Racial and economic inequalities are hardships in the United States. Some people in the United States feels that it is an individual choice for them to be where they are. They feel the individual is responsible for themselves and everything around them. If they do not have a job, that is on them. People like me feel it is society’s fault that certain things are the way they are. How are people supposed to get a job if they do not really have a chance because of their ethnicity or personal background? Everyone should have an equal chance. My father was shot and in no way do I feel it was his fault. He was an innocent man walking down the street when some boys who were about twenty decided to start shooting at a forty year old man.
According to a report on the Racial Impact of Criminal Record in 2003, Caucasians are more likely to get a call back for a job interview than African Americans with or without a criminal record. An African American with a criminal record has a 5% chance of getting a call back while someone who is Caucasian and has a record has a 17% chance of getting a call back. A Caucasian with no criminal record has a 34% chance of getting a call back while an African American who also has no criminal record only has a 14% chance of getting a call back. Inequalities with race, gender, ethnicity and somebody’s background have been problems in the past, and things are still not changing for the better.
Carl Dix, co-initiator of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, stated that things will never be equal in America as long as things keep going the way they are. If we want things to change then we all have to work together. “A black teenager named Trayvon Martin is murdered by a Caucasian man who decided Trayvon was ‘acting wrong,’ and he too is acquitted.” Trayvon Martin, Emmett Till and more boys are killed everyday because of their race, but nothing happens. In Trayvon Martin’s case he did nothing wrong. He was an innocent boy who was walking home and lost his life no reason. For what reason should have Trayvon have lost his life?
Not only does this happen to African Americans, but other innocent people are shot and killed everyday. Justice is not served and because of that, some people feel the need to take matters into their own hands. A problem with the other side’s argument is that you cannot blame the people who are affected by it. I am sure African Americans do not ask to be discriminated against, and Latinos do not ask to not be able to do everything they want to do just because they are not from here. When they come here they hope for a better life, and in some cases it is not what they get. I know my brother did not ask to be killed. The government needs to stand up for their responsibilities and take action. There needs to be equality for everyone not just certain people. We supposedly are all equal in this country, but are we really?
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As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
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