Politics, Race, Religion, and Gender: An Examination of the Perilous Political Environment Faced by Politicians of Color Since the Age of Obama
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Racism comes in many forms, and many individuals find themselves susceptible to the taunts and hostilities of others based on race, gender, and religious beliefs. During the candidacy and presidency of former American President Barack Obama, racial opposition faced him from not only a number of political opponents, but also from the general public. Being the first viable African American presidential aspirant, he received international attention, and was the recipient of ongoing racist remarks and commentary. The behavior began upon his announcing his candidacy in 2007, and lasted throughout his eight years in office. Infuriatingly, but not surprisingly, the arrival of the subsequent president and his followers has exacerbated any lingering hostilities, instead of suppressing them. This attitude of rejection continues to appear in other nations. Politically aware, global citizens recognize potential leaders within other countries, as it is necessary to know who may be directing the future of that country, and who may be the decision-maker in terms of future international support and potential negotiations. The current Canadian election for the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), for example, has received pointed attention recently due to the campaign of one particular candidate of color, due to both his race and religion. Jagmeet Singh, a 38 year-old lawyer from Ontario emerged as an area leader in 2011, after receiving his title as Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), following a local race. In mid-2017, after having served in this capacity for a number of years, as well as serving in the position of deputy leader of the Ontario NDP, Singh announced his intention to vacate his deputy's seat, and run for the federal leadership of the party. During his political career, Singh's being Punjabi Indian, and a devout Sikh, has gained him a number of supporters and stalwart defenders, while simultaneously bringing attention from those who are neither accepting of his heritage/race, nor willing to respect his candidacies. In early September 2017, while delivering a campaign speech at a meet-and-greet in Brampton, Ontario, where he currently resides, Singh was callously interrupted by a heckler. The heckler screamed at Singh repeatedly, urging him to not inflict Sharia Law on the society—a practice which is that of some followers of Islam, not Sikhs—and accused him of being a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. The rudeness of her behavior, and the misconceptions about Singh's background were reminiscent of the contentions levied against candidate and President Obama, and the discourtesy with which he was treated for so many years. This paper will seek to examine historic hardships of politicians of color, including President Obama, Canadian Candidate Singh, and other recent political contenders. The racial discrimination and bigotry imposed against them, as well as the beliefs of the ill-informed perpetrators and their principles, will be discussed. The differences in the treatment/conduct of politicians of color will be examined, in addition to their successes/failures possibly based upon their race alone, against that of politicians who are traditionally persons of European ancestry. The current political climate, and behaviors of those opposing the advancement of people of color, is similar to that of the period following Reconstruction, and has only been amplified following the 2016 American presidential election. Racism and racist incidents have increased since the event, and a possible connection between the behaviors being demonstrated in the United States, and our neighboring country of Canada, in particular, will be carefully scrutinized.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.008 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".