Obama spends his time speaking about the decisions people make for themselves, but it’s also the government who plays a big role in the choices that people make. According to Barack Obama, “We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices… But one of the things you’ve learned over the last four years is that there’s no longer any room for excuses… And whatever hardships you may experience because of your race, they pale in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured – and overcame.” I’m not saying it is all the government’s fault that people are making bad decisions, but for the most part it is. In society we are all separated by race, which leaves us, the people of color, to be spoken about in a negative way. We are all known as the bad people in the society that do most of the crime. That’s why it seems like the cops, and even the government, are picking on us. Being known as the bad person just because of my skin color isn’t fair, which makes me realize that were all separated. When people look at us and the color of our skin, we are automatically judged. It’s just the way that the government built our society.
Many people of color are getting sent to prison because they are drug users, and disproportionately so because the drug offenses for people of color are more severely punished compared to the offenses by other races. “The statistics show that whites take up to 69.13% of the population in the United States, Black 12.32%, Hispanic 12.55%, and leaving the rest at 6%. Though the population of the people of color is really small, the population that is in prison is quite large. The percentage of whites in prison is 34.72, Blacks 43.91%, Hispanic 18.26%, and other races is 3.11%.” The people of color are being judged because of their appearance most of the time, mainly by the cops. They think that all people of color are the same and that they are all bad when that isn’t the case at all, and that’s what gets people so angry with the ways the government works. There have been times where the government would say they are for the people and they’ll listen to the people’s opinions, but in reality they are a group of selfish people.
I personally believe that there are plenty people of color that are incarcerated for no apparent reason, the only reason being the color of their skin. I’m not saying all people of color are innocent and doing great things, but nobody is perfect not even the white people. According to Carl Dix, our society is “The new Jim Crow. More than two million people in prison, and more than five million formerly incarcerated facing discrimination when looking for work, and barred from living in public housing and receiving government loans… No civil rights movement is going to change that. We need a revolution to get rid of this system and bring a totally different and far better one into being.” People of color deserve as much respect as anybody else; all shouldn’t be punished for the choices that other people of color choose to make in their lives. There are many hard working people of color that are looking for work or trying to get help from the government. There should not be anymore discrimination. There should be equality for all races, not just one in particular.
Debating personally matters to me because I feel like it’s a way that other citizens of America can have a type of freedom of speech. Making decisions about the things that go on in America is really limited especially for the people of color. They’ve always been known as the people who can’t really make wise choices, and little by little they are trying to take that away. Discrimination always comes into play when it comes to being fair towards the people of color. It’s all just unfair. Obama believes it’s the people’s fault about mostly everything, referring to the people of color. He is wrong in so many ways. It’s not the people’s fault, because all Americans have the right to make their own choices. I just think it’s wrong how he blames all people but in reality it’s the system that is all unfair. Carl Dix blames the system for being such an influence on the choices that people make in their lives. I can agree with the things that he says because racism towards the people of color is called discrimination and that’s the major problem that we have in our so-called fair society. We just need equality for all people and we need to stop discrimination before it gets worse than it already is.
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