As part of my senior capstone, I was tasked with the biggest and most complicated group project I have ever had: negotiate the Israeli-Palestinian peace. My professor divided our class into three teams (the Israelis, Americans, and Palestinians) and asked us to simulate peace talks by formulating our own peace plan. Throughout the semester, we sat and negotiated. I was the leader of Team Israel, meaning that many times the negotiating decisions for my team came down to me. It was truly one of the most arduous tasks I had during my college career, but I believe we negotiated a relatively feasible solution.
Peace in the Middle East: Understanding the Problem Through Realist Culture
Middle Eastern international political culture is often dominated by one question: which state is more powerful? This question is often most visible when looking at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since the start of the conflict, each side’s actions can be looked at through a model of realism. However, this realism is grounded within the cultures of each side, which dictates that the pride of each side is dependent on the amount of power shown. The more power a side shows, the more pride each side can have. Thus, it is because of this grounding that the dream of peace in the Middle East can only be solved through understanding and working within the Israeli and Palestinian cultures.
Historically Suspected: An Analysis on the Incarceration of Black and Latino Men
The discourse around black men in America has usually been that they are unwanted. Since the time of slavery, blacks have been viewed as lesser than whites. Even though laws guaranteeing equal rights and protections were passed after the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement, blacks have always been looked at as inferior, lazy, and criminal by other Americans. Since this discourse is so prevalent within America, it has worked against these men for decades, particularly within the criminal justice system. Following the Great Migration of blacks into northern cities in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the swell of crime throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, politicians and police departments adopted “tough on crime” stances that disproportionately affected black men. Incarceration rates of this demographic skyrocketed once these measures were enacted. And since then, the discourse has been continuously reinforced that black men are dangerous and criminal through draconian criminal justice methods that only serve to cause more issues.
Side Effects Include: An Analysis into the Backfiring of Punitive Criminal Justice
In the 1960s, America saw a rise in crime. Desperate to curtail this rise, Americans looked for any reason that the crime rate was so high. People mostly pinpointed the main problem as being drugs and guns. While some minority leaders did try to say that the poverty was also an issue, most people simply focused on the drugs and guns aspect of the crime problem. They thought that the only way to stop crime was to cut drugs and guns out of society. Political, religious, and civic leaders endorsed punitive legislation that would cause the punishment for having guns or drugs to skyrocket. Many people thought that these punitive would cause criminals to give up the game and become law-abiding citizens, but without addressing the root cause of crime—poverty—many black and Latino communities, which were often the communities most affected by drugs, guns and violence, still saw many people become incarcerated. This effect was unintended, but it was devastating to communities throughout the country, causing a self-perpetuating cycle in which young black and Latino men ended up incarcerated.