Racial Discrimination

In this week’s article “The Anthem”, The author, Joe Ponanski, goes deeply into the background of the national anthem to show the importance of the Star Spangled Banner as it unites us as a country. The actions of athletes as they play the anthem have meaning. Inappropriate actions during the anthem can convey a kind of disrespectful demeanor toward the country and our troops, whether this is the intent of the athletes action or not. Colin Kaepernick was making a personal proclamation. He was drawing attention to a very serious predicament, racial discrimination in the US. After the game he explained “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,". Those who don’t agree with

Almost every person of color has been racially discriminated against. Most of us have had it happened to us, some of us never really realized it was happening. Some of us don’t even know what it means to be racially discriminated is. So for my senior exit paper, I will be telling what racial discrimination is, how much it happens, why it happens, who it happens to and so much more. In this paper, you will be learning the basic background of racial discrimination and when and how it started.

The National Anthem is our country’s theme song and it is very highly respected throughout our great country. The Anthem talks about freedom, liberty, and justice for all and about how there are great men and women who risk their lives every day so our country can be free. So, when the Anthem is played at professional football games everyone stands and holds their hand over their heart and respects our flag and our Anthem because that is the least we can do to help support and show our respects to our soldiers and our great country. As many people can see, a lot of things are changing, and these changes started when Colin Kaepernick (Former Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, now a free agent) decided to take a knee instead of standing during the National Anthem in the 2016-17 season. Colin says he did this not to disrespect the soldiers and war veterans but, to bring awareness of the issues going on in our country. Colin said that he felt that our country is not free and justice is not done fairly. He believes there is too much Police brutality “there are people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable”-Kaepernick. Also, he believes African Americans are treated and looked at differently and it has been that way in the past and it still hasn’t changed. Once Colin kneeled and said all the things he needed to get off his chest the world shook. African American people and professional athletes all over the world agreed with what he did. I’m not saying white people didn’t agree, but it was more African Americans that felt the same way Colin did and

Football players in the NFL are kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem to protest racial discrimination and police brutality; this can be stopped by reducing the football player’s pay, make kneeling during the National Anthem illegal, or try to end racial discrimination and police brutality in America. This protest was started by a quarterback from the San Francisco 49ers named Colin Kaepernick who said that he refused to honor a song or “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” (McLaughlin and Simon) Even though this is a peaceful protest, it is still unjust and very disrespectful. Not only is it disrespectful to the American Flag, it is highly disrespectful to the American troops that fought for this country.

This protest shows disregard towards the military forces of the U.S. and the flag that represents patriotism. Alex Boone, guard for the Minnesota Vikings, is against Kaepernick’s views on this topic (source 1). Boone states, “. . . you should have some respect for people who served, especially people that lost their lives to protect ours. . . (source 1).” In other words, the least the players can do for the soldiers is stand for them while the national anthem is playing to honor the soldiers who served and are serving the country. These famous figures can save the protesting for another time like before or after the games. Those in favor of this protest say that they have the right to act upon their own will by kneeling instead of standing (source 3). Though that is a valid argument, people in the military are out there losing their lives while these players are just playing a game, so it doesn’t take much to show courtesy to those who help keep the United States free. During games of any sport or even during the pledge at school, everyone, including celebrities, should show pride for their country. Whether it’s during the pledge at school or the national anthem at a high school soccer game, standing represents the strength and dignity of the citizens of

There are kids that are watching the games and they see people kneeling down during the national anthem and the kids are looking up to them and they want to do the same thing as them. Not standing for the national anthem makes people mad because people fought for our country and people get mad and it starts commotion with a lot of people and people wanting to protest. The writer of the national anthem said “it blows my mind that somebody like Kaepernick would do what he does

I was watching the news, when the footage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster came on. The news reporters were showing a black man walking in flooded waters near a market with a bag full of food and labeled him a “thief”. Social media in the United States has portrayed people of different racial backgrounds differently and unequally in recent years. In the essays “Theories and Constructs of Race” and “Loot or Find: Fact or Frame?” the authors discuss in both essays about issues with racial equality in our world today. Authors Linda Holtzman and Leon Sharpe discuss in the first essay racial schemes are created through prejudices and the telling and retelling of stories. While, authors Cheryl I. Harris and Devon W. Carbado discuss in their essay about the issue of “colorblindness” in social media. Holtzman is a professor of communications and journalism at Webster University, while Sharpe is a professor at Webster as well. Similarly, Harris and Carbado are professors at UCLA’s School of Law and have addressed widely on race, gender, civil rights and constitutional issues. Both essays do a good job at explaining their ideas and supporting them with evidence of racial discrimination in our world today. The authors from both essays organize their ideas and summarize them, which helps understand the main idea of racism, discrimination and racial inequalities in today’s society.

Do Americans feel like there is still racial discrimination in today's everyday life? Racial discrimination is treating someone differently because of the color of his or her skin. Racial discrimination has been around for a long time. There are laws that are supposed to protect non whites from being racially discriminated against but these laws are not applied to everyone equally. There are a lot of different types of discrimination such as gender and age but the main type is racial. Racial discrimination still exist in America based on discrimination at work, police brutality, and arrest rates.

Imagine living in a country where you are not allowed to have freedom of speech, protest, religion, etc. Gratefully, we are privileged as Americans to have this right. So why would it “disrespectful” or “despicable” if Americans peacefully protest such like Kaepernick did? From source two, the author provides the quote, “...brave men and women who fought for our country did so to ensure that we could live in a fair and free society which includes right to speak out in protest” explains that many veterans fought for our rights

Ever since Kaepernick gained public attention for sitting through the national anthem in the 2016 NFL season, the topic about the national anthem and the flag’s symbolic meanings has been a hot topic. Colin Kaepernick or any other person in the United States has absolutely every right to sit or kneel for the national anthem. The deal here is if it is appropriate for people-mostly athletes-to protest in the form of sitting or kneeling. The side supporting the protests would argue that the flag or the national anthem represents a democracy that looks down upon people of color. The protestors claim they protest solely for the purpose of achieving social change. I personally believe that there may be some social injustices still around. Protesting in the way of disrespecting the flag or the national anthem is not only morally wrong, but it is unpatriotic and traitorous. I think that the social change protestors are looking for can be achieved through some other type of active protest or actions. Such actions could be getting politically involved with lawmakers, talking with PACs and or lobbying. Soldiers have fought and died for our country leaving behind families and relatives; they did fight for the right for protestors to kneel and sit for the anthem, but I think that protesting in this manner is utterly unacceptable.

Political, economic, environmental, and social issues are only a few of the many kinds of issues that occur around the world. One issue that every human being is bound to experience in their life is a social issue. There is an ongoing list of social issues that people need to be aware of such as the access to education, human trafficking, immigration, gender inequality, and child care. Although each one of those issues is just as important as the other, one of the biggest issues that individuals encounter in their daily lives, especially in the United States, is racial discrimination.

As a white middle class girl growing up in a nice area in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I thought that racial discrimination was a thing of the past. Yes, I knew my ex-Mennonite grandmother didn’t want me to marry an African American, but I laughed that off, because other than that, racism, discrimination, and prejudice were not things I saw in everyday life. I did not think to notice how many of my acquaintances were all white people. That would have made a difference in my opinion about discrimination. However, over the past few years, I paid more attention to the news stories. I analyzed how I describe people with a slightly different color skin. In doing so, I realized that these news stories and my words are so normal to me that I am not able to recognize them for what they truly are. With more discrimination brought to the light, artists of all forms are speaking out about their experiences. Aaradhna’s song “Brown Girl” deals directly with the issues of discrimination that she dealt with growing up. In her heartfelt song, Aaradhna puts on display her hope for a world where people look past the color of skin and instead see the person in front of them.

The United States of America has an extensive history of racial conflicts between white southerners and African Americans. After the ratification of the thirteenth Amendment in 1865, slavery was abolished in the whole nation of America. However, the racial tension between white southerners and African Americans did not end with the eradication of slavery. Although the government granted African Americans citizenship and civil rights, they were not entirely free from practicing these entitlements. During the repressive Jim Crow Era, separation between the white and the African American race exacerbated as discrimination, inequality, and oppression spread throughout the South. Racial tension intensifies with the implementation of segregation, and races were further divided from one another. From the period between 1880s and 1920s, African Americans’ rights were restricted by white southerners through discrimination between labor and capital—which prevented them from any form of economic and social advancement, establishment of the “separate but equal” doctrine—legalization of segregation, political disfranchisement—restriction to right of suffrage, and through practice of prevalent violence—such as lynching in the Southern States.

How would you feel if you were the last one to start in the race we call life? Unfortunately, this has been the case for many Americans here today. Throughout most of our nation's history, all, even whites, faced discrimination. This includes Jim Crow laws, Chinese Exclusion acts and enmity for colored people in general. Even after all of this opposition and disadvantages, many people have been able to pave a way of life in this country. With pressure comes change and it all erupted in the mid 20th century. During the 1950s and 1960s, many minorities started to aggressively pursue equal rights with the most famous figures leading the charge: martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, etc. This all continued until the revolutionary civil rights act of 1964, where president Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill stating that outlaws all discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Miraculously, this bill immediately affected the lives of the millions of the once victims of this poisonous culture of racism. All people of color started to gain a huge advantage in the once white dominated spheres of society. However, even if this bill landmarked a huge turning point in history for minorities, the effects of years of discrimination still linger. It has only been half a century since this revolutionary bill has been signed and minorities still have a stagnation in the race of life. Many people are in poverty, and some people are still being discriminated

One of the most common illegal practices conducted by employers happen to deal with the applicants or employee’s race. In this case, African Americans tend to be the most victimized.