Have you been treated wrong just because of your complexion or religion? Well, people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Paramjit Kaur, and Punjab Singh have and unfortunately, lost their lives because of it.
The well known definition of racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
Truly, this is absolutely disgusting. Throughout history, it’s the same repeated conflict. Sometimes, either a targeted group of people, or all of us as a whole. People get hurt, feel less than, and hurt themselves because they are discriminated against for something they cannot change. It’s not their fault they look like that, it’s how they were born. Racism is dreadful. NO race should have to feel as if they are not enough. NO race should think they are inferior to another.
Three big moments in history where we saw this were Jim Crow laws, Japanese-American concentration camps, and the target of anyone who looked like “the enemy” after 9/11. Although there are more, these are particularly ones that stood out to me, that occurred in America. People tend to ignore the talk about racism because of the discomfort it causes and because some events happened so long ago, they think we can just forget about it and move on. But we can’t. History is repeating itself but not everyone is noticing it.
We are seeing it in how teachers treat certain students and how black people are treated by the police. The 13th amendment abolished slavery. Yet we have prison labor, which is unpaid labor, which is slavery. As these black and brown boys are constantly arrested, they are the ones doing the unpaid labor. So is slavery really gone?
As said before, racial discrimination is a huge issue that some of us experience in our everyday lives. It’s affected a lot of us as a community to where we feel like it’s all of us against the white man. The ideal of white supremacy has grown onto us to the point some of us are accepting it like it’s normal. But is it? Do we really want to spend our whole lives listening to the white man or do we want a society where anyone can be in charge? We have to take initiative, and we have to take it now! Every day, we wait for another day we, let the white man think he’s winning. We can’t be afraid to speak up for not just our own people, but anyone who has experienced anything like this.
How would you feel if you were born in this country but treated as less than just because of your skin? Do you believe in equality in our nation? Everyone has a purpose. So, therefore, I have a solution. At this rate, standing by is not an option. We have to fight. Examples of ways we can fight are by avoiding being silent when we hear someone say anything racist, raising awareness about the topic and, of course, protest because what better way to make people listen other than to do it in front of places they would normally be.
Considering all the facts, racism is a serious dilemma that is not often talked about enough. It’s a really complex situation, and it’s obvious why people don’t want to discuss it. But it has to end, and it can’t end without people doing something about it first.
Photo Credits: Brett Sayles on Pexels.com
Ayona Gross- DeLaSalle-DMSF Class of 2028