Being Born Black In America

As I sit here and think about what it is to be Black in America. I realize how there are so many factors that affect African American people daily. One of the most damaging forces tearing at young black people in America today is the popular culture's image of what an "authentic" black person is supposed to look like and how that person is supposed to act. People assume all black males where raised in a single parent home. People assume that if you are a black male, that you sale drugs or you are really great in some type of sport. If you are a black female, they assume you will have kids by different men, referred to as “baby daddy” or they may not even know who the fathers of their children are. This same society expects African

Booker T. Washington was brought up with a different upbringing then most slaves during the 1800s; as he would describe as “up from slavery”. Even though he was born a slave, he had a better chance of “equal access” and equality in main stream America. He had a chance to gain an education part time during his younger years as well as working. Booker T, believed the best way to ensure progress and peace was,”for the whites to respect the blacks desire for improved economic opportunities and for blacks to respect the whites desire for social separation of the races.” I agree with this ideology because everyone was getting a piece of

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

“If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else” (Malcolm X) is a contestable ideal. Do we Americans allow our law enforcement to continue killing innocent African Americans whose own ancestors contribute to the success of this nation? No! We cannot sit on the sidelines and watch innocent lives ruined over and over again. We must auscultate to the cries of our four fathers. In order to halt the self-destruction of this nation we should fight for change in the police force, attempt to cease the embodiment of racial profiling, and support the efforts of those striving to bring about change.

Despite the important racial progresss our society has made since Emmett Till’s death, from the civil rights era, to present increase of police brutality has still left the Black/African American community in shadows of segregation. The second most recent shooting of teenager Michael Brown has left citizens in ongoing battles with law enforcement officers of Ferguson, Missouri. New Statement (2014) reports, Missouri police similarly attempted to retain control of the narrative, claiming Brown had stolen cigars, and then paying for them, and then claiming he was a bad child and attacked the officer who shot him” (New Statement, 21). Brown autopsy reveals he was gun less and shot six times. Police brutality is not solely about Ferguson, Emmett Till, or the civil rights movement, but it is simply about the history of capitalism and police brutality in America and having many forms of it.

Racial disparities occur in arrests, stops and use of force. A report on the Minnesota police department found that Black people are stopped more than twice as much as they should be, for their share of the population(4); In Ferguson it was found that police arrest black people at a rate three times higher, than their share of the population, and “At least 1,581 other police departments across the USA arrest black people at rates even more skewed than in Ferguson” (5). Force was also found to be used at more disproportionate rates against black people. It was found that blacks are 50% more likely to experience “use of force”(6). These are clear cases of racism in the police force, it shows that there is bias rooted in all enforcement actions. It would be statistically impossible for these disparities to exist, without some element of racism in many actions and levels of the police force, and the only way to change this is to completely reconstruct how enforcement is carried

A young man’s brutal death at the hands of the police is found justified in a court of law due to his “suspicious” appearance: a black hoodie and his hands in his pocket. An elderly woman is fatally shot in her home for her relation to a suspected criminal. A married man with two toddlers is choked to death after a minor traffic stop by an officer who later claimed that his unarmed victim was wielding a gun. These people all have a few commonalities: the color of their skin, their presumed guilt at first sight, and their ultimate unjustified death administered by the law force. These are not uncommon occurrences. Due to the staggeringly disproportionate rate of African-Americans killed by the police, and the underlying rampant racial profiling, police brutality towards blacks in America must be called to light.

Police brutality against African Americans has become a hot topic in the media. Police brutality is when excessive force is used when it is unnecessary. During the civil rights movement, African American men and women fought for and gained their rights. They may have believed that their suffering had ended there but there is still a long way to go. In Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he writes about how African Americans are being treated by police and the court system. He describes it as “ grossly unjust treatment” (paragraph 6). Today it is three times more likely for a black person to be killed than a white person. One out of three of the black people killed by police were armed and suspected to have committed an actual crime

An individual who has no knowledge of racism in America may think that once African Americans were given the same privileges as whites, racism would be extinct. This, however, is incorrect because racism is not only alive but thriving. The oppression of the African American community is still relevant today and happening everywhere. Where slavery and Jim Crow laws were banned, the war on drugs and mass incarceration of African Americans were created. It is evident “in the inner cities that the vast majority of young black men are either under the control of the criminal justice system or branded criminals for life” (Graff 126). The problem of mass incarceration ties into one of today’s other most pressing ethical issues concerning the African American community - police brutality. Mike Brown, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice are just a few of the many names that come to mind when one thinks of police brutality and the African Americans. The ethical issue of police brutality is very muddled because each case must be treated singularly, thus to not automatically blame the incident on racism. Although the “police are meant to protect and serve all United States citizens, for too many minority communities, police have become a source of fear, quick to resort to physical violence” (Onyemaobim 162). It may be, however, that with an increasing number of these incidents in recent years,

Many laws seem to punishment African Americans more than any other race. In today’s society, where it is supposed to be equal and just, we are still chastened because of the melanin in our skin. We are still following the path of slavery just in different forms. According to Willie Lynch, “ if you train a man to be a slave, then we can control them for over three-hundred years.” We are still being victimized and wrongly accused because we appear to be dangerous. Every man cannot whistle Vivaldi to ensure that he lives while walking or hanging out in their communities. A majority of officers are let “off the hook” from being charged with crimes against the public. In the case of David Sal Silva of Kern County in California that took place last year, police used excessive force on Silva and he died at the scene. The beating was contributory to his death but neither the Kern County sheriff’s deputies nor the California Highway Patrol officers were convicted of any crime (Marcum). Although the incident was highly publicized, it eventually faded away. There are many overlooked instances, however instances of targeted police brutality are becoming a normal recurrence, such as in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The

Police brutality has been the most prominent form of racism captured by the media and since the 1992 Los Angeles Riots protesting the death of Rodney King, it still dominates headlines. After more than two decades later, the number of innocent, and unarmed black American deaths have only increased along with the acquisition of the police accountable. According to “More Than 250 Black People Were Killed By Police In 2016,” Julia Craven states that “34 percent of the unarmed people killed in 2016 were black males.” This is unreasonable because according to the same article, “black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population.” The numbers are disproportionate enough to show that there is a clear target against blacks. This statistic of black males compared to their white counterparts also show a significant disparity as statistics John Wihbey and Leighton Walter Kille provide in “Excessive or reasonable force by police? Research on law enforcement and racial conflict,” clearly state that unarmed blacks were killed at twice the rate of whites with “31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males.” There is clear cut evidence of racial profiling in policing as blacks who make up a only a small amount of the U.S. population are killed at a much higher rate than whites who make up a majority of the population. This is obvious discriminatory intent by the hands of the police,

This approach is a way to miss and dismiss the point of Blacks actually discussing the critical state their community is in. The focus is not black lives over other’s lives in the world, but is it the focus of the neglect of black lives, when taken away, they are not viewed with disgust as when their white counterparts die/are harassed in the same manner. It’s weirdly interesting that when Blacks are literally killed for following the law and are unarmed, they are blamed for their own death, all because a cop feared for their life. Once officers say that phrase, which I view as a cliché to say when one signs up for such a fearful job, cases are usually wrapped up and forgotten about. However, thanks to social media, the public is able to see the hideous lies and blatant truth about certain cases that highlight why the people have a problem with the government and distrust the police. Oddly as all Americans are forced to pay taxes, these taxes go to public necessities like schools, to fire stations and to the police station, even to wars. Sadly I interpret it as the government focuses Blacks to pay police to kill their people off, and the government seems to always instantly support the officer’s word over the victim (if still alive), and people. If people do not stand up against

African-Americans have been victims of crime since the 1600s: the beginning of slavery in the U.S. During slavery, African-Americans’ were treated unfairly because they were thought to be inferior. Although slavery ended some time ago, African- Americans are still being treated poorly, because some people still believe blacks are inferior. Unfortunately many of these people work for law enforcement. This causes fear among the African-American community, especially African American males. The long history of police violence against African-Americans proves that everyone is still not treated equally, which is causing African- Americans to dislike law enforcement, and fear their lives, and start movements to bring about

While racism might appear to be the primary cause of a higher proportion of African American deaths by police, when comparing that to crime rates and police encounters by African Americans, the proportional gap significantly lessens. According to “the counted” police shootings database by the guardian newspaper, police shootings of African Americans in 2016 make up around 25% even though they only make up 13% of the population. This one statistic has led many people from the general public, media, and scholars to attribute this as evidence for racism. What they fail to mention however, is that according to the FBI database on crimes committed by race in 2011, African Americans commit 28.4% of all crimes, 50% of homicides, 55.6% of robberies, and 33.6% of aggravated

African American groups, such as Black Lives Matter, have created a false narrative that African Americans in our society are victimized by law enforcement. The media has presented police officers to be murderers, and have created trends and discussions that encourage Americans to turn their backs on the ones that protect them. Police Brutality has become an ongoing conversation as black citizens experience law enforcement related deaths. Although society is blaming the killings of African Americans on white cops specifically, they fail to realize that black and hispanic police officers are more likely to fire a gun at African Americans than white officers. This is according to a Department of Justice report in 2015 about the Philadelphia