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Effects of racial discrimination on society
The effects of racial discrimination
The effects of racial discrimination
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Contrary to some people 's beliefs, there is still a problem in America regarding racial discrimination. The “American Dream” is still far from reach because many Americans choose to ignore racist acts. In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses in depth, about the injustices that he and other African Americans have lived through, witnessed, and will still live through because of their race. Coates is a known advocate for equality amongst African Americans and those who discriminate against them. He brings even more awareness to the wrongs that people, who are black, experience in the memoir he wrote to his son. Coates’ memoir is socially and politically important for America because it educates those who are unaware of the racist …show more content…
He points out to his son that even when a misunderstanding happens, the repercussions for those of his race are extreme and those who are responsible are “rarely held accountable” and if they are, the most “they will receive [are] pensions” (Coates 9). The abuse of authority which “include friskings, detainings, beatings, and humiliations” by police sets an example to society about what is acceptable (Coates 9). This unfair treatment has been going on for so long that Coates says it is recurrent and “old for black people” (Coates 9). Beatings and murders were so common that Coates even states that he “had no sense that any just God was on [his] side” (Coates 28). The plainspoken way that he writes about these experiences brought and still brings awareness for those who are willing to acknowledge the problems that are still happening today. By doing so Coates not only inspires people to make a change, but he also encourages people to wake up from the dream they are choosing to live …show more content…
If they are not immediately affected by it, they act like it does not exist. This is an issue on top of the disregard for the equal treatment, regardless of race, in America that Coates brings up throughout his memoir. People choose this reaction because, “it is so easy to look away” and “to ignore the great evil” (Coates 8), even though “very few Americans will directly proclaim that they are in favor of black people being left to the streets” (Coates 33). By doing this, they continue to live in their dream and nothing gets solved. However, those who live through this, “have never truly had the luxury” of choosing to react this way (Coates 9). They cannot easily ignore the brutal beatings, the lynchings, the racism that they have seen and, or endured. Since the number of people who react by ignoring is significantly larger than those who have to live through the violence, it is hard to end these injustice behaviors. It is difficult to force people to see what they do not want to, and just as hard to force them to act on the very thing they choose to ignore. This is one of the main issues we are experiencing as a country today. Those who are fighting for normalcy cannot do it alone, they need help. Reading the memoir, that Coates wrote so thoroughly, will help to wake people from the Dreams that they choose to live
At the beginning of the book, Coates wrote about how growing up in a community that was hostile against African Americans was like. “The streets transform every ordinary day into a series of trick questions, and every incorrect answer risks a beat-down, a shooting, or a pregnancy. No one survives unscathed. And yet the heat that springs from the constant danger, from a lifestyle of near-death experience, is thrilling.” Coates was always “on guard” as a kid, for he feared that if he spoke or even have the slightest chance of expressing the feeling of dissatisfaction both the streets and the police will seek trouble. There were too many examples at that time that showed Coates physical harm
In addition to this Rankine addresses the issues of regular ‘Stop and Frisk’ of the black people by the police. She mentions that because of their color, they always remain as the prime suspect in the eyes of law agencies. She writes that, “…guy who is always the guy fitting the description” (Rankine
In this passage from the novel Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes meaningful, vivid imagery to not only stress the chasm between two dissonant American realities, but to also bolster his clarion for the American people to abolish the slavery of institutional or personal bias against any background. For example, Coates introduces his audience to the idea that the United States is a galaxy, and that the extremes of the "black" and "white" lifestyles in this galaxy are so severe that they can only know of each other through dispatch (Coates 20-21). Although Coates's language is straightforward, it nevertheless challenges his audience to reconsider a status quo that has maintained social division in an unwitting yet ignorant fashion.
These details help many who may have trouble understanding his hardships, be able to relate. The use of real world examples from his life and history are very convincing and supportive of his theory on blacks lives. Coates talks about how “black blood was spilled in the North colonies, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War [...] and most of all during segregation and the time of JIm Crow Laws. [...] Why is it still being spilt today over the same reasons?” Coates use of history relates to the issues today. It represents how serious the problems were back then, and how serious they still are in the modern society. History is factual, this creates and accurate support to his claim and also allows reader to relate to the past and compare it to today 's society. The rhetorical question causes the audience to think and catches eye. Asking this question emphasizes the issue because it still is a problem that does not have a solution even still today. The author also uses statistics to support the unfair lives of black people. “60 percent of all young black people who drop out of high school will go to jail.” This claim is factual and convincing to his claim about the rigged schooling system in many black communities. The communities are shoved in corner and neglected. This problem results in the thousands of dropouts that later result in jailing. If our schooling systems were
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
In Claudia Rankine’s article ‘The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning”, she describes systemic racism as “Vulnerability, fear, recognition, and an absurd stuckness.” Living in America as a white person is completely different than if you were black. If you are black, you
He did not have the luxury of being open-minded and carefree, he was constantly on guard twenty-four-seven. He talks about having to succeed in school because had he failed in school he would be forced out on the streets where he would have to work even harder to protect his body. He speaks of the drug dealers who used violence and power as a means to disguise the fear of losing their bodies to the streets. Bell Hooks speaks of these same men in her essay Gangster Culture. Men in prison are views as superior because they are using the same power to mask to their bodies during a period of incarceration. Although every person who is currently incarcerated in America does not come from the ghetto they are still placed in an environment where their bodies have to be protected on a consistent basis. Coates says, “In America I was part of an equation- even if it wasn’t a part I relished. I was the one police stopped in the middle of a workday.” (p.124) As Coates then writes, “Your mother had to teach me how to love you-how to kiss you and tell you I love you every night. Even now, it does not feel like a ritual. And this is because I am wounded.” (p.125) The environment in which Coates was raised did not grant him the opportunity of being openly affect and loving because those this left his body vulnerable for attack. He makes reference to growing up in a hard house, a
Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have and you come to us endangered” (82). Coates, now an adult, understood both the love and fear his father had when beating him. Additionally, Coates, from his experiences in his childhood, understood the growing up as an African American male in America is dangerous and unforgiving. Police brutality is the strong arm that America uses to discipline young African American teens who fail to comply with their requests.
The way Staples structures this essay emphasizes his awareness of the problem he faces. The essay’s framework consists mostly of Staples informing the reader of a scenario in which he was discriminated against and then following it with a discussion or elaboration on the situation. This follow-up information is often an expression stating comprehension of his problem and than subtitle, logical criticisms toward it. For example, Staples describes women “fearing the worst of him” on the streets of Brooklyn. He then proceeds to declare that he understands that “women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence.” Staples supports this statement with information about how he had witnessed gang violence in Chester, Pennsylvania and saw countless black youths locked away, however, Staples pronounces that this is no excuse for holding every young black man accountable, because he was an example of a black man who “grew up one of the good boys” coming “to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on.” This narrative structure highlights that Staples is not a hypocrite because he is not show ignorance toward the problem he is addressing unlik...
In the article, “A Letter My Son,” Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes both ethical and pathetic appeal to address his audience in a personable manner. The purpose of this article is to enlighten the audience, and in particular his son, on what it looks like, feels like, and means to be encompassed in his black body through a series of personal anecdotes and self-reflection on what it means to be black. In comparison, Coates goes a step further and analyzes how a black body moves and is perceived in a world that is centered on whiteness. This is established in the first half of the text when the author states that,“white America’s progress, or rather the progress of those Americans who believe that they are white, was built on looting and violence,”
For as long as I can remember, racial injustice has been the topic of discussion amongst the American nation. A nation commercializing itself as being free and having equality for all, however, one questions how this is true when every other day on the news we hear about the injustices and discriminations of one race over another. Eula Biss published an essay called “White Debt” which unveils her thoughts on discrimination and what she believes white Americans owe, the debt they owe, to a dark past that essentially provided what is out there today. Ta-Nehisi Coates published “Between the World and Me,” offering his perspective about “the Dream” that Americans want, the fear that he faced being black growing up and that black bodies are what
Struggles come in all shapes and sizes; it identifies the strength of a person. Josh Ellis stated “Lamar seemed to [imply] that some of the responsibility for preventing killings…lay with black people themselves” as he speaks from personal experience after being in a gang (Eells 44). The white supremacy has struggled to keep restrictions on African Americans since the Jim Crow laws; they suppress by keeping them weak minded and killing them off. This may be considered a weak tactic, but it is no different than the “mistakes” of African American killing each other. But it does not take that experience to know that African Americans contribute to their own crisis. They are responsible for their own actions, which mostly result in revenge; not realizing that this do not make them equal, it just adds to the sad news of America. This country is based on wrong doings and consequences leaving the minority leaders to try and make a difference for generations to come. “But… I’m no mortal man, maybe I’m just another nigga” entering into the society where only judgement prevail to the cycle of life (Poem 1 22). Its takes knowledge in order to have courage to step outside the box and lead a movement toward change. “… I learned/…respect/ If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us” (Poem 1 17 and
In this narrative essay, Brent Staples provides a personal account of his experiences as a black man in modern society. “Black Men and Public Space” acts as a journey for the readers to follow as Staples discovers the many societal biases against him, simply because of his skin color. The essay begins when Staples was twenty-two years old, walking the streets of Chicago late in the evening, and a woman responds to his presence with fear. Being a larger black man, he learned that he would be stereotyped by others around him as a “mugger, rapist, or worse” (135).
Coates (2015) shared with his son and his audience about "America 's history and slavery through a series of inspired experiences" that he described as a journey when he was a child (p. 3).The purpose of the article is to persuade the audiences which relies on author 's justification and biases. Coates ' goal is to make the audience understand the history of the United States and the current racial crisis that exists in the country now. "The different kinds of crime that young black males have tolerated in the U.S. because of white culture is emphasized and the community which trying to obtain sovereignty over black bodies" (Coates, 2015, p. 5). Coates describes in his article that racial issues have influenced America and how police officers treat black people brutally. He conveys his powerful message through appealing his audience to emotion and
He hopes to prepare his son for his encounter on a steeper society, in which a black men getting killed on news is regular nowadays. Between the World and Me writer Ta-Nehisi Coates article of being black in America and America’s unwillingness to explore the origin of racial conflict. Even though he chose the book more than the streets, Coates still felt the fear while growing up and he still writes. Unlike many of his peers, Coates denied religion growing up; Malcolm X was like a Godly figure to him and the book The Destruction of Black Civilization became his bible. Coates questions himself about what being “black” in America means and understands that we are threatened everyday. Coates tells us that it is a fear of destruction and the fear of destruction goes through black neighborhoods, as showed in weapons, fights, police, and inflexible system. It 's like people have to worry about protecting their lives than excelling in life. Coates ' story is most importantly filled with his way to understanding. It 's the account of how he came to comprehend the displeasure of his family, his friends, the brutality of his environment. Coates does not want his son to go through the same things as him in life. It 's the story of how he accommodated