Emmett Till Research Paper

Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism towards a person of a different race, based on the belief that their race is superior.

Racism also occurs when people believe that all members of a race have the same abilities or characteristics because of their race, also known as stereotypes or prejudice.

Racism results in people being treated as if they are lesser, and it causes people to think that certain people are all the same because they are a certain race. Most often these views are negative which causes people to wrongly judge an entire group of people based solely on their race.

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African-American who was brutally murdered while visiting family in Money, Mississippi. On August 24, 1955, after insisting

Milam the world was in outrage. This outrage was only intensified when soon after the trial Bryant and Milam unremorsefully confessed to the murder of Emmett Til. One even claimed that he only intended to beat Til, but after seeing that Til had no fear and refused to grovel, he decided to kill him. Til’s murder brought to light the harsh reality of racism in the South. It showed how dangerous Jim Crow segregation could be and was an early driving force of the African-American civil rights movement.

Racism goes against the basic human dignity of all people. It ignores their right to live freely with justice and equal opportunity. Caring about racism has to do with morality. It is morally wrong to ignore the rights and dignities of other human beings.

Furthermore, allowing racism to occur, can negatively affect the wellbeing of humanity as a whole. If it is okay to treat certain groups of people as lesser because of something like race than people are given the idea that it is okay to treat anybody lesser because they are ‘different’. Therefore, racism not only affects those targeted because of their race, but it also jeopardizes the safety of anybody who is seen as

Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a ‘neighbor,’ a brother.” This quote states that everyone should look at another person as a version of themselves and that this mindset is the only way to end prejudice and other similar issues that affect society. Therefore, since racism is an issue that ignores a person’s life as well as the dignities they deserve as a human person, it is an injustice.

Furthermore, the Catechism also states that all people are, “Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all, therefore, enjoy an equal dignity”. This quote states that every person is equal and should enjoy the same dignities. So, to be racist would be an injustice, as everyone was created in the image of God and should all be treated as