America Is The Land Of The Free Essay

Race, Incarceration and American Values explains how incarceration is a legalized form of genocide that is slowly destroying the fiber of African American communities. Glenn Loury, along with Pamela Karian, Tommie Shelby and Loic Wacquant discuss how America has let fear and greed cause a inequitable landscape for its inhabitants who have unfortunately been born on the wrong side of the hill. The principals of equality and freedom on which America was founded on has become nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Maybe the pride America displays to the World as a Global power, incapable of wrong doing is what is holding it back from recognizing the mistakes it made and undergoing to process of change. Or maybe it 's what we fear most, it 's what we thought in our head but never dare to say. That it 's a careful crafted system to keep those with power in power.

The United States of America is suppose to be the place to pursue the “American Dream”, yet no one never said the path to that dream was going to be easy, especially if you are not white. Minorities in this country are riddled with struggle and barriers that hinder the growth of the people starting from below the bottom. As Berkman and Blunk said in their Thoughts on Class, Race and Prison, “we live in a country where large numbers of people, particularly young Afro-American, Latino and Native American women and men, have been written off by society.” The minority of the United States experience bare minimal surrounded “in a consumer society, [that] if you’ve got nothing, you’re considered to be nothing, and the frustration of this reality leads [minority] people into crimes and drugs” (Berkman & Blunk). Minorities throughout times have faced challenges and persevered for rights in this country, though their rights have been achieved “racial inequality...may linger on for indefinite periods of time after the racial barriers are eliminated” (Wilson).

“Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind” stated by James Meredith, a civil rights activist. The civil rights movement was all about gaining rights, but in the end African Americans barely gained the right to vote. The civil rights movement was a failure because African Americans still face inequality in housing, education, and jobs. The United States is all about equality when it comes to race, gender, home country, and religion, but blacks continue to suffer through poverty.

The United States of America is known as a country of independence, liberty, and rights; within the lines of our national anthem the Stars Spangled Banner, it is clear to see how the phrases "the land of the free and home of the brave", symbolize the ideals that have been centralized into the American Society for hundreds of years. Despite being recognized as a world power; for its military structure and the "believed" system of possibilities in terms of self advancement, the United States of America houses a very dark and inhumane secret; a sociological failure that perhaps is called that way, given the as a nation, we neglect, fail to address, and persecute those that because of their inherited skin color, look different than the accepted sociological norm of whiteness. It is shameful, to me at least, that the term "American" is a representation of the world 's largest incarceration rate; it’s even more shameful, how we prosecute, isolate, and declare what President Nixon once believed was the proper measure to take on poor communities; the war on drugs. For hundreds of years, we as a country have idealized with what Mustafa Emirbayer & Matthew Desmond have identified in their book Racial Domination, Racial Progress the Sociology of Race in America, as a mistake; mistake that has cost thousands of minorities their reputations and has impacted not only their tranquility, but their overall success rate in the promised land of opportunities.

In today’s time, the United States of America have drifted off its course of trying to reach a utopia. Social problems are rising for many people of color and non-color people. The problems have been illuminated in politics, education, employment, and social media. Problems such as discrimination of a certain group of people, and economic hardship are the most common issues. Reflecting back on America’s history, America has had a long history of white versus black ever since the slavery era, which took place during the time of the civil war. Ever since then, the United States have striven and persevere to change its society ethics. But, America is now slowly shifting back to a world where white supremacy and people of color are immensely separated

Throughout history in this country, race has been the determining factor in who can possess those liberties and who can participate in human society and their voice is heard. Ultimately, race has been used to determine ones value. From the 16th to 19th centuries, one could look at black person and quickly come to the conclusion that they’re a slave, uneducated, and poor. And from the 20th century to today in the 21st century those stigmas are still being placed on African Americans, with the exception of the word “slave”, which has been replaced by

The socioeconomic gap that exists between white and black Americans is a topic that no one seems to know how to solve. In previous years it was easy to collectively point to one factor that caused this gap but in more recent times it has became a point of discussion and disagreement in the black community. The debate rests in the question of whether or not the socioeconomic gap between blacks and their white counterparts is a result of blacks being lazy or it is because of structural discrimination that are embedded in the laws and policies of the United States. The general consensus is that it is a mixture of the two explanations. People differ on how many of each explanation contributes to the problem and in turn they disagree on what the solution should be.

I would like to present my self as an expert witness on the topic of racial bias. I have the rare ability to say that I have benefited from the unbalanced scales of racism in America. As a white male I had the opportunity to start many steps ahead of people that are other races and genders. Non-white people in America are not given the same opportunities that White people are given. This unbalanced system is what Coates’ discusses within his article as well as his memoir. America was built on the idea “of land of the free” the poem “Let America be America again” by Langston Hughes ironically addresses this freedom. But, Author Ta-Nehisi Coates knows America is not free for everyone and he proves this in his memoir Between the World and Me.

Christopher Columbus sailed in 1492 and found the Americas. They claimed the Americas until the 18th century. The “Americans” enjoyed the freedom the British gave them from the negligence. Soon, they got themselves into a war with the French, which was fought in three different theatres; North America, Europe, India. The battles were known as the French Revolution and they were very costly. The British tried to pay off the debts earlier, but when the 7 year war ended, they expected the Americas to contribute to the cost-- but they did not. After all, they did defend them from the French and the Native Americans. Within the coming years, the British continued to tax the Americans and they refused to pay. The British tried to make and enforce laws, making the

America is the land of the "FREE". If a certain ISP can block websites from being viewable, is it truly free? 樂 It will be able to slow down news/articles that speaks poorly of an ISP. This could basically be limited freedom of press.

I do not think there is a single time in our day in age where I flip on the television to the news and what do I see? Of course, racism. Through excessive force or “necessary force” which usually happens between the minority and white. Through religion and constant murder, today’s day in age is truly disgusting. Racial segregation is becoming increasingly more prevalent in today’s society, it’s the hot topic on all mainstream news channels and other media outlets. Media portrays the stories in an interesting way, they enjoy emphasizing the race of the officer’s involved and the victim. Constant headlines like “Black man choked to death by officer.” “Black teen shot and killed by white officer.” like it’s a trend now. When I read these titles I generally think “Oh what did the black guy do?” because the War on Drugs and simple inequality has brought a negative stigma to this race; Constantly in and out of jail, drug abusers, gangbangers, and just all around criminals. This is what the media has led me to think. Once a stigma is developed and constantly used in a “joking” or serious manner I see that in actuality it really is developing due to the excess use and our nature to be superior to our counterparts. The African American community has embraced this stigma and you can see it in the younger generations. Violence erupting in communities where law enforcement has to step in; riots, looting and more of our nation’s blood spilled, oh joy. An extremely controversial topic

America is our home, a place where we have freedoms. Our gift of freedom must be protected by valiant people who wish to sustain the lasting affects of it. This gift does not come easily, it has a price. In order to continue our way of life we must fight for independence from Britain. We came to this country for a new life and opportunities. Leading up to now, we face a problem. The red coats are unlawfully forcing us from our rights. It's a false hope that Britain will back off. If we do not stand up and courageously fight for our independence we will go back to our old life, the one we escaped by coming to America. It is important that we stand up to the British empire. This is our home and it must be protected.

America has, in modern times, come to be considered a shining beacon of Western democracy, a pillar of human rights justice, and a global model for a constitution-based government. The American government itself created this stellar image, and has completely bought into the notion of its supremacy in matters pertaining to democracy and human rights protection, as evinced by the self-applauding rhetoric of politicians and the media, accompanied by the vehement defamation of the governments of other nations. American citizens themselves, seem to subscribe to these sentiments, believing their beloved country to be “the land of the free, and the home of the brave”. This characterization of American society is, at best, only applicable to its recent history, given its sordid past of slavery, Jim Crow, xenophobic policies, and mass marginalization of minorities, all completely antithetical to the notions of freedom and bravery. At worst, this depiction is a grossly romanticized version of even its modern-day activities, given the problems of mass incarceration, residential segregation and police brutality against minorities. A salient theme among a distressingly significant number of America’s problem is the issue of race. Systemic biases against specific races seem to feature prevalently in problematic public policy. The African-American population, particularly, always seem to be on the receiving end of the brunt of policies with racial elements. Among the plethora of policies

Throughout America’s past, racial inequality has been a reoccurring theme in our society. Ever since the Europeans invaded America the white man has been superior compared to all ethnicities. No more than two hundred years ago, African Americans were slaves and only counted as three fifths of a person. Within the past hundred years African Americans have managed to obtain more equality in some situations, but in other cases racial inequality has become worse than it was when segregation took place. The gaps between the quality of education of white and black students receive appears to be growing instead of shrinking. The lack of quality education blacks receive has contributed to significant health differences between

As our nation faces a new president and the realities of politics in a post-Obama world, the big issue that stops conversations cold, is still the question of race in America. Since the recent victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S Presidential elections, racial tensions in the United States have been anything but united. Despite the many accomplishment made by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, Many Americans are still finding that equality is still an obstacle, especially in the area of inclusion and economic progress. Slogans like “Make America Great Again” rang throughout Trump’s political campaign. According to Michael Reigh, in the past twenty-five years there has been virtually no permanent improvement in the economic position especially for African Americans.