Racial Profiling and Discrimination in America
Slavery in the United States formally began during the late seventeenth century, when the country was still a British colony. The institution then expanded and intensified rapidly during the eighteenth century, reaching its peak during the start of the nineteenth. During most of this time, for all intents and purposes, simply to be black was enough to identify one as a slave. That is to say, racial distinctions between whites and people of color were not merely noted, but comprised the economic and legal foundation of American society. Once slavery was abolished, black Americans did not suddenly occupy a station equal to that of their white contemporaries. Jim Crow and anti-miscegenation laws were in effect, usually in the South, and other forms of segregation were commonplace throughout the nation. In the poem "Outcast," Claude McKay clearly identifies the prejudice and the alienation he faces as a legacy of slavery and of the forceful removal of Africans from their ancestral homelands (McKay 198). Racial discrimination in the United States is more easily understood when viewed in this wider context of American history: it can be hardly surprising that racism still exists in a country whose economy was propelled early on by race-based slavery, let alone one in which legal segregation was the norm until far more recently. Franklin's story, "The Train from Hate," is a succinct illustration of life in a time of strict racial segregation: a train conductor can simply kick a black family off a train for entering the white coach, even when it was the only available entrance (Franklin 223).
Today, one of the major forms of discrimination that faces black Americans is in the disproportionate policing of black communities and the impunity with which police officers often brutalize or even kill the members of those communities. The Black Lives Matter movement exists today specifically to draw attention...
Racial Profiling: To What End?" By John P. Crank attempts to reason upon the race debate concerning racial profiling. He attempts to focus on broad implications that police policy has on society. It seems to concentrate on whether or not policy is racist concerning inner-city populations with high crime rates. This perspective misses the mark entirely. High crime rates, in dense populations of minorities, mean reactive politics resulting in
Obama N. Racism Obama and Racism Throughout history, several factors have always helped decide who was entitled to even run for the esteemed office of the President of the United States of America. Military service, a prominent Governorship, family connections, the number of slaves owned and of course having a boat load of money clearly helped. Of course, this list offered no guarantees of making the short list. The nations' power brokers
Introduction Mass shootings in America have become more prevalent than ever before. Depending on how one defines “mass shooting” the number of mass shooting incidents in America this year alone could range anywhere from half a dozen to more than 200. Even at the strictest definition of mass shooting half a dozen is too many. Last week, two mass shootings occurred back-to-back on different sides of the country—one in El Paso,
Racism in America: Where do we stand? From the time of the New World's discovery in the year 1492, racism has remained at the forefront of U.S. history. Even in the present day, it is reported that in America, one Black man dies from police confrontations every 28 hours. A majority of these incidents even fail to show up in local newspapers and news channels. It is only occasionally that these
C. By Michael Shively (June, 2005), the first hate crime laws were enacted during the sixties, seventies, and eighties. The first states to pass hate crime legislation were Oregon and Washington in 1981. The first federal hate crime legislation, Shively explains, was debated in 1985, and the first federal statute related to hate crimes was the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, passed in 1990. Subsequent to that Act, other pieces of
Domestic Terrorism The Al-Qaeda group is probably the most popular terrorist group known this century for their very high-profile attacks; their most bold move was the destruction of the World Trade Center, now known today as 911, or September 11th. These motives are said to be of the religious sort, however there are arguments when it comes to the validity of these claims, as it may come off as to discriminate
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