What Is Racial Inequality?

A necessary and common fight for equality has been one that has survived throughout all of man’s existence. Due to recent racial divide and the product of racial profiling, a movement has risen up to combat these common issues. The most recent and most well-covered is the Black Lives Matter Movement. Even though it has been lauded by some media sources and individuals as the next great movement to champion for civil rights, the Black Lives Matter movement is not the same as the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s nor is it likely to be as successful. If the Black Lives Matter Movement continues with discrepancies in ideology, lack of clear leadership, and trends of hate, the movement is doomed to fail.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a loosely‐coordinated, nationwide movement dedicated to ending police brutality that rose to prominence in late 2014. It takes its name from a hashtag started by three Black feminist activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi but the movement and the hashtag are not identical (Freelon, McIlwain, & Clark, 2016). BLM has achieved national reputation through their online and offline organizing, obtaining extensive news media coverage and glowing references in music and entertainment television. Based on a horrendous incident that sparked a concern for a lot of Black people across the world, the sudden need for a social movement was born called BLM. Black Lives Matter is a national organization working for the validity of Black life and also working to rebuild the Black liberation movement. Black Lives Matter broadens the conversation and highlight the incidents around state violence to include the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. This referring to the ways in which Black lives are deprived of basic human rights and dignity. According to the article The Murder of Walter Scott, which talks about race and class, “African Americans are less than 13% of the U.S. population yet they are nearly 50% of those killed by the police. North Charleston has a population of 104,000, 47% Black and the police force is 80% white (Miah, 2015)”.

While there has been tangible progress made in race relations, inequalities still tarnish the country. In poor black communities across the nation, the lack of opportunity stifles potential and creates a cyclical chain of poverty and violence. Areas with high black populations struggling with violence and unequal policing, have prompted a modern civil right movement called “Black Lives Matter.” Critics of the movement often cite, the supposed inherent inequality in the idea. All lives matter, they argue, why should black lives matter specifically? The movement, however, does not argue that black lives matter more than lives of other races, the movement is saying that black lives matter just as much. Furthermore, it’s an exclamation, that calls for attention to be placed on communities ravaged by violence and poverty that are disproportion black. Similar to the movements of the 1960’s, the BLM movement is causing tension across the country. Like king argued, tension is the catalyst that inspires change and conversation. The nonviolent protests of BLM, seek to “dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored;” that is the “work of a nonviolent resister” (1310). Just as the march that was depicted in Selma, the BLM has sought to seek change without violence, but instead with protests and media campaigns. BLM methods parallel King’s use of non violent protest, in a

The barriers that separate men have existed for centuries. Race, class, status, these are all ideas that have created a divide among humans. This divide creates competition and tension. Throughout the history of the legal system, justice has been used to validate slavery and other forms of racial inequality. Our system now has changed, but the basic concept has remained the same. According to one study, the judicial system was invented by whites to protect whites and keep people of color at bay (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2017, p1). This idea of preserving a one superior racial system resulted in a bias still existent today.

What is racial inequality? Racial inequality is discrepancies in the opportunities and treatment of people based solely on their race. Racial inequality is a serious issue that is often discussed in the American criminal justice system. Although racial discrimination is present in the criminal justice system, some people use the words inequality, discrimination, racism, and profiling loosely and do not understand how truly complex it is to prove that there actually is racial inequality present in the criminal justice system. Daniel P Mears, Joshua C. Cochran, and Andrea M. Lindsey article Offending and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Criminal Justice: A Conceptual Framework for Guiding Theory and Research and Informing Policy illustrates

For years, African-Americans have been mistreated, criminalized, and socially persecuted. Though the conditions of the African-American community have improved since the 19th century, African Americans have recently become increasingly criminalized and profiled by police officers. These injustices have given rise to many passionate and righteous political movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter movement. Black activists have been righteously voicing their solutions and impositions of such said injustices through essays, articles, books, and other forms of literature.

Lately, there have been several stories in the news that highlight the mistreatment of African-Americans in today’s society. These stories are horrifying to read as an American who believes in justice and equality for all, and have caused quite a stir in the black community. After the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, a cry went out from the people; the slogan #BlackLivesMatter took life and started to spread throughout the United States. The slogan became even more popular with the people after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. This slogan is used around the United States today as a way to bring light to the long unresolved and underlying issue of racism and oppression of blacks in this country. This transaction

In today’s society, it is obvious that we still face racism and oppression. Something that we talk about historically happening, such as the civil rights movement, is very alive today. History is in a way repeating itself. Some may counter this argument and say “all lives matter”, but they cannot ignore the disproportionate injustice against African Americans today. If we study the Black Lives Matter movement, we can see that discrimination and oppression still exists, but there are constructive ways to deal with it.

Even though America is the world dominating superpower and is known to intervene on behalf of the violation of human rights internationally, it fails to acknowledge and correct the flaws its legal and justice system present against its own citizens. African Americans have long been targeted by the police force and have been oppressed by the government before, as we are familiar with the Civil Rights Movement that occurred in 1955 due to segregation and discrimination. The system has justified racial profiling, specifically against African Americans, and granted those with authority the right to incarcerate or punish those they deem dangerous. The actions of the American government have given way to the increase incarceration of African Americans and have allowed white privilege to prevail in the justice system. The social movement Black Lives Matter, although recently acknowledged or recognized, is not based on a new issue but rather an old issue that is quickly reviving due to the injustices Black Americans are facing. In short, social movements are known as politics through other means. They occur when people take to the streets in order to have their voices heard by authority and feel as if they are unable to

Imagine the news headlines filled with nothing but people like you - same hair, skin, defining features - except all the headlines are filled with death. Death at the hands of people we are all taught to trust with our safety. This is how my 2015 summer had been. Days upon days of headlines with black people being killed by “peace” officers. As the list of names grew longer, it became apparent that there was no intention to protect the black community, instead, the public was being “protected” from us. Growing up in a community of minorities, I had come to believe that there was a sense of solidarity in our struggles. I was wrong in thinking our shared status meant unity. At the core of every marginalized community, is a sense of anti-blackness. This harsh realization happened during a class discussion when everyone was throwing into my face that ultimately my feelings and thoughts did matter. I was reminded that I was an other and I stood alone in this fight for my community.

2016 has not reached the end of its year, and yet there is already an accumulation of controversy questioning modern movements' civility in today's society. Undoubtedly the most popularly controversial of all modern movements, however, is the Black Lives Matter movement. While they are a vocal group advocating against police brutality in concern of the well-being for fellow African Americans, their reputation does not exactly agree with this ideal. In other words, their methods of advocating appears to be rather aggressive, which especially targets police officers. Civility has become an alarmingly nonexistent concept in modern movements, and the Black Lives Matter must bring civility in order to save their purpose, as well as their reasoning

The research into racial inequality has mostly focused on the disadvantages experienced by the oppressed group. As the field continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to examine the privileges experienced by Whites (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). But to effectively examine this, the White individual must accept the fact that White privilege and racism still very much exist in the United States and how it affects all aspects of our culture and institutions.

The purpose of an anti-racist, feminist, environmental, social justice activist, children’s advocacy and international development agencies are to raise awareness about racial oppressions, social justice and its relevance to society, and to encourage multiculturalism and to spread anti-racism around the world. As the time change, so does these movements and in the twenty-first century so do their methods to spread awareness on racial oppression, social justice and diversity of multiculturalism. Social movements bring awareness to racial oppression by either protesting or by creating videos of interviews or creating scenes talking about the racial oppression. The goals of bring awareness to any issue is to catch the eye of mainstream media

I believe that domestic racial equity should be a significant priority for the American government in the future. On July 7, 2016, an Army Reserve Afghan War veteran killed two police officers and wounded two civilians; Two preceding shooting in both Louisiana and Minnesota aroused his resentment against white police officers. No matter whether statutes and policies have directly stipulated internal and external racial discrimination, the domestic racial violence has still not been exterminated from the society. Without the government prioritizing the justice against racial segregation, America won’t be able to better the future of the

The Black Lives Matter movement has swept across America. It 's branched out with chapters in over 31 cities and held rallies and boycotts across the United States(Sidner). The Black Lives Matter movement started with the outrage of the death of a young man. It continues to take over headlines and raise awareness on police brutality and inequality. However, the movement has met resistance from the All Lives Matter group. This group thinks that Black Lives Matter is a movement to express hatred towards other races. However, statistics, the views of fellow citizens, and the overall purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement, can prove that the movement wasn 't meant to express hate on other races and that we need to support the movement instead of going against it.