Today, November 26, 2014, the USA is in a terrible position.
Unfortunately, today’s topic of conversation is racism; well not fully, but
along the lines of it. Just recently in this week’s news, a white officer was
recently let off without any charges for killing an unarmed black teenage male.
With the Zimmerman case ending in a way many people of the black community disagreed
on, this case is a little different because an actual police officer is
involved. This one case in particular has attracted the attention of people in
Pakistan, China, and even Korea had some input. In fact, Korea has recently
called our country “a laughingstock” because of the way people of color are handled
in the place that is supposed to be the land of the free. With the news of no
indictment coming out, citizens of all races (majority of these people being
black) have recently been protesting and looting worldwide, especially in
Missouri, the place where this incident happened. Though I was not around in
the late ‘60s, the images I am seeing on the news and on the web has got me
thinking to myself that we are repeating history. Tear gas is being thrown out
to protestors, building set on fire, it seems as if we are just in another
cycle of blacks not being treated equally. What does this mean for our future
in this country? The grand jury of Missouri, which consists of 12 people, is 9
out of 12 white people. Mind you that there are only nine votes needed to make
a decision, and with a white person looking at possible jail time, of course he
got the 9 votes needed to walk free. Is this fair? Are blacks still treated
unequally? If you ask me I say yes, and by the way things are looking, today’s
USA looks exactly as it did in the ‘60s; and at this rate with more and more
unfair trials involving the death of a young black person, we will only get
worse and soon there will be no more peace because there seems that there is no
justice.
2 comments:
Carlos brings up a very controversial and sensitive subject for Americans of all races. I too feel that black people in America are treated far more differently than other races. I believe that white privilege and male privilege exist in this country so if you're a white guy, you definitely have it made. I have witnessed this firsthand on many occasions because I grew up in south Dallas where a majority of my friends were not white. Police officers and teachers treated my friends far more differently than I whenever we had got caught skipping class or getting into trouble despite ALL of us being guilty. As an American, we should feel shameful and disgraced to allow such blatant racism to thrive in a land that we front as "equal". Despite our shortcomings as a nation, I hope that this mentality dies out with the older generation and that my generation can abolish this kind of behavior through acceptance and understanding because we are all people.
In Carlos commentary he definitely shows what his main point is. He makes it very clear but I feel that there was a lot more things that could have been added to his work. For example, he could make his main idea expand more by describing the events in more detail and giving his audience more information. Also, it would be better if he had links where he got the North Korea quote, so we could see more of the commentary. I agree with his point of view but like I said, it would be better if we where provided with the links where we could find information about the riots and protests and more importantly where to see that other countries are supporting these protests going on. He makes a good argument about the jury and the fact that 9 out of 12 where white men and it really gives us the idea of how white privilege works. Overall I think it was a really good commentary.
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