Hannah Carreon's Blog

  The Criminal Justice System, Racial Disparities, & Intersectionality After reading and listening to this week’s material, I mainly felt called to action. While topics such as the criminal justice system and intersectionality can be heavy, they also give a strong sense of urgency for change. I did feel helpless in the sense that this is a big issue that I alone cannot solve, but that soon turned into inspiration for a better future.  I had a decent understanding of the prison system before we started the topic in class, however, I am much more knowledgeable about it now. I knew that people of color, specifically Blacks, are much more likely to be thrown in jail or prison for longer sentences than Whites would be. Most of my knowledge concerning the inequality of the criminal justice system came from the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the past couple of years. In contrast to this, my parents are very conservative, so I have had lots of different opinion...

  Educational Inequality and Affirmative Action Education inequality is directly related to white privilege. Due to white privilege, Whites typically live in better neighborhoods and have access to better schools. Berlatsky (2019) explains how White parents can afford to pay for test preparation, move to wealthier districts, and push for their children to be in honors classes. Because of white privilege, Whites have many more benefits in the education system. Berlatsky (2019) writes that Whites “can quietly use [their] money and education to leverage structural inequality in [their] favor” (para. 15). People of color are at a disadvantage in the education system, as they usually cannot afford many of the resources that Whites can; people of color also do not typically have the status that Whites do.  Affirmative action was put in place to make education and jobs “equal” and diverse. Typically in work environments, White applicants are chosen over equally qualified people of co...

  Colorism Colorism and racism go hand-in-hand, especially in the media. Because of internalized racism, we often believe that White culture is superior. This directly plays into colorism, as many people of color try to appear whiter. The media has supported this belief by constantly praising light toned skin and playing into harmful stereotypes. Dark skinned actors are often pushed aside for lighter skinned actors. An example, even though she never accepted the role, is Amandla Stenberg in Black Panther . Amandla recognized that dark skin actors are rarely on screen and declined her part in the movie to allow for more dark skinned representation in the film world (Staff, 2018). Similarly, Zoe Saldana, an actress with lighter skin, was cast to play Nina Simone, a dark skinned African American. Another example would be Halle Berry cast to play a Kenyan with dark skin in X-Men . There are many different ways that we learn to endorse colorism. While colorism is endorsed across gende...

  Representation & Stereotypes Positive representation of racial groups is incredibly important for youth; positive representation allows youth to envision themselves in a positive light. With positive representation comes self confidence and boosted self-esteem (Nagayama-Hall, 2018). One of the only things that comes to mind about positive representation of a Latina woman like myself, is that of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC. Seeing her as a respectable political figure has been extremely empowering. It’s almost infuriating to think about the lack of representation I’ve experienced throughout my life, however, it is exciting to begin to see more people in positions of power that look similar to me. Seeing representation of your racial-ethnic group in a stereotyped manner is degrading. Because mass media is consumed by most of the population, it has a real effect on how people are treated. People who do not have many personal experiences with these groups grow t...