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What Happened to Change?

Are we suppressing ourselves or is the government the cause of our suppression? Statistics show that Black and Latinos make up 30% of the US population, but are 61% of the incarcerated population! The percentage practically doubles. This clearly shows that there is something peculiar going on. How is the percentage of colored people in jail larger than the actual percentage of colored people? I’m all for individual responsibility, but with the way our system is set up, how do they expect people to help themselves when they are doing everything they can to constrain the people? The system claims to help and protect society but in reality they are the main ones against them. The system is the enemy.

Are we suppressing ourselves or is the government the cause of our suppression? Statistics show that Black and Latinos make up 30% of the US population, but are 61% of the incarcerated population! The percentage practically doubles. This clearly shows that there is something peculiar going on. How is the percentage of colored people in jail larger than the actual percentage of colored people? I’m all for individual responsibility, but with the way our system is set up, how do they expect people to help themselves when they are doing everything they can to constrain the people? The system claims to help and protect society but in reality they are the main ones against them. The system is the enemy. I believe poverty and racial inequality is a result of government injustice. The system is at fault!

The way society responds to you because of your skin color is becoming more recognizable. According to The Racial Impact of a Criminal Record on Interview Callbacks in 2003, Black people with a criminal record get callbacks for jobs at a rate of 5% as compared to white people having a 17% callback rate. The callback percentage for black people without a criminal record is 14%, when for white people it is 34%. What other proof would you need to show you are affected because of your color? If resumes did not require your ethnicity, each person, colored or white, would have a 50/50 chance. This statistic clearly shows that you are accepted not because of what you are capable of, but because of the color your skin is. That is how you are defined in this society. Our nation has no right to complain about why the majority of colored people are in need of government assistance! Considering that when colored people are making it a point to go out, find jobs, and make money themselves, society rejects them! Society is not allowing them to provide for themselves when they aren’t employing them.

The government is like a set of parents; they are society’s mentor. They are there to support, guide and control humanity. According to Barack Obama, “For kids to excel, we have to accept our responsibility to help them learn. That means putting away the Xbox — putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour.” Seems about right, but is it the parents’ fault for what their child grows up to be? NO! These children learn from the outside world, from what is going on in their communities. Obama is the papa of our nation! It is his obligation to control and guide us! We as a society are lazy, poor, and violent. Well guess what… We are a product of Obama! We as a nation represent him, and if it’s all bad, then maybe it’s him who needs to change to control us, his children. Obama needs to help us, to help him. We are a family and need to stick together, not just leave behind the ones that need a little more assistance.

I’m all for individual responsibility, of course. You need to own up to what you’ve done wrong and try to help yourself get right. But you can only do so much when society is against you and holding you down. I do not like how colored people are being portrayed as “lazy.” If anything, it is the government’s fault for people’s laziness, because instead of trying to help these people get on their feet and guiding them, they just throw all these welfare options at them. What needs to happen is that we, the people, need to continue trying harder to prove we don’t fit that “stereotype” as we are portrayed. Also for the government, they need to stop complaining and talking about what is wrong and how they will change it and actually DO something to change it and make our Nation exceptional! To make America the best country, to actually mean it when we say, “America is number one!”

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