I really liked today’s podcast and the discussion on assumptions and harmful policies, such as those relating to drugs. Last semester I took a sociology class called Race and Crime where we discussed in depth how certain assumptions and biases are implicitly written into laws so that minority communities are targeted more and are more negatively impacted. Besides the war on drugs policies, discussed by Dr. Bezio, that led to a disproportionate number of incarcerated Black and Hispanic individuals, in my previous class we examined the presence of police in schools. Student resource officers (SROs) are brought into schools usually under the false assumption that they will protect the students and make the school more safe. However in reality, crime rates in these schools increase and as a result a school to prison pipeline is often formed. The SROs in school usually end up targeting minority students due to their biases, resulting in the minority students receiving unfair punishments, such as suspension or expulsion, for actions or behavior that do not deserve it. This also reaffirms biases into the minds of other students that certain minority communities are inherently bad and need to be policed more. While we assume that having SROs in schools is beneficial for safety and order, what we know is that policing becomes biased towards students from minority communities and can have detrimental effects.
Additionally, the podcast made me think about how we make certain rules that are based on what is considered to be good or appropriate by the dominant culture in that time and place. These rules claim to be made for the good of society. The rule that Dr. Bezio stood out to me specifically, due to my own experience with this rule in school, was that women should not show their arms and legs because it is distracting to the men around them. In 7th grade, I vividly remember a school counselor meeting with all the girls in my grade during a lunch period to explain this very idea to us. That it was a bad idea to wear short shorts that exposed our legs or tank tops that exposed our arms and backs because it would distract the boys around us. Looking back on this, I think it is crazy that as early as 7th grade, 12 and 13 year olds, girls are being taught that the dominant culture puts restrictions on how they can express their bodies to make males more comfortable. The boys received no similar conversation about how they should try to not get distracted by the girls, placing the responsibility of this issue on the girls and forcing them to adjust their clothing. We need to do better as a society and not place the burden on women to significantly regulate their clothing choices or blame on women for distracting others because they are just expressing their bodies how they feel most comfortable .
I think the point you bring up about police presence in school is so interesting because I transitioned from a predominantly white elementary school to a predominantly black middle school and the difference in policing was astounding; it was almost as if the school police officers in my middle school were just waiting for kids to do something out of line so they could make an example out of them. They treated it like a prison and the entire experience was incredibly eye-opening.
I really agree with your mentioning of the dress code and us as young girls being told what not to wear. At the time no one batted an eye and now looking back I feel really uncomfortable and angry. This is so not right and was ingrained in our brains at such a young age- that boys will be boys so the girls need to change. Hopefully this narrative is changing.
I think that your comment on SROs is really interesting because it points out one of the ways in which poverty can be cyclical. From what I know of SROs, most of them are in low-income areas and when they arrest or charge kids it takes away one of the few areas of growth they may have access to, thus forcing them into minimum wage jobs and never escaping poverty.