Racism is Still Alive

According to the Declaration of Independence “all men are created equal,” but are all men truly created equal when the freedom of the United States is limited to men and women who are not free from the abuse of racism? The American nation has had its fair share of trial and error but has surpassed many obstacles to overcome, but this nation is still faced with a horrific overshadow of brutality and discrimination against race in this nation of the free and home of the brave (US 1776)

The nation was young and optimistic at the time that Frederick Douglass was using his first amendment to stand up for how he as a former slave and those still in slavery were in a constant gloom of feeling unwanted in the nation that was deemed as free. He spoke out for his race, the minority, in hopes that something would be done about the way they were being treated. Douglass goes through trials of his life and the things he had seen, those who wanted the taste of “virtuous freedom” were the ones that were uneasy about what it would be like to be free.

The slaveholders would not want them to run off and experience the chance at freedom, so they conditioned those who wanted a taste of freedom by giving them a bottle of the white man’s drink and convincing them to get drunk, thus leading for the slaves to think a certain way about what it would be like to be free. This is still shown through today as police brutality; the use of force, verbal assault, and psychological intimidation. As shown in a growing body of scholarly research, it is revealed the it is more likely for an African American man to report brutality than it is for any other race, there are lower standards for the African American race based off prejudice, many deem the African American man as aggressive and criminal making them seem as if they are a danger to the society, and that the race is seen as a threat in engaging in criminal activity so they must be punished by force if needed. This reveals that the nation has lost optimism and replaced it an evolved lessened method of the past (Douglass 77).

Discrimination against a certain race has been going on for many of years and has manifested itself into a vendetta against the society, this carries and emotional hatred for In recent years, the role of discrimination that is played in the lives of many African Americans has been looked at closely, they have linked the use of discrimination as a source for the negative mental health. For the most part it is seen to branch from the already existing stereotype that is evident today. Many forms of discrimination come from an encounter that has been personal or from someone else, thus forming a generalized idea of the entire group making it hard for stereotypes to be thrown out the window. If emphasized, most children are taught at a young age about discrimination and what it means.

Many are taught whether it is okay or if it is not okay to discriminate a race. As many things are taught, there are several aspects that attach to a person's beings to form these opinions about someone, such as social media, music, and historical documents. After someone has formed an opinion on how they feel about discrimination in the society, there are only a few things that could change their mind such as: social payoff, psychological payoff, economic payoff, and cognitive payoff. Discrimination may be hard to determine because once an attitude for a certain amount of payoff is connected, then the idea of changing the way your attitude is towards it, then the resistance of change is increased. In the society today, the forms of discrimination come in all different ways; racial slurs, harassment, insults, or inappropriate jokes that are directed to a race to let their guard down to fuel a hatred that is not needed in the society today.

Although this may be true, there are several factors to the racial predicament that stand as the opposing sides clash such as: police go through extensive training to know when to suppress someone and know the force to use when dealing with someone, when being physically assaulted it is okay to use force, it is easier to categorize the cultures, allows us to respond appropriately towards one another, and provides people with a sense of wholeness to a group. But at the end of the day, there is still those things happening in our world today whether some like to accept that, based on someone's personal account they could have used too much force on someone when it was not needed or they could have made a comment about the race that does not seem to offend, but in reality it does. The way the minority group is treated compared to how others are treated is an entirely different atmosphere.

Are all men truly created equal when it is shown in America today that even through trial and error, the progressive nation has only evolved its horrific aspects to form a nation that is bound in the chains of the past, prejudice is moving forward causing the race for equality to slowly lose its battle.

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