Coronavirus

 I didn't really want to talk about this however, it is affecting my life more than I thought it was going to. Last week I went to West Virginia to visit a friend that goes to school over there and the virus wasn't as intense as it is now. It has gotten to the point where we are now on lockdown and people are ordered to stay home. The reason why I want to talk about it is because I work at a grocery store and as of today stores are being closer except for grocery stores and a couple of others. I find this to be frustrating because of how serious it is. We must work even with all this going on we were given a extra 10% off but I don't know if that is enough. At first I will admit that I wasn't taking it seriously but after coming back from my trip it has become worse and more serious.

The thing that also frustrates me is how much food and supplies people are buying I am a cashier and I see what people are buying. People buy so much food that will go bad in a couple of days which will lead them to get rid of it or one customer said that he doesn't need it but just in case. I feel like a lot of people are stress buying and not really needing any of the stuff they are buying which can take away from the people that actually need it. This goes for the toilet paper as well, believe it or not there has been a couple of people that come to our store and stand outside trying to sell toilet paper to our shoppers for a ridiculous price and thats what bugs me the most is people trying to make a profit from important things that people need. 

Racial Bias

I am choosing to talk about the Gabriel Fernandez trials again because I am truly disturbed at the case and the things that went on. In my last post I talked about how it was believed to have been a hate crime. In this post I want to talk about how this could have also been a case of racial bias. Racial bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individuals understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. The reason I write that definition is because in this trial I believe that this was happening with the social workers and the police officers that were involved in this case.
In this society we have a lot of stereotypes and many towards minority groups including Mexicans. Being Mexican myself I have heard a lot of them, the one that I believe fits this case is the one where people say that Mexicans hit their kids (with their sandals to be more specific). The documentary also talks about how that neighborhood that Gabriel lived in was not a very good one. The reason I bring this up is because the people that were involved with this case never took the meetings seriously (social workers or cops). They got calls to check on Gabriel because people had serious concerns and there could have been more done to save Gabriels life and nothing was done.
Were these people not taking the situation seriously because of racial bias. Maybe they thought "well this is a bad neighborhood it's a normal thing" or thinking something about the race. In the definitions it says in an unconscious manner and that is probably what saved them. Even if it wasn't intentional there could have been something leading them to not making any effort to save Gabriel.

A Hate Crime on a Child

      Netflix has recently released the documentary about Gabriel Fernandez, a 8-year old boy who was tortured and murdered by his mother and mothers boyfriend. This documentary shows how law enforcement and social workers failed to protect Gabriel from his parents that lead to his death. There are many disturbing details about this case but one that I want to talk about is the fact that there was discussions about this being a hate crime.
At the scene when 911 was called her boyfriend stated to Matthew Bistline (a EMT at the scene) that Gabriel was gay. He wasn't concerned about Gabriel and the only thing that came out his mouth was that he was gay. His mom and her boyfriend would both call him gay and made him wear dresses, they would but Gabriel's clothes in a bag under the sink. There was no evidence that Gabriel was actually gay but his parents believed he was and when they were beating him they would call him gay.
I wanted to talk about how this was a hate crime because even though they did mention it in the documentary, they weren't charged with it. I believe this is a huge problem that a lot of people have to go through and should be taken more seriously. Two weeks later there was another murder with a similar situation. Anthony Avalos who was tortured and murdered by his mother and her boyfriend. It was said that Anthony had come out to his parents and was soon after that murdered. The fact that these were children being tortured for being or not being gay is outrageous and disgusting that is why I wanted to talk about this as my first post. There has to be a change in not only in the homes and minds of parents but in the way social workers and law enforcement deal with children and abusive parents.