Last Monday I experienced my first real moment when I knew that I was helping an IHAD student with more than just their homework. I know, the semester was almost over, and maybe it sounds bad that I only had one, but I don't know if the average person gets to see the impact of their volunteering actions very often, so this was a big deal for me. I'd just finished up with working on the FOIL method- first, outside, inside, last- god I hate math with a 7th grade girl. Normally this is the point when I start small talk for a few minutes before they say, "Thank you for your help today" and either go upstairs to play games or start on their way home. Instead, the girl asked me, "You go to college right?" I told her I did, that I went to UNC Asheville that was just a few minutes down the road. She mulled that information over and then leaned in closer like she had a deep dark confession to make.

She all-but whispered to me that she felt bad because she didn't really want to go to college. She said all of her IHAD friends wanted to, and she knew she was supposed to want to since that was the point of all of the tutoring she'd had. I have to admit, this threw me for a loop. Why would she not want to go to college? It would be free, she would make her parents proud, and she'd probably be way more financially successful in the future. Being careful to keep my face blank, I asked her why she didn't want to go to college.

"It's dumb, " she told me, "but I would rather be a fashion designer." She went on to tell me her mother and her always bonded over making her clothes together, and though she never felt happy taking tests or memorizing facts, she loved every minute of designing and making clothes.

"Then that's what you should do," I told her. And for the first time, I realize how true that is. Just because the traditional college route is available to her doesn't mean that college is her best option. Yes, when i think of success I measure it in how much money a person makes, the stability in their life, and whether they have a family and a home. However, maybe I can use that measurement for my life, but I can't apply that standard to everyone when determining success. I found a college major I loved, and am pursuing a career that pays well and is so enjoyable that it could not be any more perfect for me. Perhaps not everyone would feel that way about working for a marketing firm, but I'm excited. It just so happens that the career I've always wanted to do involved attending college.

We talked for a while about the fact that several schools do offer fashion design courses, and even majors, but I emphasized the fact that college is not a necessary factor for a happy life. I assured her she shouldn't feel guilty for being in IHAD with no plans for college. IHAD's mission is to motivate and empower children from low-income communities to reach their education and career goals by providing a long-term program of mentoring, tutoring and enrichment and tuition assistance for higher education.

If her goals and dreams don't involve college, that's fine. IHAD just gives her the opportunities she needs to find out what she wants to do. Support from her community, IHAD volunteers, parents and teachers should all be working together to make sure she knows her dreams are valid, and it is not a waste of anyone's time to help her achieve those dreams. In fact, she has been done an injustice if no one in her community or school ever told her that her dream was worthwhile. Schools and afterschool programs could look for ways to integrate creative learning and offer alternative courses so that they can give her many opportunities to achieve her dream. Facts and numbers for standardized tests aren't what are going to make all children feel successful and happy.

Our conversation was my best IHAD volunteer moment. I felt like an actual role model, not because I was a college student, but because I was a person who had gone through her age and the insecurities that go with it, was young enough to remember, and was able to reassure her that she should keep doing things she should enjoy. When our conversation was over she was smiling again and looked extremely relieved. She could open up to me and trusted what I had to tell her. That was the first time in quite a while I've felt like I was needed and helpful when I volunteered.

Our conversation wasn't only filled with new ideas for her. It helped me realize that I have some inbred stereotypes I didn't even know about telling me what constitutes "success" and what avenues one should take to get there. It took reassuring a middle schooler that her dream was just as important as any doctor's, and not a waste of anyone's time, before I, a 22-year-old could come to that same realization myself.

It might have taken me a while, but this semester's IHAD volunteering has opened me up to new ideas on education, success, race and class. I was not only impacted, but hopefully impacted the lives of others as well. My IHAD volunteering and class discussions have been, for me, the true definition of success.

Hurricane Katrina seemed to awake America to the relationship between climate change and social justice. Katrina, fueled by the warm Gulf, devastated mainly black and low-income populations that couldn't avoid harm's way. It should be understood that environmental justice crises are happening across the world in developing countries, with much more extreme effects than in poorer areas of the US, but for the sake of this class, I am sticking specifically to environmental justice as it pertains to the US.

Here in Asheville, we rarely have hurricanes, but climate change will still negatively impact low-income and minority populations disproportionately. We are not exempt from the "climate justice" issue. In the South, climate change is expected to bring us more extreme summer heat waves and winter floods. Human health implications include heat-related illness and mortality, mold-triggered respiratory ailments and possibly increased West Nile virus. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, hotter temperatures likely will increase urban smog levels and rural wildfires, triggering asthma attacks in those areas. Low-income and minority populations will bear the brunt of those human health consequences, mainly because they tend to have limited access to health insurance. The video below shows how Camden, NJ residents are affected by the pollution caused by neighboring cities, a case study of a phenomena that is happening in poorer and minority areas all around our country.

Heat waves are of particular concern to low-income and minority residents, who tend to lack air-conditioning, live in higher crime areas (where doors and windows remain closed for security reasons, cutting air circulation) and congregate in highly urbanized neighborhoods (where temperatures usually exceed surrounding areas because of the "urban heat island" effect). One study by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation showed that under extreme heat wave situations black populations were twice as likely as white populations to die from the heat wave.

But at least summer heat waves are predictable. Floods and wildfires are not. Unfortunately, low-income populations are less mobile, often lack access to warning systems (like the Internet) or don't understand English warnings, making them more susceptible to catastrophe. Low-income populations also tend to lack adequate property or homeowners insurance, making wildfire and flood damage that much more devastating. As proved in Katrina, poor communities don't have the resources necessary to bounce back from natural disasters.

Another environmental issue affecting poorer citizens is climate change. It could cause price increases for various necessities. In the summer, shrinking water supply combined with higher water demand (residential and agricultural) could increase summer water rates. Electricity rates could go up, as we are highly dependent on hydropower for electricity. Food prices could increase as irrigation costs rise and farms suffer global warming-induced drought, wildfire and pest damage. All those scenarios will have a disproportionate impact on low-income populations.

The ironic part about climate justice is this: Low-income populations are hit the hardest by climate change, yet they contribute the least to climate change on a per-capita basis. Lower-income populations generally have smaller carbon footprints than higher-income populations as they (usually) buy fewer goods, own smaller homes and drive and fly fewer miles. A recent Congressional Black Caucus Foundation study showed that black populations nationwide contributed about 20 percent less in carbon-dioxide emissions per-capita than white populations. How has this escaped the public's notice? I watch and read the news regularly and haven't heard of even one story that suggested issues like environmental justice were on the media's agenda as issues that needed salience.

The problem for this issue, as well as every single other issue I've blogged about this semester, is that there is no easy fix. Added onto that, there isn't even a feasible solution for anytime in the near future. There are articles galore on how wrong it is that minorities and poor are suffering from higher pollution and toxicity levels than the more well-off citizens, but nobody seems to be able to come up with a working solution. The best plan I could find is called the Plan EJ 2012, and is recommended by the United State's Environmental Protection Agency. A verrrry long summary of their plan can be found here http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/policy/plan-ej-2014/plan-ej-overview.pdf.

Again, plans like this are not likely to take any serious root or effect without funding and support by both the media and the public's agendas. Since this issue does not seem to be as pressing to many people as issues such as poverty, education, stopping violence, etc. plans to stop pollution of areas that mainstream society does not even has to see, I am hesitant to believe any changes will happen soon. I fear this issue is going to have to get much much worse before it gets any mainstream attention.

Mass Incarceration: How to spend taxpayers money and ruin the labor market all at the same time.

Devah Pager’s book Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration researches the effects of mass incarceration and the consequences of having a criminal record in today's American labor market.  Through her research conducted in Milwaukee, Pager demonstrates that the probability of ex-offenders obtaining legitimate work is extremely low.  And when one factors race into this equation, the chances are even more improbable. Not a good sign for the 2 million currently incarcerated people looking to one day rejoin the labor market.

The findings in Pager’s book highlight the continuing significance of race in employment decisions. The interaction between race and criminal record suggests that black ex-offenders face an intensification of stigma above and beyond the simple negative effects of either race or criminal record alone. Already burdened by a disproportionate representation in prison, blacks carry the added weight of compounding stigma.  The combination of race and criminal record creates barriers to employment that in many contexts appear almost impossible to overcome.

Throughout this semester I've been amazed at just how prevalent race is in every social situation. Class, privilege, incarceration, school funding, income level, self-fulfilling education prophecies, types of parenting styles, etc. I've looked back at my blogs from throughout the semester and there is not one aspect of society I've covered that it is not touched by race and privileging the majority. Not one. To me, this class is a clear indicator and a wake-up-call to tell me that racism is not by any means conquered or dead. In the video below, it is apparent that many people believe America is now a "post racial" country, since Obama is president. Maybe equality is closer for the public, but as far as individual, specific rights for all people from different races, we still have a ways to go.

Pager’s analysis suggests that blacks with no criminal record had about the same chance as white ex-offenders just out of prison.  Therefore, many offenders (of both races) end up living in poverty or are compelled to return to crime if they can't find a more legitimate job.

In the United States, more than 2 million individuals are currently incarcerated, with an additional 4.9 million individuals under criminal justice supervision through probation and parole. The rhetoric of neoliberalism has rejected any understanding of crime as an effect of poverty and social circumstances- replacing it with what Pager calls the “formalization of moral order’”. This must be ignorance on our part, to not take into consideration that life circumstances, such as poor education and lack of community support, played a part in putting some of those 2 million men and women in jail. We are at fault as a nation for some of those individuals' incarcerations. If more of our tax dollars were going to give them the right support while they're being educated in under-funded schools and lower social classes, we could save the money we spend keeping them housed, clothed and fed in jail.

  Pager also identifies three elements that foster inequality in employment for ex-offenders: 1) selection effects assumes that employment difficulties pre-exist incarceration and that they don't want to work; 2) transformation contends that the experience of incarceration alters an individual in ways that prevent them from entering the labour market; and 3) the stigma of incarceration amounts to a form of negative credentialing in a credential society, which poses barriers to employment.
 
The finding that ex-offenders are one-half to two-thirds as likely as equally qualified non-offenders to be considered by employers is evidence of the barriers to employment imposed by a criminal record.  Like a GED or an occupational license, the negative credential of a criminal record provides an official marker of status and suitability for employment that can be used as an easy screening mechanism by employers. Currently, most employees are allowed to ask if job interviewees have ever been incarcerated.  And convicted criminals are not a protected class in anti-discrimination cases. Pager’s study also finds that black ex-offenders may be doubly disadvantaged.

The implications of Pager’s study suggest that a large and growing population of ex-offenders is unable to secure even the most basic kinds of low-wage work, such as construction, yard and house work.  With incarceration rates increasing exponentially and more than 650,000 ex-offenders returning from prison each year, the existing problems of prisoner re-entry into the work force will likely amplify with time. 

The social costs of high unemployment among this group – along with the additional burdens to families, communities, and public agencies – are cause for serious public concern.  Although, it is unreasonable to assume that employers will hire ex-offenders solely in the interests of the public good. If there isn't a law requiring them to hire ex-convicts or banning them from asking about criminal backgrounds, they'll probably be drawn to hiring people with clean records, who won't be as big of a threat for the cost of theft and potential liability for harm to their customers from their employees. Market forces alone are clearly insufficient to manage the problems of prisoner re-entry.

After a class discussion I believe that the basic premise of Pager’s work, that a criminal record hinders labor market opportunities, is not in itself a new idea.  What is new about her research is its linkage to the trend towards mass incarceration. Pager’s book is a scathing critique of ‘crime control’ policies, starting in  1970 with Nixon's war on crime, that contribute to a cycle of criminal involvement and victimization, and diminishes the very idea of the criminal justice system's effectiveness. Ultimately mass incarceration, without even looking at its racial inequalities,  harms everyone, due to its effects on the labor market and the economy.