The law criminalizes violent acts (and attempts to commit violent acts undertaken with a dangerous weapon) when those acts occur because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person.” This article talked about a devastating
This continued nuisance is even very present and notable within our laws and law enforcement departments, an issue largely due to the “failure to address structural racism and [building] on the compromises of the 1960s civil rights pacts” (Bazian 43). Unsurprisingly, Trump was not the first president to use racist and negative rhetoric when referring to a minority; President Reagan’s attacked African American “welfare mothers.” A more liberal president, Clinton, then adopted this sentiment. These sentiments were translated into policies that affected African American, thus showing the deep presence of racism within our political and governmental structure. Overall, Professor Bazian explored the issues that rise when people (i.e. African Americans and Muslims) are seen as out of the ordinary vis-à-vis the European
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a dramatic film with points of comedy created in 1993. This film takes place in the serene and rural, but fading, town of Endora, Iowa. Gilbert Grape, a twenty-four year old store clerk, is assumed with the obligation of monetarily providing for his family and caring for his developmentally disabled brother Arnie. Gilbert has two sisters, Emily and Amy, the aforementioned Arnie, age seventeen, and his morbidly obese mother Bonnie, a widower of seventeen years. Gilbert’s father who committed suicide following Arnie’s birth, which initiated Bonnie’s battle with depression and gorging.
The killings of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and a plethora of other Black Americans have shown that the manifestation of hate and fear towards individuals of color is still deeply rooted in the American culture. Furthermore, the systematic maltreatment of groups of people in America has extended far beyond just the black community; it has become painfully clear that members of the LGBTQ, Latinx, and Islamic communities are facing a similar level of
“Half of Americans say racism is a big problem in this country,” according to a fascinating new people poll released by the Washington Post. That is up an astonishing seventeen points since the last time pollsters asked this question in 2010. It represents the highest level of concern about racism in this country in at least twenty years. A forty eight year-old white woman from Sterling Heights, Michigan, says she did not expect racism to get worse: “It always seemed like it was getting better, like our generation was going to be better than previous generations," says Austin, who participated in the CNN/KFF poll. There is the other fifty percent that is delusional, thinking there is no such thing as
White vs. Native Americans Knowing the fact that Native Americans were pushed toward the Middle West and had to settle down against their wills are depressing. When the first Europeans came to this remote land and decided to make it their home, I was not sure whether they could imagine that the whole land is dominated by “invaders” called by the Native Americans, including the native Hawaii. “From a Native Daughter” by Haunani-Kay Trask showed us how these Natives’ feelings are being overlooked and silenced by white historians who do not know their language and culture. The author questioned Western historians were “looking at them with Western eyes, thinking about them within Western philosophical contexts, categorizing them by Western indices,
The Scar of America’s History: A Solution From Two Perspectives “Racism is man’s gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason” (Abraham Joshua Heschel). Your skin color does not represent the type of person you are, so why be judged upon just that. No one can chose what color skin they will be born with, and most importantly what culture they will obtain to. Booker T. Washington was a black, middle-aged educator that believes in achieving change through patience, and tolerating your current situation in order to achieve long-term change. On the other hand, W.E.B. DuBois believes in more of an aggressive approach and directly attacking the issue at hand.
Violence is unacceptable We are living in a turbulent world. On average, there are about 150,000 deaths every day because of diseases, old age, traffic accidents, and especially violence. The data from FBI indicates that in 2013, an estimated 1,163,146 violent crimes occurred in America, and somebody commits a hate crime every hour ("Violent Crime”). The fact that more and more gruesome murders happen shows that we are living in fear of violence, and this violence is unacceptable. FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program states that, “violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault,” ("Violent Crime”).
It’s time to #TakeAKnee “We never get rid of hate by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy, by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature hate destroys and tears down.” Dr. Martin Luther King stated that the purpose of non-violent protest was not to get revenge but to change the heart of the enemy. Over the past couple of years America has begun to acknowledge police brutality as a serious problem. While state-sanctioned violence towards individuals of varying races of color is not new, the documentation through dash-cams and civilian cellphone footage has brought the brutality to light.
With violence progressing from teachings, movies and entertainment as well as environments it's important to realize there's one of two outcomes; an endless generation of people who have been taught violence and will teach others or a drive and determination to allow yourself to be better and to influence those around them in environments for the
While it is evident that racism against the Latino community is still a problem that impacts Latinos negatively, there are many forces that are doing all they can to put a stop
Two recent news regarding racial discrimination is the controversial Mr. Donald Trump and his comments regarding Mexicans and also a recent strike held at many Universities around the United States protesting about discrimination at their schools. One recent racism act that we have all heard of is the rude and disrespectful man named Donald Trump. His rude comments about Mexicans were very offensive and disrespectful. He called all Mexicans criminals, drug dealers and rapist. His exact words were "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime.
African Americans have been struggling and fighting hate crimes since the 1860s after the Emancipation Proclamation and continue to do so today with the black lives matter and the fight against police brutality and unfair judgement. “More than fifty out of every one million black citizens was the victim of a racially motivated hate crime in 2012,” (Sreenivasan). Hispanics are also causalities in this never-ending battle of hate crime. Between 2003 and 2007 the number of cases of hate crimes jumped by 40%. Several stories and accounts of this is because of the accusation that “[the Mexicans] are taking our jobs” and “are causing
Today in class, we discussed a topic that is deeply engraved in American history yet widely avoided by many: race. More specifically, terms like “racist,” “All Lives Matter,” and “white privilege,” which may make some people uncomfortable but more than ever, need to be confronted and examined. We watched several videos containing a variety of people discussing their own personal thoughts and feelings on such terms to spark our own conversations on the same topics. After viewing the first video on the word “racist,” I began to reflect on my own actions towards other people.
As the realities of race – who is white and who is not-shift over time and according-to class, language, location, and various other factors, it becomes increasingly clear that people should not be the object of attack. People raced as white are not the problem, the problem is white supremacy, white privilege, and white empire. People of all races contribute to these social, political, and legal ills, and people of all races can unite to destroy
