Interdisciplinary – Page 12 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Interdisciplinary

Spatial Stereotypes and Racial Inequality

A study was done to understand the impact of how a space looks and how certain features of a space are associated with one racial group and how other features are associated with another racial group and on how race and space stereotypes support each other.. Through the use of coding we have created a survey that allows us to understand how people group certain aspects, such as the looks, of a city and use them to make an inference of what racial group of people lives in that city. In our study we have used the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as our representative city to see how people think when it comes to race and space. We sampled images from google street view and inserted them into our survey. With this survey we hope to understand if people associate one racial group with wealth and prosperity based on the pictures they are shown of that space and if they associate a different racial group with poverty and privation. Through understanding the assumptions of how people of a certain race may live in a different quality area than another, and through understanding how we may view a person differently based on the place they are see in we can find a way to better this disparity in where people live and also find ways to educate people and remove that bias that may come with associating one group with wealth and another with poverty.

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Spatial Stereotypes and Racial Inequality

Is space racialized? Often, we overlook this association between race and space even though segregated neighborhoods and other public institutions provide a compelling case for such an association. Centuries of discriminatory policies have exacerbated the separation of race, creating explicitly and implicitly demarcated spaces for Blacks and non-Blacks. These aforementioned Black spaces are often entrenched in concentrated poverty and ghettoization, precipitated by disinvestment and discriminatory policies. The existence of these segregated spaces are suspected to have created spatial stereotypes, in which negative associations have been made about the spaces that Black people occupy. This project’s overarching goal is to investigate how associations between impoverished urban spaces and African-Americans influence the broader social perception of race. To do so, we used a sample of google street view images of both high and low income census tracts in urban cities. After presenting a series of photographs from either low or high SES neighborhoods, survey takers were given a racially ambiguous face and asked to identify the face’s race. Moreover, we are seeking to answer the question of whether space is racialized.

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COVID-19 hidden stories of mental health

The upsurge of the COVID-19 global pandemic has brought forth many studies concerning how marginalized communities have been disproportionately affected by the virus: partly due to discriminatory practices embedded within the United States healthcare system, increased proportions of those working essential jobs, and increased probabilities of suffering from preexisting conditions, among other factors. However, there is very little qualitative research regarding the first-hand experiences of these individuals, particularly those within the Hispanic community, nor is there research accessible to Spanish-speaking individuals. Thus, our study entitled “COVID-19 Hidden Stories” searches to collect and empower the experiences of Hispanic individuals who have been affected by the pandemic through virtual interviews in a way that has not yet been amplified by the media or made accessible for the community’s use. Utilizing a trauma-informed journalistic approach, interviews were conducted through phone calls with Hispanic individuals who had contracted COVID-19 within West Michigan, South East Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois communities. The interviews were transcribed and compiled into an audio podcast format, all in Spanish, with English subtitles including necessary context and analysis for individual accounts. Ultimately, analysis of the interviews indicated that difficulties in obtaining access to testing and care, financial burdens, and mistrust of the healthcare system in general were the primary obstacles faced by the Hispanic community during their battles with COVID-19. As a result of these obstacles, our interviewees demonstrated several accounts of mental distress, allowing us to focus on the ways their mental health has been impacted by the pandemic. Ultimately, this journalistic research aims to create solidarity during a time of isolation and highlight noteworthy changes in mental health as experienced by the Hispanic community. The research also highlights the intersectionality that exists between modern-day immigration policies and discriminatory health-care practices against Hispanic persons.

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COVID-19 hidden stories of mental health

The upsurge of the COVID-19 global pandemic has brought forth many studies concerning how marginalized communities have been disproportionately affected by the virus: partly due to discriminatory practices embedded within the United States healthcare system, increased proportions of those working essential jobs, and increased probabilities of suffering from preexisting conditions, among other factors. However, there is very little qualitative research regarding the first-hand experiences of these individuals, particularly those within the Hispanic community, nor is there research accessible to Spanish-speaking individuals. Thus, our study entitled “COVID-19 Hidden Stories of Mental Health” searches to collect and empower the experiences of Hispanic individuals who have been affected by the pandemic through virtual interviews in a way that has not yet been amplified by the media or made accessible for the community’s use.

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Southwest Detroit Community Court Program

The Southwest Detroit Community Justice Center (SWDCJC) works to increase the safety and fairness of the area they serve by increasing public trust in the justice system, reducing crime, and meeting the needs of the people. They achieve this by offering restorative alternatives to traditional justice system processes like fines and incarceration. Rather, SWDCJC offers programs that educate and provide opportunities for community service. Through the community court program, SWDCJC has decreased incarceration and money owed for misdemeanor crimes, overall increasing the wellbeing in the zip codes served. They are looking to expand their impact by adding programs dedicated to stopping human trafficking as well.

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Southwest Detroit Community Court Program: The Clean Slate Bill

On October 12th, 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a series of bills into law, the most significant and popular of these being the “Clean Slate Bill”. “For too long, criminal charges have created barriers to employment, barriers to housing and others for hundreds of thousands of Michiganders. These bipartisan bills are going to be a game-changer,” Whitmer said. This bill will affect hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents who have criminal records and traffic violations with the first aspects of the bill going into effect on April 10th, 2021. The Southwest Detroit Community Justice Center (SWDCJC) is passionate about criminal justice reform and fair access to the justice system. The nonprofit’s mission statement states, “The mission of the Southwest Detroit Community Justice Center is to increase public trust in the justice system, assist in the reduction of crime, improve the quality of life and meet the needs of the community.” SWDCJC’s focus is four zip code areas in Detroit and the organization’s CEO and my research mentor LaNeice Jones has been committed to promoting education and criminal reform for over a year. The organization has hosted several events to help prevent offenses and reform those who already have offenses. Specifically, this research project was made to find best practices to spread the word about the Clean Slate Bill to help expunge the records of thousands of individuals. We are increasing awareness of this bill by synthesizing information to distribute to the community, collecting statistics for grant writing, and hosting an “Ask the Judge” event to educate the greater community about the ins and outs of this bill. Our ultimate goal is to help people expunge their records so they can have a greater opportunity to apply to better jobs and participate in services that are restricted to people with criminal records. Increasing access to job opportunities by expunging records will help fuel diversity of thought and region to many different career paths, and give people a second chance who desperately deserve one.

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Women’s Wave: Participation and Success by Candidates in Congressional Elections, 2014 to 2020

American political icons such as “ËœThe Squad’ have gained prominence and established themselves as important female figures in modern government. The significance in their emergence reflects a larger movement in gender equality, diversity, and representation. In the past three congressional elections, more women, LGBTQ individuals, and people of color have taken office than ever before in US history. As more social justice movements take place, it is important to determine the contribution of these entities to Congressional success. This study sought to confirm or negate the hypothesis that the 2017 Women’s March increased political activism in American women leading to a rise in the number of women running and eventually winning seats in office. In examining the roles of activism and protest participation this project focused on the 2014, 2016, and 2018 elections. A large portion of this study was conducted by utilizing campaign websites and non-partisan political information sources to create profiles of every candidate who ran. These profiles particularly focused on previous political experience, LGBTQ identity, and activist involvement and were all reported in a database on Google Sheets. Additional details such as the district a candidate was running for, political party, year of birth, campaign funds raised, and voting results were also recorded. Furthermore, this data was utilized to conduct a statistical analysis on Stata to observe the correlation between Women’s March involvement and campaign success. Conclusions and database construction are ongoing. This data is planned to be used in future articles and, eventually, a book. This research will prove to be valuable in understanding the intersection of many groups, including politicians, nonpartisan groups, and activist organizations. It may encourage or discourage more activist participation by current and potential congressional candidates, specifically those who identify as women.

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Women’s Wave

Women’s Wave A lot has changed in recent years. Grassroots protests have existed for a while, but with the addition of the internet and technology, it hasn’t been the same since the Occupy movement. Politicians have run their campaigns in support of these movements, against these movements, and as a piece of these movements. What we don’t know is what effect grassroots action has on the elections. The research analysis pieces together candidate information from the 2018 elections such as; age, gender, party, prior office, and sexual orientation. Most importantly the data contains any activist history (including the type of activism) and whether or not they won. Analysis from this research is expected to find one very important relation between political candidate’s involvement in women’s activism or activism in general, and their success in an election year widely regarded as “the year of the woman.” This research can be used in the future to help predict the outcomes of elections and aid activists’ efforts to effect change. This is part of a growing amount of research as politics begins to consume a larger portion of our lives.

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Progressive Policy in Architecture

The power structures within architecture firms have remained stagnant and do not fulfill the potentials of the architects within. The overall perspective within the industry is that these institutions need to work towards a progressive format of power. The research in this project intends to change the power structures of these firms based upon the successes in leadership structures of other industries, as well as their progressive policy implementations. This study looks at the measures of productivity, diversity, and other factors of industry progression in the fields of architecture and other institutions such as government structures, law firms, and business corporations. The power structures of these other industries are compared to the power structure of architecture to find and develop the policies needed to push architecture firms forward in the realm of leadership structures. We hope to find that through the means of governmental legislation, architecture firms will be able to incorporate more progressive means into their power structures. This legislation should implement the necessity of progressive policies that contain standards developed through this research.

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