Dear Garrett, You bullied me, and other black kids all throughout high school. You were raised to believe that African Americans were less than you. You were raised to believe that we do not have a part in this society. It is not completely your fault that you think this way, but in this letter, I will tell you all the reason that you are wrong. I would like to start this letter by telling you that your beliefs are not all your fault. You were raised to believe it. Nobody was ever born racist. People are raised to believe that the minority race has a lessor value than the majority race. As Jane Elliott, an anti-racism activist said, “Anything you learn, you can unlearn, and it’s time to unlearn our bigotry” (Rita Tv). You can learn to not be racist and hopefully with this letter I can use my rhetoric skills to help you unlearn what you think is right. Did you …show more content…
How would you feel if someone tried to kill themselves because of something you said? Back in 2009 and fourteen-year-old mixed girl tried to kill herself because a fifteen-year-old boy bullied her for being mixed for six months. The boy had to face a maximum of a two-year detention and training order. Including 12 months in juvenile detention (Wardrop). What the boy and you did is called Racist Bullying. Bully Statistics says, “Racist Bullying is a third type of focused bullying that targets people of a specific race or cultural”. Bullying someone can make them have low self-esteem, aggression, or isolation. You bullying made life harder for me. I became tough quickly and some say to tough. I did not let myself feel the pain of the words you said to me. Since I became tougher I turned into a bully myself. I never bullied other kids like you did but I would never step down to a challenge of getting into an argument. One you graduated high school I could be more vulnerable, but I still had issues with letting things go and moving on from the
Garrett morgan was a very accomplished man who was self educated and really contributed to society. He invented the original traffic light and he invented the original gas mask which saved many people's lives in many dangerous situations.
Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations and the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize winner, once said, “Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated (“Quotes.”)” Racism has existed since the dawn of time. It has been used as a method to keep strangers out of societies or to keep people in an inferior state. Racism is defined as, “The belief that some races of people are better than others (“Racism.”)” How should the citizens of the world stop the spread of racism? The answer is through the education of children. Parents and guardians must teach them one step at a time to not judge a book by its cover. The evaluation of two sources, the article, “Just Walk on By: Black men in Public Spaces” by Brent Staples and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech, “I Have a Dream,” can help citizens learn how the discriminated feel when they are discriminated against, and how to stop the spread of racism.
Since the early colonization of North America, the British used slaves to do the hard manual work that the rich British men did not want to do. Even though the average American does not like to think of America’s past, there are many things that we teach in American history about our past events that shaped America, such as the Ku Klux Klan’s hatred towards African Americans and the use of slavery throughout the South during the 18th century. Many African Americans feel that their ancestors stumbled through their life for more than 300 years (Staple 22). This is true because they had been fighting for equality between every race from since the British and Americans started using them as slaves. African Americans would like “education that teaches [them their] true history and role in present-day society” (Haskins 116) During the Civil Rights Movement many innocent African Americans were beaten up while they were non-violently protesting. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee before a protest that was planned; and many African Americans were called the “N” word throughout their life prior to the Civil Rights Movement. The Staple Singers alluded to these events during their song by saying “[We’d] been beat up, called names, shot down, and stoned” (Staple 16). African Americans not only had to endure this type of bullying from
In the two essays, “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space” by Brent Staples and “I’m Not Racist But…” by Neil Bissoondath, there are both differences and similarities. The two authors differ in their opinion on the causes of racism and life experiences involving racism, but are similar in regards to the use of stereotypes in the world
Americans should realize the magnitude of slavery’s consequences on African Americans as a whole. Blacks were brainwashed and stripped of self-esteem and taught to be ashamed of dark color of their skin. Many African Americans have effortlessly tried to advocate “Black Pride”, trying to re-instill self-worth and being proud of our distinct facial and body features, and darker complexions. African Americans had zilch to begin with after the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Slaves were promised a “mule/ and 40 acres” and they didn’t live to receive it nor did generations to follow; because the American government has yet to live up to its word. The fruit of the slaves’ labor was stolen from the “land of the free”. The victims of the White people’s African slave trade never experienced such freedom. This race deserves compensation for the mistreatment
Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operate huge corporations today. This type of racism is found in many places which include schools, court of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they may interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt. Because institutionalized racism is a factor that affects how
My friend, Kevin, was just two short months away from graduating high school, but he never got to see that day because of bullies. No one had a clue; he had a remarkable family and a great group of friends. He did everything he could to leave a smile on everyone’s face, and he earned the nickname, “Cheeks,” because of his huge, friendly smile. No one understood why such a cheerful person would want to take his own life, but it was because bullies harassed him for months, and no one knew. According to the Center for Disease Control, “Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year” (Bullying and Suicide). Bullying is an ongoing issue that seems to evolve rapidly, and the world of
The exhaustion of the long commute to Monroe Elementary School everyday had upset me, the feeling of being powerless overcame my mentality. I constantly thought to myself about the all whites elementary school only seven blocks away, what made them so surprior? I, as a third grader, grew up to the discriminatory profiling. Of course it was nothing new, but I could not comprehend why. Recalling back to Monroe Elementary; the broken ceiling tiles, the wore down floors, and the cracked windows was not an ideal place for any education to take place. It had only proved to me that the segregation of white and black children made us African American students feel inferiority to the white American students.
Racism: a Short History George Fredrickson makes an argument ultimately against the dichotomy between civilization and savagery, specifically the resurgence of ethnoreligious bigotry that, according to him, replaces 20th century race theory in order to justify continued inequities and sociopolitical oppression worldwide in Racism: A Brief History. His book delineates the rise of modern race theory, beginning in Medieval Europe and synthesizing an explanation for the existence and success of the overtly racist regimes, the United States, South Africa, and Nazi Germany. Fredrickson cautions, however, that racism can easily become interchangeable with religious bigotry when facing corporatism that aims to alienate, marginalize, and devalue human beings as mere consumers with little agency or any collective sense of identity. Racism's ultimate goal, according to Fredrickson, is to establish a permanent hierarchal order that "has two components: difference and power." Fredrickson's analysis is probably one of the most direct and functional definitions of racism that I have run across in a while.
Additionally, suicide is never a guaranteed way out. There is never a one hundred percent chance that committing suicide will actually work. When someone commits suicide the family will grieve and mourn the loss of their loved one. When someone attempts to commit suicide and fails, the family will forever worry and suffer even more. (EXPLAIN) There are various solutions to any conflict and suicide is never the answer. There are many methods to cope with being suicidal. These methods include talking to someone close, consult a person who has experienced the same feelings and gotten better, or talking to a therapist. Feeling suicidal is temporary depending on the situation and how it is dealt with. Keeping quiet for a bully
Segregation has and still affects perceptions of Blackness inside and outside the Black community by making Black people see themselves as White people see them. Many of Black people have accepted the fallacy that they were inferior to White people at a young age, and Whites learned that Blacks were lower then Whites at a young age as well.
The Development of Racism Slavery's twin legacies to the present are the social and economic inferiority it conferred upon blacks and the cultural racism it instilled in whites. Both continue to haunt our society. Therefore, treating slavery's enduring legacy is necessarily controversial. Unlike slavery, racism is not over yet. Loewen 143.
Throughout our country’s history, many groups of people have experienced racism, from the Chinese immigrants that helped build the country’s railroads to the Polish craftsmen that helped build the glass making and wood working industries. Our early society had shown that no ethnic group was immune from racism. However, some ethnic groups have seen it slowly fade and almost disappear, but one group of people has not been so lucky. The African Americans have been more exposed to racism than any other people. Every day, as seen on the news and the internet, Caucasians and African Americans are hurting each other in one way or another, because of their race. Racism has been around for a long time, it is an ongoing problem that our society
My perception of our world is that racism exists everywhere, even in the land of liberty, America. I am aware of the fact that there is racism against not only blacks, but also whites, Asians, along with people from all other ethnicities. I believe racism is deplorable in any form. Therefore I do my best not to be racist in any way.
In “But Not Forgotten” by Jennifer Brown, Jenna, a young girl who had been severely bullied for being overweight, kills herself. “ There is no other way” (Brown 287) Jenna said to her best friend right before she took her own life because she couldn’t take the bullying anymore. Most people who are bullied are afraid to get help. They keep it bottled up inside until their breaking point. In most cases that breaking point is suicide. They believe that suicide is the only way to stop the pain. According to Bullying statistics.org kids who are bullied are 2-9 times more likely to commit suicide than those who haven’t experienced it. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary