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Chy’nese Moses

Ms.Kenly

4-A

22 March 2018

“Hands Down don’t shoot” has been an repetition of words amongst our African

American / American Men and Women. To some these words are just a cry for unneeded

attention, but as for most of our population its more than a cry for attention. Those words are a

cry for a change in our racist world. Sadly many loved ones has been lost to the senseless act of

“accidental’’ shooting of an innocent african american teen because of his clothing, the way he

walks, or just an african american male taking an jog at night but its mistaken that he just robbed

the local drug store because of his skin. It seems as if they’re the easiest to get rid of being that

their gunned down because they seem as if they have a weapon. Rather than any caucasian

actually having an weapon and they blame it on the possibility of him having an health issue. In

reality, it was always this way being that human beings of another race already had an paved

road laid out for them with the perfect credit scores, the biggest house on the best lawn, and a

full ride scholarship to Howard university. The issue of racial equality is a social barrier that

Americans have yet to overcome. Throughout the history of the country, America has been

considered a fairly Racist Union. Racial equality is the belief that individuals, regardless of their

racial characteristics, are morally, politically, and legally equal and should be treated as such(

encyclopedia.com ). Furthermore, it is the belief that different racial groups are equal with non

permanent superior or poor in intelligence, virtue, or beauty( encyclopedia.com ). Racism is the

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cause of all seperation between all Human Beings in today's society. Racism can be defined as

discrimination or the prejudice against people of another race or ethnicity. The start of racism

began with the act of slavery which arrived in the 16th century and is still around to this day.

Slavery was kind of the start to racial discrimination and inequality because this was a set

pedestal for Caucasians over any race. The idea of Caucasians being the superior race of all

times was also formed during the slavery period. As time goes on the inequality will continually

gets worse. In the 1960’s, there were many cases of racial inequality such as The little Rock

Nine, Martin Luther King Arrested in Atlanta Sit-in Protest and many more that add to the list as

history goes on. Many Opposers of this issue say that Racial inequality would be fine in certain

situations and scenarios. Although there is controversy on Racial inequality, racial inequality has

affected African Americans day by day and it should be a big topic of discussion and something

should be done about it.

When you hear racial equality you may think of many different scenarios as in African

Americans being able to sit in a restaurants at the bar or booth the same as any Caucasian, Asian,

or any other human beings, or All people being able to drink from one perfect water fountain

and the list could extend being that there are many examples of racial equalities that could be

done within the United states. Although it can be changed 4 out of 10 African-Americans think

differently. They stated that they doubt the nation will ever achieve racial equality, but as many

white Americans believe racial equality has attempted to make changes over the years. A handful

of blacks and white combined stated that the two races get along perfectly fine, while 7 out of 10

blacks and more then 1 in 4 whites have the same opinion that blacks are treated Unequally by
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the criminal justice system. For instance, in the Trayvon Martin case, the recent killing of two

unarmed African Americans men by the name of Eric Garner, Michael brown and in numerous

cases in which an African American male has been shot and killed by the Police because they

feared that the African American had an weapon vs. letting an Caucasian live when he is armed

with a weapon. Even when he already used the weapon to kill 10 - 20 people at a time but then

they blame it on the fact that the Caucasian has an mental health problem so they allow him to

live. This problem will continue to grow being that the justice system continues to allow it. As

these problems grow the Caucasian police officers caused the national conversation about racial

inequality in the United states to arise in communities all over. In majority of the cases in which

the African American is killed by the Caucasian grand juries have declined to accuse or charge

the officers involved. (Lexile Measure:1470L)( sirs.com).

African Americans were brought to this land and forced to work a lifetime for wages.

This was a major role of racism because it gave whites the right to create an imaginary blueprint

of other race lives in order to better theirs. It seems as if chances weren’t given to every race to

be their own person and fail or succeed based on their own decisions. So unfortunately, it caused

African Americans and other minorities of color to continue to lag behind whites, with the harsh

consequences. These included the fact that African Americans , hispanics, and every race other

than caucasians received the lowest income, harder times getting employed, low quality

education and housing, many health problems, and huge suffrage in the criminal justice system.

Education produced inequality in indirect ways, such as giving the Whites perfectly normal

books while people of other races got the torn and trashy books. After desegregation the U.S
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public schools were more segregated they didn't have the same education to be as smart as the

whites which put them far behind on so much knowledge. In result Studies show that any race

other than Caucasians are nearly three times as likely as non-hispanic whites to be poor, almost

six times as likely to be incarcerated, and only half as likely to graduate from college. Studies

also has shown that the average wealth of white households in the united states is 13 times as

high as any black households. For this reason we began to come into a period of which racial

discrimination started between whites and other races. Being that only Caucasians had the right

to an education and the material to be wealthy can caused racial inequalities within real estate

businesses, schools, and places of work. For example if an real estate agent offers an African

American an house at a price that they know can’t be paid by that individual vs. Giving an

Caucasian an cheaper price that they know will be paid off in now time, this is an form of racial

inequality towards blacks. In schools racial inequality could be put into play when your applying

for schools and they don’t bother to look at your GPA, they would be more so focused on the

spelling and pronunciation of your name in contrast to when an Caucasian person apply to an

school they would be in the top pick for any scholarship they are willing to take. Racial

inequality in the workplace could be something as simple as an customer walking up pointing to

an black man over someone white to prepare their food. These types of inequalities in the world,

we began to form around the white suprematist. White supremacy is the racist ideology based

upon the belief that White people are superior in many different ways to people of other races

and that therefore white people should dominant over any other races. (en.wikipedia) These false

ideology lead us to live up to highest setting goals of the whites and failing to do so daily

because of the major setbacks from being put below their priority for centuries. This act could
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have potentially brain washed a few of different races, Partially in coatance of the reason most

African Americans don’t take initiative, They’re too afraid that the choice and lack of motivation

for them to take initiative will only lead them to failure to themselves and possibly their families.

African Americans tend to stress more everyday they step an foot out of their house. It's because

they’ve been judged by so many people because of the color of their skin and not the content of

their character. They have to go to a college that they know is created so that there easily kicked

out. Settling for jobs that don’t judge them by the pronunciation or spelling of their names but by

their resumes on the last page. To settle for an pay rate of 7.25 an hour while their hourly work

is worth 15.75 an hour. Under those circumstances it makes it harder for them to bring home a

great yearly salary to protect and take good care of the ones they love. It makes it harder for their

wives and mothers to let them out of their site in that they may not return home because of an

cell phone that the police thought was a gun. Racial discrimination is no only between Whites

and Blacks, it's also between Asians and African Americans but in this type of racism their polite

with their words. Polite racism is a form of racial discrimination that is distinguished and subtle,

rather then public or obvious. Within the open cracks in society polite racism discriminates

against individuals through often unnoticeable or seemly passive methods. Surprisingly even

though this is a form or racism, its the racism that our society today is willing to except. Polite

racism goes on around us everyday whether it's the thought that every Asian person you see on

the streets know Kung fu, or all the African American male teens with their hoods on just

committed a crime. I recently created an survey for my fellow classmates and others in the

community, There were two particularly important questions I asked on my anonymous survey

which were, Do you or the people you know use racial slur names or the appropriate name for
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that certain race? The results of my anonymous survey were 47.3% say that they use racial slur

names on the daily and 52.6% say that they use the appropriate name for the race. Racial slur

names would be considered as the following: “nigga”, “monkey”, “redneck”, “mexican”, and etc.

The point is that polite racism is around us everyday we use it towards one another and to people

of an different race. Most people don’t get harmed by polite racism but by racial profiling.

17 year old Trayvon Martin, 18 year old Michael Brown, 27 year old Eric Garner, 31

year old Dontre Hamilton, 22 year old John Crawford, 25 year old Ezell Ford, 36 year old Dante

Parker, 37 year old Tanisha Anderson, 12 year old Tamir Rice, 34 year old Rumain Brisbon, 36

year old Jerame Reid, 19 year old Tony Robinson, 32 year old Phillip White, 44 year old Eric

Harris, 50 year old Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, and the list can continue. Now i'm sure you're

wondering why the previous names were listed, well the reason being is that they were all

victims of racial profiling by the police. Each either shot or choked to death by 1 or more White

police officers.You would think that after so many African American deaths by Caucasian police

officers something wouldve changed in the police system but it hasn't. Police Brutality is an

extremely preventable cause of death although this may be the case, Police brutality is not just

about individuals dying during interactions during law enforcement. In reality Brutality goes

beyond the use of unnecessary physical force that might cause death it could includes emotional

and verbal assaults that makes the victims feel less of themselves. Police brutality could occur in

unintended ways by police officers such as pulling someone over for peeding but then ask to

search their cars, or the excuse of thinking someone had an weapon when in reality it was just his

phone. The results of police brutality has caused many outbreaks and killings of an high amount

of african americans which was then assumed was in relations to police brutality. In the Recent
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years racial profiling has gotten worse. When you look at the daily news, there is an enormous

amount of people dying or emotionally hurt due to racial profiling. Racial Profiling refers to the

discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials by targeting innocent victims for suspicion

of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. (Aclu.org). This means that if

any person of authority thinks that you just committed a crime because of the the black hoodie

you're wearing and the fast pace of your walking then you have been racially profiled. If you

went into a store and you asked a sales associate to see an high priced purse and she said “no it's

too expensive for you’’ then you just got racially profiled. Racial profiling can come in all

shapes and forms. The stopping or searching of cars based on race is one form of racial profiling,

But in this society today it's been organized by federal and local governments. The social

stereotypes about certain groups of people can encourage police officers to perceive some drivers

as more threatening than others. The reason being that the police choose to search cars more

often is because their in hope of finding something illegal. Although this may be the case

research has shown the occurrence that increasing the number of stops and searches among

African Americans and minorities does not lead to more drug invasions then are found in routine

traffic stops and searches among white drivers. This could possibly mean that there are more

drug busts when it comes to the search of Caucasian cars vs. African American cars. In fact, the

ratings of drugs found in profiled-based drug searches of African Americans and minorities are

consistently lower than Whites, this indicate that racial profiling decreases police efficiency. This

statement could make you draw conclusions that African Americans shouldn’t be the the

reoccuring death victims of racial profiling with car searches because its evidential that

Caucasians are 10 times likely to have drugs in their cars. Black drivers are 33 percent less likely
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to be found with drugs compared to whites. In comparison to this In 2007 it shows that blacks

were 78 percent more likely than whites to be searched. Hispanics were 118 percent more likely

than whites to be searched. So with this in consideration it has been confirmed that high rates of

search was represented by racial profiling. In this research I’ve found that institutionalized rules

within law enforcement agencies encourage racial profiling, this explain why so many police

officers and people of authority gets away with killing someone over a bad interpretations. Since

they practice being so racially biased it makes it so much easier for them to be late when doing

routined patrol patterns and responses to calls for services, for example in movies majority of the

time the typical white person calls the police then they’ll be there in less then 10 min but when

the typical black person calls the police they’ll be there in 30 min.

In the event that all of this is the result of racism, Something should be done about it. In

this society we shouldn’t be judged on what we look like or where we come from. This shouldnt

determine the benifits we get as an individual. We shouldn’t have to go throug trials and

tribulations in order to be successful in life. The world was born to believe that all people are

equal but ofcourse many people has been brain washed about how they’re certain race is better

then another. With this being stated it casued people of a different race other then whites to be

unequal based on our race, gender, and other social characteristics. Acts of these like this caused

us to lack behind the whites on the buying of housing, the appropiate schooling, and the best

incomes as whites. We tend to stay inside of our confort zone when it comes to facing whites in a

debate we tend to back down almost all the time. Furthermore the idea of this caused many of

our loved ones to be shot down or incarcerated. You would think that the government would

have tried to do something to prevent the harsh racism day by day, but instead nothing is done
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about it on their part. So therefore citizens were left to protest. ​One solution to all the racial

inequalities is to continue to fight within the community organizations such as Black lives

matter, Black Alliances for just immigration, Black women's blueprint, and etc. We can better

these types or organizations to fight the political way instead of the street way. Protesting

wouldn't be enough in order to stop police brutality. Another solution would be to stop using

racism towards each other such as black on black, or white on blacks, or immigrates on blacks

and etc. No matter who its between we should stop it learn to respect ourselves and each other

then racism will began to decrease. But in my research it showed that it'll never happen because

of how unfair life was during slavery. With this being stated the only real solution to the problem

would be for every human being to believe in themselves.

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Lexile Measure​: 1470L

Lexile Measure​: 1650L

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