soon as elementary school. Though the Plyer decision allowed immigrant children at least a guaranteed a K-12 education, the authors note, they are not given any means to acquire citizenship or legal guarantee to a college education, both of which are essential keys to participating in and being protected by a system that would sooner deport them than accept them, based on shallow restrictions upon their actions if they're deemed"bad" immigrants.

The result of these restrictions leave them in what the authors call a "liminal stage," their name for how in-between many of the 1.5 generation are: between being social accepted as members of their communities, but legal outsiders according to the law. It is in this division of self, the authors claim, that creates a frustrating division of identities that provides no help to their futures: where their legally born cousins are promised jobs with the acquisition of a college degree, often the former cannot even begin to apply to colleges because of either home situations or financial difficulties from an inability to even obtain well-paying jobs. Their illegality, its noted, prevents them from becoming full-functioning adults in American society, and worsens their quality of life to dire straits. 

From their experiences with undocumented youth and research into the lives and conditions with them, I have to agree that this is another unfair and complicated situation that earns both righteous indignation and sympathy. The frustrations with American immigration policies and its education system aside, there's still hope yet that the fight for the right to legal citizenship and equal opportunity will continue. What's necessary is a change in policies, and Adriana Gonzalez is doing just that, joining others in a hunger strike to raise support for changes to DACA. 

 If given the opportunity, we should be able to discuss the other possible structural reforms  to give undocumented young immigrants a chance to pave their way upwards into the higher echelons of the American workforce and society, as proper citizens rather than aliens with little protections from the system.