My mother, circled in yellow, and her police academy class ('97)
|
Over 20 years ago my mom decided she wanted to become a police officer in her home city of Detroit, Michigan. My mom studied, trained and became the top female in her police academy class. Once graduated, she sent in her application, but after a few months she heard nothing. As almost a year goes by and after multiple excuses from the police department she starts to ask around if others had experienced the same treatment. After multiple people came forward, an investigation was launched. A few months later, investigators find a file of applications under the subfloor of a drained pool in an abandoned YMCA. On the file read the acronym N.W.E., Negros With Education. My mother faced a level of racial discrimination when applying to the force. They put her in the file based on her name because it sounded black. The Police department did this because they didn’t want any black person with a college education to be in the police department. That way the majority white police could stay in power and get away with more in predominantly black city, Detroit. It was a system put in place that helped aid in the discrimination in the police department. A system that started to break when a file was found in an abandoned YMCA.
|
India's Caste System |
|
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/7/8/137881256/published/gandhi-harijan-work-at-madras.jpeg?1622830270)
India's caste goes all the way back to their ancient roots. The overarching idea of the caste system has changed leader to leader. It was especially used by Mughal Empire and the British Raj. After the collapse of the Mughal empire powerful men rose to power to make the regal and martial forms of the caste system. It reshaped many casteless social groups. Almost a decade later the British Raj combined the mungual caste with their own governing system. The british Raj only granted jobs of power to christians and those of a certain caste level. Years later in the 1920s due to social tension this policy was overturned. After colonial british started “positive discrimination” by reserving a small percentage of the government jobs to the lower caste systems. By 1948 “negative discrimination” was outlawed. The caste system in India is still being used in parts of India, even today. Unlike with my mother, India's caste system isn’t completely based on race. It is based on social class and religion. What you are born into completely controls how successful you would be in life. When the British Raj was in control they used this system to stay in power. Essentially only allowing those who they believed would never cross them let have influential and be in the government. This helped keep Britain in power for a long time. It made citizens in India that someone was truly born better than someone else.