For this LeADERS requirement, I completed many diversity classes. I have my undergraduate certificate in Diversity Studies. This year, I have taken Race, Ethnicity, and Crime and Disabilities in the Workplace. I learned a lot in both of these classes about many different things. Such as disability laws, the court system, historical events, statistics, etc. These classes are extremely important for everyone to take however for my career specifically it allows me to have a diverse perspective. It is important to not be narrow-minded and understand people who might have grown up differently than you. We all don’t live the same life, and the more diverse your perspective is, the better person you are.

I wrote a research paper for my Race, Ethnicity, and Crime class. The following is my introduction. I will attach the rest of the paper.

I chose the topic of police targeting Black Americans because I find it extremely interesting to study. I think it is very unfair that one race is treated differently than the other. It is essential to study the inequalities in the criminal justice system. Knowledge is essential to help prevent a repeat in history. Police targeting is common in racially biased traffic stops and looking for drugs.

Further research will help police departments realize where the inequalities are most present so that departments can create policies and training to decrease these specifics. Additionally, it is essential to execute successful research and be able to teach it to everyone. The majority of criminological theories emphasize the importance of teaching critical race theory and other inequalities so that society can learn from past mistakes.

Historically, the system has been set up against Black Americans. Policies like environmental racism, the war on drugs, and the National Housing Act of 1934 contributed to this. Environmental racism is when the trash dumps are placed next to minority communities, leading to the leakage of lead, creating lead poisoning. It also made the neighborhoods look rundown by placing garbage beside them. The appearance of a neighborhood does play a factor in crime rates. The war on drugs is when the police targeted minority communities for crack instead of looking for cocaine. This is because in the minority communities, they used crack, and in the wealthy communities, they used cocaine. It was a way to put the minority communities in jail. The National Housing Act of 1934 created redlining. This is when the banks would not give out mortgages or loans to communities surrounded by red lines. The minority communities were marked with red lines around their neighborhoods. This prevented the neighborhoods from receiving financial help and prospering. They ended up receiving less resources. Police Targeting is dependent on the function of society and the government. Discrimination acts set up the police to target minorities because they are just going off of the current state of society.