Equality And Equality

Despite our founding principle that “all men are created equal” (Jefferson), American life isn’t characterized by equality or fairness. Although we acknowledge that each member of humanity bears equal value, we fail to provide them with such equality in life. Racism and anti-immigrant sentiment are two factors that prevent America from being equal. Frederick Douglass identified this gap between value and reality for Americans when he found himself “not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary” (¶3) of the Fourth of July, “a day that reveals to [the American

America is a nation “from many, one” as stated in our country’s original motto. We pride ourselves on the granted equal opportunity and freedom afforded to each citizen. But are these premises held true and adequately carried out? My answer is a resounding no! Our country’s intricate history provides us with the foundation that explains why and how discrimination has infiltrated and given the upper hand to the white race that has dominated the American society, while suppressing races of color. Dating back to the discovery of the new world we know as the contemporary United States, the African American race has been segregated and mistreated as exemplified through

America’s history is overrun with oppression and injustice based on race, ethnicity, and other traits that innocent victims have no control over. As a result, the reputation of the United States is forever tainted by it’s dark past, and still practices these surviving habits of hatred. Civil liberty issues faced since the establishment of the country have yet to be resolved because of the ever-present mistreatment, corruption in positions of authority, and the dehumanization of minorities.

In America, the land of the free, people believe that it’s the greatest place to be. And America would probably be what everyone believes, but it has a very serious problem that could eventually destroy the country as whole. America is built upon Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but it has a strong equality issue that has to be taken care of. Equality is a social contract in America and unfortunately it is a broken one. A social contract is an agreement amongst the members of a society, but equality is a serious issue. Equality poses the biggest problem to America simply because in any country the people make the country, and if the people can’t get along either internal conflicts occur, or people eventually leave. Throughout America everyone regardless of race, color, or sexual orientation has experienced inequality in some part of America. Words are exchanged, fists are thrown, and in serious cases lives are lost because people are racists to one another. Equality is a broken social contract in America that will eventually be its demise if not attended to.

The United States has become the nation it is today due to several disputes on equality. These disputes have led to the creation of many documents that represent the equality and rights that should be given to every American. An example of two U.S seminal documents are the Economic Bill of Rights and the Brown vs. the Board of Education; these documents not only represent the fights on equality, but both authors use literary devices in order to persuade the reader that their argument is valid.

According to google, the definition of freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The Freedom from imprisonment or enslavement from those who holds a person against their power or will. However, when freedom is expressed by an ex-slaved, their views are completely different. Ex-slaves found it difficult to adjust to the liberal freedom because they have to deal with relocating families, no political rights to vote, and the ability to establish land.

In recent years racial and socioeconomic differences have grown more prevalent in our society, and many wonder why. Growing up in Ethiopia, the concept of race was never popular or significant, as there was little to no racial diversity. Coming from a country where I did not even look at the color of my skin to a place where the only thing people saw was my color, astonished me. Living in the United States and learning about slavery in middle school, I thought of it as something that was long gone, something I would never have to worry about, but as I grew older I began to see the lingering shadows that remained. A petrified twelve-year-old me once asked my mother why we were moving to America and to that question she replied “America is the land of the free; the land of opportunities”. America did feel like an embodiment of her statement my first few years here but as time passed I began to see some clear differences in how society viewed me. I wondered, if this really was the so called “land of the free”, why are minorities incarcerated at a higher rate? And why are there such significant socioeconomic and educational gaps?

As freed men they were now responsible for all of that, not only paid out of their meager profits, but also under the threat that others may be competing for the opportunity to do the same work on their respective plantations. After having been given their freedom, slaves were given aide by the government that was soon taken away, so ex- slaves declared that they had really not bettered their condition from their recent days of slavery (Foner 563). This proved to be true. Being forced to resort to sharecropping because of lack of government assistance, placed them back where they started as slaves. Ex-slaves had now become enslaved by their economic condition and become prisoners to their white slave owners, working while obeying their disproportionate compensatory rules. That was not freedom! So there was no real difference in whether or not they were called slaves or called

Discrimination has afflicted the American society since its inception in 1776. The inferiority of the African American race – a notion embedded within the mindset of the white populace has difficult to eradicate – despite the efforts of civil rights activists and lawmakers alike. Many individuals are of the opinion that discrimination and racism no longer exist and that these issues have long since been resolved during the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. However such is not the case. Discrimination is a complex issue – one that encompasses many aspects of society. The impact of discrimination of the African American race is addressed from two diverse perspectives in the essays: “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King .

M1): Analyze the importance to public services of good citizens respecting equality and supporting them by respecting the key concepts associated with diversity.

Despite the efforts made, civil rights have not been fully achieved in the United States of America, on the contrary, racial disparities appear to be increasing (Barlow & Barlow, 2002).

The way America as a whole handles integration and equality in society has been subject to some debate. It is not a debate of whether or not it is right or wrong, for that choice has already been made. In order for progress to occur, there needs to be equality. The debate lies in how equality and integration should be exercised effectively, so as to have our society be truly equal. Shelby Steel, in his article “The New Sovereignty”, does a successful attempt in explaining how current methods are not in favor of equality. A man of the civil rights movement, and a well-known commentator on race relations, Steele does a good job of illustrating to grievance groups that what is currently installed in the place of integration is in fact collective

Freedom for ex-slaves meant “the right to vote, ushering in a period of interracial throughout the south. Black schools,churches, and other institutions would flourish laying the foundation for the modern African-American community.” Ex-slaves also wanted to escape the injustices they faced while being in slavery, to them this meant living like a white american. Henry Adams a slave who was emancipated in Louisiana stated that if he did not live like a white man then he wasn’t free. They even tried to live more like any other American would starting with mass meetings, religious services where they can be from of being supervised like they would in slavery, and the slaves even started to buy things they could never before during slavery like

August 28, 1963 (Eidenmuller) marked a very important day in history that had an impact not only on America, but the whole world. On this day, Martin Luther King Jr. presented his well known I Have a Dream speech that aimed to eliminate racism, inequality and discrimination. He strongly believed that one day people would put their differences aside and come together. So, what happened to that dream? Along with other equality initiative ideas, they rarely make it past the idea stages or end in the actual eradication result. It is clear to us that even after 51 years, our societies still struggle with accepting full equality. Within those 51 years we have made a mass amount of progress but, a common thought would be that after this long the issue should have been eradicated. Two essays that can be used as an example of proof that racial inequality still exists in our society are, Black Men in Public Spaces by Brent Staples and Who Shot Johnny? by Debra Dickerson. In these essays, both provide solid evidence to support their main goal with the use of different writing styles, tone, and rhetorical devices to display how African Americans are perceived and treated by society.

With over seven billion humans living in our world, an abundance of lifestyles from which to choose, regional and cultural differences, and every person living in a different way than another, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find a balance between our wide variations of cultures and to define true equality. It is human nature to strive for personal perfection, however we all view things separately through our own eyes. We make either snap decisions or thoughtful judgments based on what we like, what we don’t like, and what we believe. As a result, there are billions of assorted definitions for the term “perfection.” Religion,