How stereotypes and educational inequality tie into poverty

Defining poverty is far from straightforward. The condition spans a range of complexities, from social problems to the federally determined economic poverty line. However, understanding the basics of poverty, and some of its most pertinent issues, is imperative to making a lasting difference in the lives of America’s poorest.

To summarize, individuals or families are defined as impoverished if their yearly pre-tax income falls below a certain dollar amount identified as the poverty threshold. This threshold — which is recalculated every year — is determined and reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. The poverty threshold serves a variety of purposes, including tracking poverty over time to measure the progress of antipoverty efforts, comparing poverty across different demographics and determining eligibility for federal assistance programs.

Comparing poverty levels across demographics sheds light on how poverty affects various races. Based on a 2015 U.S Census Bureau report, 24.1 percent of people below the poverty threshold are African American and 21.4 percent are Hispanic or Latino.

Concentrated poverty, in which poverty is spatially dense in specific neighborhoods and communities, is a worsening epidemic that dates back decades, and it is intrinsically connected to racial segregation. The first public housing program in the United States began as a part of the New Deal and segregated Black people from White people. The Federal Housing Administration, created in 1934, could have easily prevented segregation by enforcing a nondiscrimination policy. But it didn’t and instead, according to historian Kenneth Jackson, embodied and fueled the “racist tradition of the United States”.

This system of financial apartheid prevented Black people from receiving legitimate bank mortgages, and led to financial predation. In poverty-ridden cities like Baltimore and Chicago, African American buyers resorted to the contract system. Sellers would drive up monstrous rent prices and set financial traps so that they could repossess the home and sell it again if the buyer missed a single payment. This system was unfair, to say the least, and propelled cities such as the ones mentioned into further blight and decline.

That’s how concentrated poverty came about. Currently, poverty among Black and Hispanic communities further propels lower education levels and higher unemployment rates. But more importantly, it ingrains a stereotype about Black people in Black communities as well as the broader American society. In the education system, teachers have been found to hold lower expectations of African American students. And according to a 2013 Association for the Study of Higher Education paper, students of color reported that faculty members were often unwilling to mentor or work with them because of their race. White peers were usually reluctant to share their work with peers of color.

This negative stereotyping has profound effects on not only Black students’ psyche, but also on communities of color. As a result, Black students can easily fall into the societal stereotype of being “lazy” and “troublemakers.” On the other hand, they can take it upon themselves to counter the stereotype and not be “another Black statistic.” These students try to do well in school, study hard and refuse to accept the stereotype that places poor expectations on them.

It’s important for both insiders and outsiders of a community to reject harmful stereotypes about others and to try to recognize each person’s individuality. Kill the idea that people of a certain community need to act a certain way or have a certain level of achievement.

Instead of putting people down for defeating their stereotype, celebrate it. One of the most important implications of doing otherwise is that we leave behind some of the most brilliant and talented individuals because they simply never get a chance.
Written by: Tamanna Ahluwalia — tahluwalia@ucdavis.edu

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As technology advances, a generation of workers is left behind

Technology has the awesome ability to connect me with my friends halfway across the world. I can record every second, every minute of my day and have everyone know about it without expending any effort.

But technology and grandparents are another story. I must’ve taught my grandfather how to use Skype a million times, but he is just never able to grasp  it. He is way ahead of my grandmother, though, who simply refuses to learn and dismisses modern technology as something she will never need.

Today, there’s a whole generation of people nearly as old as my grandparents who are still working but are on the verge of retirement. They grew up without social media, at a time when not every home had a computer. Now, they’re losing their jobs because of the loss of industries that technology has rendered obsolete and this has only caused bitterness among this generation. They consider themselves too old to go back to college, gain new skills or adapt to new technology, but at the same time also too young to retire because they don’t have enough savings for the future.

The decline of the Rust Belt significantly changed the U.S. economy, and some people still haven’t recovered from the transformation. What was once a powerful industrial sector has deteriorated due to increased automation, an overall loss of US coal and steel industries and outsourcing. The internationalization of American businesses, as well as liberal foreign trade policies related to globalization, has only caused further bitterness among people who once held jobs at these factories. While some cities have adapted to new technology, many haven’t — and they suffer from high poverty levels and crime rates, poor education and a weak economy.

The city of Detroit, for example, has undergone a complete change in the past few decades. What was once the center of the world’s automobile industry has now become a landscape of urban decay. The population has decreased 61 percent since 1950. As global competition grew from countries such as China, Germany and Japan, companies were forced to reduce production costs by outsourcing jobs to other countries. In doing so, they could uphold their position in the global market. Slowly, the center of industrial activity moved away from Detroit, along with most of the population, who left to look for jobs elsewhere.

Amid all the noise regarding Trump supporters being racist, misogynistic and xenophobic, we should also be looking deeper at the various issues that have been revealed by this election. Many Trump supporters were victims of the sharp decline in Rust Belt manufacturing and wanted to return to a normal, financially comfortable life. Feelings of discontent start to develop when you see others getting opportunities that you feel you should’ve had, and instead of thinking rationally people search for a scapegoat.

What can we do to fix this issue? Clearly, the jobs that have left aren’t coming back. Progress is inevitable. We might be at the beginning of a new phase in which everything is automated and human labor may not be required at all. As we come up with new technology faster than ever before, even our recently acquired technology may become obsolete. When was the last time you used an email to communicate with friends? Yet a mere two decades ago, emails were revolutionary.

The best option to help those affected by automation is to provide them with adequate social security so that they may retire if they so wish. Otherwise, we must provide pathways for them so that they can seek out a different profession and live fulfilling lives.

But the real focus should be on children who will go on to shape the future. The presiding government should make sure that students can get a well-rounded education so they are able to venture out into new areas that will allow for unique jobs to be created.

Progress waits for nobody, and moving backwards only means that the rest of the world will leave us behind.

Written by: Shohini Maitra — samaitra@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

The future of American education is uncertain under Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education

Senate Democrats voting on Tuesday to prevent Betsy DeVos’ confirmation as Secretary of Education underscored the existential threat American public education would face under who may be President Trump’s most dangerously unqualified nominee.

DeVos’ confirmation hearing — primarily devoted to questioning her positions on K-12 education and her support of voucher systems in which public funds are given to families to help pay for private charter schools — revealed the astonishing lack of knowledge the former Michigan lobbyist would bring to her new job leading the Department of Education.

In one of many notable exchanges, Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, quizzed her on a common question in education circles: whether standardized tests should measure how much students improve over a year (the growth view), or if they should measure to see if students are performing at grade-level (the proficiency view). DeVos embarrassed herself by confusing proficiency for growth. “I’m surprised you don’t know this issue,” Franken said.

But it’s not surprising that DeVos fumbled on a question regarding how to hold schools accountable. A political action committee she helped start in Michigan, The Great Lakes Education Project, has spent millions trying to buy policies that would expand charter schools while exempting them from proper review. The DeVos family gave almost $1.5 million to Michigan GOP lawmakers after they killed a provision that would have held Detroit charters to higher accountability standards.

And her lobbying efforts in Michigan have had little to no bearing on the quality of schools there. Detroit’s charter schools are among the worst in the nation. And the glut of school choice — Detroit has the second-largest share of students in charters in the nation — has not fostered the type of competition that school choice advocates like DeVos say will improve educational quality.

DeVos’ blind commitment to a free-market vision of American education is at odds with reality. Her willful ignorance — blatantly obvious by her efforts to kill even the most basic oversight — amounts to a moral failing that threatens students in public schools everywhere.

As Secretary of Education, DeVos would be responsible for implementing Trump’s plan to help alleviate the student loan crisis millions of Americans face. Though he hasn’t made much information or details publically available, Trump has said he wants to alleviate student loan debt by capping annual payments a person can make at 12.5 percent of their yearly income. Any remaining debt after 15 years would be forgiven.

This is not an inherently bad idea. Countries like Australia and England have similar income-based repayment programs that ensure debtors don’t pay more than they can afford — about three to eight percent of yearly income, with payments ceasing during periods of unemployment. But it’s unclear how such a system would work in the United States, where student loan debt totals close to $1.4 trillion — more than that owed for credit card and auto loans.

Unfortunately, DeVos’ confirmation hearing was irritatingly scant on questions and details of how she might implement such a plan. She incorrectly claimed that student debt had risen almost 1,000 percent since the Great Recession — the true amount was a 118 percent increase — but was otherwise largely left uninterrogated on the issue of student loans.

And questions remain in general as to how DeVos would oversee America’s thousands of colleges and universities. She ominously refused to say whether she’d continue President Obama’s directive to punish schools that breached Title IX by improperly investigating cases of sexual assault. Asked by Senator Bernie Sanders, Democrat of Vermont, what she thought of tuition free college, she demurred, calling the idea an “interesting” one.

Betsy DeVos’ repugnant and breathtaking lack of knowledge of the education system over which she will likely preside does nothing but cast great uncertainty over American public schools. Ensuring that her backwards beliefs in the efficacy of privatized schools do not translate to law will be one of the most significant challenges facing opponents of the Trump administration.

Written by: Eli Flesch — ekflesch@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

Jai Bornstein’s suicide reminds us that trans youth still face severe prejudice in red regions of the nation

This past December, 19-year-old transgender woman and activist Jai Bornstein took her own life. Bornstein, who was from the conservative town of Bakersfield, dedicated her time in both her hometown and British Columbia, where she attended school, to soothing the pain of her community and empowering the vulnerable and downtrodden — even when surrounding social structures seemed uncompromisingly intolerant.

“Growing up was very challenging because Bakersfield is very conservative when it comes to gender roles and what people’s places are in society,” said Em Opperman, a transgender man and marriage and family therapist intern at the Gay and Lesbian Center of Bakersfield, via email. “I remember driving to community college during [the] Prop 8 [campaign], and I was brought to tears by the large numbers of ‘Yes on Prop 8’ sign-holders,” he said, referring to the 2008 proposition that made gay marriage illegal in California.

The blatant and subtle acts of discrimination that trans individuals encounter in conservative towns like Bakersfield are easily forgotten in light of LGBTQ successes blossoming in progressive cities like the San Francisco Bay Area — which many UC Davis students call home — and small towns like Davis.

“In Berkeley, I found a community of diverse LGBTQ people who thought and felt like I did,” recalled Opperman, a UC Berkeley alumnus. “I felt powerful for the first time in my life, like I mattered and could be anyone I wanted to be.”

But the attitudes toward trans people can differ greatly between red and blue counties, leading students in more progressive regions to underestimate the level of persecution that trans and gender non-conforming youths must brave.

“In conservative environments, transgender individuals face greater rates of discrimination because we are seen as ‘other’ or ‘weirdos,’ whereas in more progressive environments, being different and diverse is perceived as a strength,” Opperman said.

Yet even a community as conservative as Bakersfield holds glimmers of hope for transformation. Dozens of residents from churches, schools and the LGBTQ community quickly mobilized to find Bornstein in the pouring rain when she was missing, while over a hundred attended her memorial service.

“Because Jai decided to take her life in a public place, a place where many people go to escape and be around trees and streams, the trauma of the situation became collective, shared by the Bakersfield community,” Opperman said. “Jai’s suicide has increased awareness in our community as to what it means to be transgender and the additional struggles we face due to society not being accepting.”

Bornstein’s GoFundMe page offers evidence of this growing movement toward acceptance. Originally created by the Bornstein family to fund searching costs, the campaign garnered over $10,000 in just two weeks. After covering funeral fees, Bornstein’s family donated the remaining money to three of her favorite charities — Club GEN at the California State University of Bakersfield, CampOUT! at the University of British Columbia and Bakersfield’s AIDS Project & Ricky’s Retreat — to support trans youth in Bakersfield and beyond.

But progress shouldn’t hinge on the loss of a community member; it requires allies in progressive cities to take more active approaches to support LGBTQ individuals in conservative areas as well as ostensibly liberal or progressive ones. For some, that entails protesting, writing to elected officials or voting against the recent influx of ‘bathroom bills.’ For others, that means contributing time or money to an organization, supporting trans artists or simply listening openly and lovingly to gender non-conforming friends.

Change will undoubtedly be uncomfortable because it demands levelheaded confrontation with people of opposing opinions. But running from the problem only leaves behind millions of persecuted individuals who don’t have the resources to escape.

“I would encourage college students who go away to school yet grew up in conservative places to go back to their hometown and educate others,” Opperman advised. “Additionally, people all over California need to be more mindful of the people they’re electing to positions of power, because this will shape what services and rights are protected, especially in conservative communities.”

We need to emphasize that LGBTQ rights aren’t mere political rhetoric, but substantial policies that radically influence the lives and well-being of those around us. When trans individuals are humanized, entire ideological landscapes can be transformed.

Most importantly, we must work to honor Bornstein’s mother’s concluding words at her daughter’s memorial service: “Let love and kindness, compassion and inclusivity be my child’s legacy.”

Written by: Taryn DeOilers — tldeoilers@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.