The Struggle with Racism

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1920s and 30s. African American men were and still are, treated like a threat to society today. Some black men are even getting executed. Executions are not fair to innocent people. In 1996 Kenneth Foster was wrongly accused of shooting Michael LaHood Jr when he was sitting in his car 80 feet away unaware that a murder was happening. Michael ended up getting put on death row and was scheduled to be executed on August 30 2007 by lethal injection.

History has shown African American men have been portrayed as a danger to society by being brutalized, terrorized and accused of crimes they did not commit. Recently a family friend was shot by the police a few weeks ago because the evidence was not justified enough. Also, in other cases it seems there is a rush to justice without observing all the facts or the rush to police protocol. Earlier last year there was an officer shot in the face in St Paul. “ Martin notes that the police said Wood, who is white, shot an officer in the face with an air rifle, but the incident ended peacefully when officers coaxed him into coming out of the house and surrendering”(Laura Yuen). Jeff Martin the president of the NAACP says “ I hate to say this, but I had to pay particular attention to his race”(Laura Yuen). What he means by that is, say there was a black person in that situation, what do you think the outcome would be? Most likely the African American would be killed not talked down.

Racism has been around forever.The justice system that we have in place today allows racism to continue. Hopefully it will be abolished in the near future. Racism has changed very little towards all African Americans, especially black men starting in the 1920s, to the justice system and in the 21st century. How can you survive killing the roots of all civilization?

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