Informative Essay on Racism

As touched on already, racial discrimination can be in both the form of intentional as well as unintentional -? both of which are harmful to people and the culture in which they live. Now one may ask: how can someone unintentionally discriminate against another race? There are quite a few ways, actually. A major one is traditional upbringing. The circumstances that people grow up in have an extremely large impact on their lives, how they handle situations, how they think, and how they talk (and not just in the sense of their accents). In the movie “42” (The Jackie Robinson
Story), a heckler in the crowd began shouting vulgar obscenities and racial slurs attacked because of his skin, regardless of the fact that he was an outstanding ball player. In the movie, the hecklers son was sitting next to him, and began to repeat everything his father was saying. Now, even though this may just be a movie, this is a great representation of how a child’s circumstances influence his behavior. And what one can take away from this scene is that we need to be conscious of the example that we set for our kids. As they grow up, they are naturally drawn to regurgitate what they hear from heir parents.
That is simply the way kids were made to learn: repetition. A parent who is negligent in this aspect of parenting often times results In adults discriminating against other races, whether it be intentional or unintentional. Now with that said, there is still a lot of intentional hatred and discrimination even in 2015. A study reported in The College Student Journal, “The Changing Nature of Racism On College Campuses: Study of Discrimination at a Northeastern Public University” explained that there are a lot of college students that feel the pressure of discrimination even today, although it is less obvious now.

The study used three minority groups (Black, Asian and Hipic) proportionally from the percentage that those groups represent in the campus minority. They were asked questions on the topic of racism, and more specifically, if and how they have been affected by it. As already stated before, the results showed that racism is still a prominent issue. The interesting part is that the longer minority students are on campus, the more likely they are to experience some sort of racially motivated attack, whether it is verbal abuse, physical abuse, or mental abuse.
To get rid of schism, we must simply stop talking about it. Now one may think that it is hypocritical to write and talk on the topic of racism and how people need to stop talking about it. But too many people bring up the subject in a manner that has no positive drive to get rid of it. That is the purpose of this essay. As long as the news continues to put it in our brains that all of these shootings and police killings were a matter of race, then people will continue to think in terms of race and how white cops are evil. Let that statement not be misconstrued.
There are most definitely evil cops out there, both white and lack. Some of those cases involving multiple races may have had some form of racism involved. But for people to instantly get angry at the other race simply because their skin color is a few shades lighter or darker is absolutely ridiculous. Let us take the recent Eric Garner case. What we see is a video of a white cop choking out a black man who supposedly is “acting within his rights”. But that is about as far as people are willing to look into the case. But let us get the facts straight.
There is no doubt that Garner was resisting an arrest for illegally selling untaxed cigarettes. Former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Keri put it succinctly: “You cannot resist arrest. If Eric Garner did not resist arrest, the outcome of this case would have been very different -? he wouldn’t be dead today. ” The video of the incident clearly shows Garner, an African-American, swatting away the arms of a white officer seeking to take him into custody, telling him: “Don’t touch me! ” Garner, 43, had history of more than 30 arrests dating back to 1 980, on charges including assault and grand larceny.
At the time of his death, Garner was out on bail after being charged with illegally selling cigarettes, driving without a license, Arizona possession and false impersonation. The chuckhole that Patrolman Daniel Pantaloon put on Garner was reported to have contributed to his death, but it was not the primary cause. Garner, who was 6-foot-3 and weighed 350 pounds, suffered from a number of health problems, including heart disease, severe asthma, diabetes, obesity, and sleep apneas. Pantaloons attorney and police union officials argued that Granger’s poor health was the main cause of his death.
Garner did not die at the scene of the confrontation. He suffered cardiac arrest in the ambulance taking him to the hospital and was pronounced dead about an hour later. Much has been made of the fact that the use of chuckholes by police is prohibited in New York City. But officers reportedly still use them. Between 2009 and mid-2014, the Civilian Complaint Review Board received 1, 128 chuckhole allegations. Patrick Lynch, president of the New York City Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, said: “It was clear that the officer’s intention was to do nothing more than take Mr..
Garner into custody as instructed, and that he used the attacked technique that he learned in the academy when Mr.. Garner refused. ” The grand jury began hearing the case on Septet. 29 and did not reach a decision until Wednesday, so there is much testimony that was presented that has not been made public. The 23-member grand jury included nine non-white jurors. In order to find Officer Pantaloon criminally negligent, the grand jury would have had to determine that he knew there was a “substantial risk” that Garner would have died due to the attacked.
Now if there is anything that one can take away from this case alone, it is that people need to study more, listen to reporters less, and think for themselves. People should never take in and believe everything they hear about these cases. This will cause racism to only et worse. Because now you go from black and white evidence, to simply black and white skin, with no evidence or research at all – whereas if it were two white guys in an altercation, the story would never make headlines. And in turn, if it were a black cop that killed a black man, it would be at least somewhat understandable, and possibly even justifiable.
What is sickening is the fact that this is not the only case in which the media produced either partial information or false information all together. There is a reason why people say, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. ” Another way n which some people believe racism is being held in place is through black history month. In an interview, well respected, African-American actor Morgan Freeman asks, “You are going relegate my history to one month of the year? Which month is white history? There isn’t one. Black history is American history.
Treat it as such. ” This issue of whether or not black history should be celebrated is debatable from both sides of the spectrum. But understand where Freeman is coming from. Racism is only an issue because of the people who continue to make it an issue. Discriminating others by race is not something that humans naturally want to do. No one is born racist. The issue (as addressed once already) is that racism is continually being passed down from one generation to the next, and additionally, the news and our beloved political leaders continue to make it an issue.
Race needs to be irrelevant in the political and socioeconomic sphere. Now to some extent, people should recognize the differences between the varying races. But the differences that should be recognized are that of the beauty and variety of all the different colors, backgrounds, and histories of these races. But never in the form of a so-called “recognition” of specific abilities to certain races, and specially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race. Change has been slow in coming.