1. Ruth Gilmore says that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism, when all the white people disappear from the story. What’s the connection between “whiteness” and racism, do you think?

Ruth Gilmore said that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism when all the white people disappear from the story because the white people are the capitalists who are exploiting the black people as the working class. The owning class is composed mostly of white people, and white people are racist, therefore they manage their business as racists. The white initiate the racism, therefore all entities are benefit from it including the Capitalists. Per Gilmore there is a comparison between slavery and race, race and unfreedom and unfreedom with labor. It has always been like that since the colonialism time, where colonialists fought hard to keep slaves in slavery in order to keep the exploitation. Therefore, as long as there is inequality between white and black people. As long as white people still think they are superior to black, there will always be an exploitation of the black community by the capitalism.

2- Gilmore makes the point that criminals are actually being created by the criminal justice and prison system (she says “the category of ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated”). According to Gilmore, how does that happen, how does the prison system create new “criminals“? Do you agree with her view?

Gilmore said that criminal are actually being created by the criminal justice and prison system and the category of criminal person can be perpetuated. What she means by that is that the Federal and State government have some Prison Industrial complex. These prisons are managed by private corporations for money. Therefore, those prisons managers make sure that they influence the congress in passing laws that favor the prison system in incarcerating as much people as possible to make more profit. I think Gilmore means that since black people is considered as inferior to white, they make sure that black people fit the criminal person category they looking for to be perpetuate in the prison system. They pass incarceration laws that target the black community behavior and implement them with law enforcement officers complicity. New criminals are created and increased in the prison from the black and poor community.

3- Describe how your understand what Prof. Gilmore – in the last part of her video – calls “liberation struggle”?

Liberation struggle means that the people in the black and poor community has to struggle for their freedom. The people living in public housing struggle for their lives. The one that do not enter the prison system yet, meet the profile of the criminal person by being exposed to the behavior labeled as bad behavior by law enforcements. The one that get in the prison system even after being liberated, they tend to go back and forth to prison. In other words, Prof. Gilmore states that poor community needs to fight for their freedom while the white or rich community is free because they were born as white or rich.

These questions are based on the “Sex Class Action” article:

1. What did the Supreme Court decide in the Wal-Mart case? And more importantly, how did it justify its decision? (HINT: the key word here is “commonality” (and how it related to “class-action lawsuit”). Try to understand what this legal terms means, as it is key to the court’s decision).

In Dukes case, a group of women who alleged discrimination on the basis of gender filed a suit against Wal-Mart. The action was then changed to a class action, with all women represented by the original small group of women who sued the company. And this class was the largest ever class. In Walmart case the Supreme Court decide that the women’s additional demand for back pay which would amount billions of dollars in withheld wages to women across the country could only belong in a b(3) claim. There was a mis qualification under the class that they filed the complaints under b2 claim. The monetary award in this case could not be applied to all members of the class. Thus this rule does not allow class certification in this situation. Therefore, they were denied the back pay due to wrong classification of the lawsuit.

Second, they make commonality the center of their decision. Commonality means a series of same characteristics that a group endorse. The Court lays down a commonality criteria for class certification, under which more than one million women with a common employer will have to prove they were all subject to the same discriminatory employment policy, to be certified as a class. Because the 1.5 million female Wal-Mart employees were not all denied the same promotion, the same pay raise, or insulted, belittled, or obstructed by the same manager in the same store, their cases could not legitimately be litigated all at once. A class action is an exception, and it must be justified by the fact that a class representative must be part of the class in fact, interest and injury. It is like all the female in this class action did meet all the same characteristics for this litigation process.

1. In what ways is the court system better suited to protect the individual, than are the elected branches of government (such as Congress and the President; or the Mayor of NYC and the NYC City Assembly)? Give an example to illustrate your argument.

The Court system is better suited to protect the individual than are the elected branches of government such as Congress and the President. It plays a very important role in our constitutional system of government. First, as the highest court in the land, it is the court that has the last words for those looking for justice. The Court has the final say over when a right is protected by the Constitution or when a Constitutional right is violated. Also, due to its power of judicial review, it plays an essential role in ensuring that each branch of government recognizes the limits of its own power. Another good point is that the Court don’t know much information on cases prior they start working on them to already predict their decisions. The Justices do not work on their own, they get helped from law clerks. Their decisions are influenced by those law clerks recommendations and works. Example is when the Supreme Court decided in Texas v. Johnson that burning the flag was a form of expressive conduct. The Supreme court ruled in favor of the individual against the government. The court even found the law about flag desecration was unconstitutional.

2.Think about how federal judges get to become judges – unlike Presidents, Mayors and members of Congress (and other legislatures), they are not elected, but rather appointed. Many Americans have thus called the federal courts system, and especially the Supreme Court, anti-democratic PLACES IN OUR GOVERNMENT. Do you agree that the Supreme Court, for example, is an anti-democratic part of our government? What could be the reason for this way of choosing judges in federal courts? (HINT: think about our discussion of “Federalist #10”, and which social class plays a leading role in our government system.)

I think the Federal Judges are appointed but not elected by the majority because they are placed to protect the interests of who selected, nominated and confirmed them in that position. The process is, the President obtain a referral from a Professional Association and nominates the selected to be confirmed by the majority of the Senate vote. This type of selection is anti-democratic due to the fact that the Judges are not elected by the public vote while they are appointed for life. However, a President who is elected for four years is elected by the public. A Federal judge selection particularly aligned with the Federalist 10 that argues that a government member’s selection must be by the wealthy and not by the masses. They said that the masses interests negatively affect the interests of the community. Therefore, in an important member of government selection the public must be excluded.

1. P. Williams writes in her essay, that the war on terror is a new type of a war. What’s new about it, how is it different from traditional wars?

Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the US Government expands terrorism laws to include “domestic terrorism” which could subject political organizations to surveillance, wiretapping, harassment, and criminal action for political advocacy. They expands the ability of law enforcement to conduct secret searches, gives them wide powers of phone and Internet surveillance, and access to highly personal medical, financial, mental health, and student records with minimal judicial oversight. It allows FBI Agents to investigate American citizens for criminal matters without probable cause of crime if they say it is for “intelligence purposes.” Permits non-citizens to be jailed based on mere suspicion and to be denied re-admission to the US for engaging in free speech. Suspects convicted of no crime sometimes were detained indefinitely in six month increments without meaningful judicial review. Per Patricia Williams the Patriot Act is a war on terror. And this war is different from the other war because it is a war of the US government against the US citizens and their rights. In other war, other countries or non US citizens are considered as the enemies. The war on terror people living inside the US are seen as the enemies.

1. In what ways does the “Roving Wiretaps” of the Patriot Act seem to violate the Bill of Rights? Which amendment(s) does it seem to violate and why?

Under the Patriot Act, the government had the ability to obtain “roving wiretaps” or surveillance on multiple phones for ordinary crimes. This violated the Fourth Amendment’s requirements that warrants be issued only for “probable cause” and “particularly describing” the affected person. The Fourth says the government cannot conduct a search without obtaining a warrant and showing probable cause to believe that the person has committed or will commit a crime. Also, this violates the first clause of the Fifth Amendment which requires that serious crimes be prosecuted only after an indictment has been issued by a grand jury.

1. What about “Sneek and Peek” Warrants?

USA PATRIOT Act covered “sneak and peek” search warrants, which allowed law enforcement officers to search a home or business and seize material without the knowledge or consent of the owner or occupant. This violates the Fourth Amendment, which says the government cannot conduct a search without obtaining a warrant and showing probable cause to believe that the person has committed or will commit a crime.

1. Describe how you understand the “Establishment Clause” and the related “Lemon Test”.

Establishment clause is a clause in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. This clause prohibits the government from favoring a specific religion over another one. Also the US government must be neutral which means that they have to respect the citizens religion beliefs and they cannot imposed an official religion to the Citizens of the US. Additionally, relating to this clause, in the 1971 case of Lemon vs Kurtzman, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments as to whether the state should support a program that would provide aide to religious schools. In determining whether the government could give aid to an educational institution operated by a religious entity, the court applied a test of three parts known as the Lemon Test. This test includes first, the law or action of the government must be secular or non religious. Second, the primary goal of the action should not have the effect of growing any religious entity. And third, a law established by the government should not link it to any sort of religion.

1. Is burning the US flag protected by the First Amendment? Explain by referring to the relevant court case discussed in the reading.

Freedom of Expression clause is found in the First Amendment to the US constitution. The Supreme Court’s rulings on free expression became more liberal in 1960. The Court found that symbolic expression, must be protected as part of freedom of speech. However, in the US individuals, burn flag as a sign of discontent and claim while this last one is qualified as flag desecrating by the government policies, and punishable. in 1989, the Supreme Court decided in Texas v. Johnson that burning the flag was a form of expressive conduct, showing people dissatisfaction with unfair government policies. According to the Supreme Court this last one is protected by the First Amendment and it found the law about flag desecration, to be unconstitutional.

1. What does it mean when someone says “I’m taking the Fifth”?

The Fifth Amendment creates a number of rights relevant to both criminal and civil legal proceedings.  In criminal cases, the Fifth Amendment guarantees the right to a grand jury, forbids double jeopardy, and protects against self-incrimination. When someone says “I’m taking the Fifth” they invokes that right and refuses to answer questions or provide information that might incriminate them. When an individual takes the Fifth, their silence or refusal to answer questions cannot be used against them in a criminal case.

1. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government, among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems.

In a unitary system, citizens gives power to the national government. All power and sovereignty belong to the national government, which might, however, delegate some powers to the geographical units but, it has the authority to take this power back at any time and central government has all the power to make laws and decision for the people. While In a federal government, the power and sovereignty the citizens give, are constitutionally divided between the national (federal) government, state and local. Another way to say it, in a federal system, a national government and the state governments share power. Power to make laws and decisions for the people is shared between a central authority and regional authorities. In a confederal country, the power and sovereignty belong mostly to the states, which, however, delegated some limited powers to the national government. Confederation system, the vast majority of power rests with the states. Individual states make their own laws and decision and are loosely aligned to a weak central government.

2. Briefly explain how you understand the system of division of power.

I understand the system of division of power of the United States is composed of three groups: The Legislative Branch, The Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch. The Legislative is a branch where we find the Congressmen. There are 100 Senators and 435 Representative in the Legislative branch. Their role consist of passing National budget, declare war. The Judicial branch is called the court system. There are different levels of courts. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. The courts review laws, explain laws and decide if a law goes against the Constitution. The Supreme Court has nine justices or judges and they serve for life or until they retire. Another branch is the Executive one. This last one  includes the president, vice president, the Cabinet, executive departments. The executive branch carries out and enforces laws. All these branches have limited power and must follow the laws of the Constitution. Also, there is a balance within them, one depends on the other.

3. How does the federal government shape the actions of state and local governments? Write your answer based on doing a bit of research on how the federal government has influenced the actions of NY state and local governments, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government ensures cooperation of state and local governments by providing funds to operate federal programs. One way that the federal government can influence the states is through the distribution of grants, incentives, and aid. State and local governments are eager to obtain federal dollars. An example is during Covid-19 pandemic, the Fed’s actions ensured that credit continued to flow to households and businesses, preventing financial market disruptions from intensifying the economic damage. They give people with student loan a break. They inject funds into the financial system in an effort to calm the market. The president provided funding to authorities already fighting to contain the outbreak and allocated some part of funding for vaccine research. The The Primary Dealer Credit Facility was established to support the credit needs of U.S. householders and businesses by allowing primary dealers to support smooth market functioning and facilitate the availability of credit to businesses and households was established to support the credit needs of U.S. householders and businesses by allowing primary dealers to support smooth market functioning and facilitate the availability of credit to businesses and households. The IRS issued economic impact payments during the coronavirus pandemic for people who were eligible.

Sources: https://www.brookings.edu/research/fed-response-to-covid19/

1. Based on the arguments presented in Readings 6.1 and 6.2, which social class wrote the Constitution, and which class was excluded and not allowed to participate in this process? In your comment, make sure you clearly specify the difference between the two classes by giving examples from the readings.

Based on the arguments presented in both readings the Constitution was written by the representatives of the owning class. The owning class was the groups of personal property those who were the Personality in Money, the one that had Money Capital and the one that were creditors. The text stated that George Washington, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson who were all very rich men and who participate in the Confederation of the Constitution wrote it in the benefit of the wealthy people. Those without property, slaves, indentured servants and women did not participate in the process. Qualifications for voting at state levels required in most cases the owning of property and excluded women, Indians and slaves.

1. Would say that the social class structure of early United States society, was the same as ours today, or different? Explain.

The social class structure of early United States was the same as ours today. Because we can still consider that there are 2 groups of classes. Most of the wealthy people opposed democracy, and designed the Constitution to ensure the aristocracy would continue to rule the society. Still today tax laws or reforms are adopted in order to protect the rights and interests of the wealthy, upper-class from the encroaches of the masses. We are still not a democratic country but a republic. Because the populist votes during an elections is manipulated by the rich people who finance the elections campaign. Statistics show our politicians are highly responsive to the policy preferences of rich people, while the preferences of poor and middle-class voters have pretty much no effect.

1. Why were the people who wrote the Constitution so afraid of democracy? Hint: think about how to answer this question by discussing it in terms of social classes.

The people who wrote the Constitution are so afraid of democracy because by definition democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.. According to the author, democracy is a bad form of government because once you let everybody participate, then you’re likely to elect a demagogue. If democracy, there would be policies that would make the rich less rich. The owning class uses the working class labor to maintain their Capital. In democracy working class would get laws in their interests and they would not be dependent of the rich people. Some of the would not need to work for a living. No class exist without the other, in other words if there are no poor there would not be rich and vice versa.

1. What concept that we have already discussed does “faction” remind you of?

Faction is by definition a grouping of individuals, especially within a political organization, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A group formed to seek some goal within a political party or a government. Faction remind me of the concept ideology which is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons. Some times in the faction there is conflict between members of the same organization. The conflict divide these members based on distinct interests.

1. According to Federalist #10 (written by James Madison), what is the source of wealth (private property)? What factor explains why some people get to possess wealth by owning private property, and others don’t (thus remaining poor)? This is a key question, because it shows how the authors of the Constitution thought about the difference between different classes of Americans! HINT: focus on the passage that begins: “The diversity in the faculties (WHAT DOES FACULTIES mean or refer to?) of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not les….”

By definition faculties mean abilities for a person, natural or acquired, for a particular kind of action. Per Madison some people get to possess wealth because of their faculty. They get to acquire land because of their power, intelligence. On the other hand, those who stay without property do not have the abilities that the ones who own have. The text of Michael Parenti stated that from colonial men of influence received vast land grants which make them become property owner. Therefore, all property owner became the wealthiest in the country and the ones almost no property became the poor. Now, with the Constitution the Federalist proposed laws the were explicitly defending their interests. This format consistently increase the gap because the owning class and the laboring class.

1. Do you agree with this explanation of wealth and poverty?

I agree in the sense that faculty is an inherent capability, power, or function. Because if you were born Indians, African descent, women, indentures servants, you have no right of having property. In other words, it is like God created you to be poor. It is like people that are wealthy they have a talent for that. People that are poor don’t have this talent.

1. What is the core mission (“first object”) of the US government? Does this surprise you, does it sound different from what our society today seems to suggest the core mission of the government is? Explain.

The core mission of the US is the right to life, liberty, economic freedom, and the “pursuit of happiness.” It is the purpose of government to protect these rights, and it may not place unfair or unreasonable restraints on their exercise. Many of these rights are enumerated in the Bill of Rights. The Federalist suggest that the core mission is to resolves problems among the citizens, protect commercial interests, defend the wealthy class against the others. Nowadays, the US tend to favorized more the wealthy comparing to the labor class. In reality, however, policy has mostly gone the other way. Tax rates on corporation and high income have gone down, unions have been crushed, the minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was in 1960.

1. Given the discussion in questions 1-4, are you surprised that Federalist #10 is not in favor of democracy, and supports a Republican (representative) form of government? Why would d the author dislike a (pure) democratic form of government? Hint: think about how this question connects with the social classes…

In democracies where the majority rules, people make decisions by majority power and while the majority knows what the right thing to do is. The majority places its own immediate wants above what is right.  For a society to protect the public welfare the society must be able to do what is right, which the majority cannot do in other words the working class. “No man is allowed to be a judge in his own case because his interests will certainly bias his judgment and corrupt his integrity”. Therefore a republic is better than a democracy per the Federalist.  It controls all factions while democracies can only control small and inconsequential factions.  It protects the public’s integrity by letting representatives make mistakes while leaving the public free to punish the representatives for the consequences of the mistakes the representatives make that are not consistent with the general and public welfare. The Federalist would never support a democracy because In a Democracy, the individual, and any group of individuals composing any minority, have no protection against the unlimited power of the majority. It would be impractical to administer an entire country if people had to have a direct vote on every issue.

1. Two key concepts in this video are the means of production and labor. In your comment, explain how you understand the means of production and labor. Give an example of each.

The means of production is all what is required to make a product such as raw material, the expertise, substances used in the primary production or manufacturing of goods, the equipment and the entity that will provide their brand name help with distribution. All the means or product are privately owned by the wealthy class but not by the working class or labor class. While the labor is the thing that increase the value of what the finished product is. In other words the labor is how much time it was required or how much time it took an individual to make that the product.

1. Another important concept in understanding social class is value. Based on the ideas presented in Video 5.1, what is value?  What give “value” to value, what makes something valuable? 

Valuable means what worth a lot of money. Sometimes something that is priceless, very important. The amount of labor used to make product can determine its value. If it needed specialized or trained person to make a product, it will make it more expensive or more valuable. The person that spend the time and energy to make a product should be best situated to give value to the valuable product.

1. How are labor and value related? What’s the relationship/connection between the two?

Like Adam Smith said “Labor is alone the real standard by which the value of all commodities can at all times and places be estimated and compared”. I think both the product and the person that produce labor has a monetary value. The labor class sells their service for money in terms of wages or salaries. And the product is sold in a market for money in return which we call profit, which make it valuable. The more labor it takes to make a product, the more value it will have and vice versa. There’s is no valuable product without the labor that work on that initial material or initial product.

1. How do you understand the difference between labor and labor power? Hint: this is a key difference, give it your best shot based on what the video says about it, and your own ideas. We’ll clarify and develop it in our discussions, and in my video comments.

Labor is what the working class use to make production of goods. It is the physical act of working. On the other hand, Labor power is only found in human. It is a person’s capacity to work and to sell their labor power to employers in exchange for money.

1. Surplus Value: what is it? Why is it important to know about, in our study of social classes? Think about an example of surplus value?

Value on top of the amount of value it takes for labor. Surplus value is somehow the profit. It is important to know about in our study of social classes because the surplus value go to the owning class. Working class uses the labor power and labor to produce goods and services. Besides they are exchanging these abilities for money, they are not fairly compensated or getting paid when considering the huge profit made out of goods or product selling. It is somehow, an exploitation of the working class.