
Imagine being a black male or female that gets denied from your number one college or university your senior year of high school or being denied proper healthcare treatment during a serious emergency all because of the color of your skin. Racism is discrimination or prejudice acts directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that your own race is superior. Racial injustices still occur in our everyday life even years after slavery and integration in America has supposedly come to an end. Racism can be seen in schools, court cases, health care systems, and even our modern day churches. One would think after all of these years of discrimination, Americans would be able to come together regardless the color of their skin, but that is not always the case. 

Education is an important aspect of living the American dream and without it, it is hard to achieve much in this world. Most jobs require some sort of education and the higher education that a person has, the higher paying job that they can receive. In 1954 the court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education, ruled segregation in schools unconstitutional, meaning that blacks and whites will go to school together, sit in the same classrooms, and learn the same things. In an article written by Sherrie L. Proctor, she discusses how racism still lingers in our education system today and how it is affecting our youth. Proctor says, “In stark contrast, African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino students are underrepresented nationally in programs for the gifted and talented, making up only 10%and 16%, respectively, of those enrolled in gifted and talented programs.” (Proctor 233). Proctor also says that black students are twenty-three times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. These statistics are disheartening and display that race is increasing educational inequity in the United States. Instead of the government making sure that all students are receiving the proper educational opportunities and are being treated fairly, they could fund more money towards minority education. For example, scholarships to good schools and better rewards for minorities excelling in the classroom. Scholarships will encourage more African Americans to excel in the classroom and encourage them to achieve their goals. Decreasing the amount of minority students in the streets and increasing the amount of minorities in gifted and talented programs will help America as a whole by decreasing unemployment and crime rates, because more people will be educated and fit for more skilled jobs and out of the streets. Today our country has developed something called peace corps missionaries. Peace corps missionaries are volunteers that help in fulfilling the idea of world peace and friendship throughout America. In an article it says, “modern day Peace Corps missionaries come into the ghettos and lower communities and they Head Start, Upward Lift, Bootstrap, and Upward bound the black society into the white society (Carmichael 316). These are all programs that aid education in lower communities and prepare the students for school earlier than normal. Instead of giving African Americans money to fund their educations they send in these programs to help black children develop on the same level as white students. Carmichael said it best, if you want to get rid of poverty and help make a community better, the only thing anyone can do is help financially. This money can be used to help aid education and then there would be less “thugs” and more black men in a suit and tie, which will help with education inequalities in America.

When you think of a thug, an African American male probably comes to your mind. He would be wearing baggy clothing, chains around his neck, maybe he does drugs and he most likely brings some sort of fear out of you. This is a stereotype and is a form of discrimination that is commonly seen in the workplace and hiring facilities. Abigail Wozniack, an economics professor at The University of Notre Dame, looked at how drug testing affected hiring rates of blacks and whites in the workplace. The findings from these results imply that companies assume black job applicants are guilty of using illegal drugs until proven innocent (Strachan). This is not fair to African Americans who are clean from drugs that miss out on job opportunities because of the color of their skin along with the stereotypes that come with it. When it comes to choosing employees, companies should pay more attention to job experience and skill versus the color of their skin. Not only will this help to eliminate racism in U.S. companies, but it can also decrease the unemployment rate of African Americans as a whole.

The court system is one of the most valued possessions to American economy and is well known by most citizens. Because the court system is so important to our society, one would think it would be fair to all people, but it is oddly one of the most common ways racism can be seen.  Recently everyone has probably heard about police brutality cases that are affecting lives and leaving behind broken families. In a TedTalks video, Bryan Stevenson, a credible human rights lawyer, and the speaker of this episode, talked about problems that people try to ignore and he highlights that the likelihood of a white man killing a black man versus a black man killing a white man is higher only because they get away with it. Think about Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Alston Sterling, they were all victims of police brutality and received unfair trails. Everyone can come to an agreement that the government and law officials should be some of the most trustworthy individuals because they lead our society. Police brutality and unfair trials show that racism still exist in our nation. “The first time a black man jumps, that white man going to shoot him, so police brutality is going to exist on that level because of the incapability of that white man to see black people come together and to live in the conditions” (Carmichael 325). Our government must come together and recognize that this is a problem. Minority groups, like Black Lives Matter, have been formed to advocate for African American inequality. Many whites believe that Black Lives Matter is a racial group, but it is not an anti-white organization, it is a pro-black organization. These groups allow African Americans to come together and talk to people who experience some of the same problems in their everyday lives. In an article from The Huffington Post, the author outlined the idea that African Americans have been the victims of mistreatment for all these years and they cannot be considered racist (Blay). Some white people believe African Americans are racist toward them, but the emotions that blacks expressed towards white people is the response to how they have been treated in the past. It has been many years since physical racism and segregation have existed in America, but people still turn their noses up at people who are not like them. It is time for Americans to grow and accept each other physically, mentally, and emotionally to help our nation.

Everyone is different and has their own preferences, and the people around them should respect that. From a religious standpoint, God would not want us to treat each other this way because we were all created equally in his eyes. When you take into consideration how everyone is supposed to come together on Sunday morning and celebrate God, you will realize that we do not come to together as blacks and whites. Instead, white people have their churches and blacks have theirs. The church is supposed to be a place where people are safe and feel at home but yet, we do not all come together and worship like we should. Why do you think people do this? Race and gender are selected as two cases of stratification systems that have been used to delineate appropriate relationships among individuals and between individuals and groups (Seong 75). This could simply be due to the fact that people feel more comfortable with people who are more like them, and that is why racism still exist in America. Since everyone is comfortable with the way that things are, no one wants to take the initiative to step outside these boundaries to learn about someone of a different race. And until someone take the initiative, racism is always going to have an effect on Americans.

 Racial inequalities have spread throughout the work place and now there is a gap between life expectancy, income, housing and even food security between African Americans and the rest of the United States (UN Experts Urge the U.S., to Address Legacies of the Past, Police Impunity, and Crisis of Racial Injustice). Life expectancy can be created because of the denial of rightful healthcare to African Americans. An article in CNN said, “For years, black patients were relegated to separate -- and appallingly unequal -- hospitals and wards. Many were simply denied medical attention, either "dumped" into the care of other facilities or turned away at the hospital door” (Das). Healthcare is a very important aspect to every person because it could be a life or death situation. Across the nation black males in 2010 had a life expectancy almost five years lower than white males; black women could expect to live three years fewer than white females (Das). These statistics can support the idea that proper help is not being given to people of color. The government has intervened and installed Medicaid and Medicare to help health care justice (Das). These regulations have aided the less fortunate as well as the elder that struggled to receive proper healthcare in the last couple of years. A lot of these issues are ignored by people who are not affected by them. Whites and even some more fortunate African Americans do not realize that people are still being discriminated against.

After doing further research on racism in our current society it is clear that racism is still a factor that needs to be accounted for. Although some people do not believe that racism still exists, because we have had a black president and there are many biracial people in the world. In 2010 and article was written by Kent Ono, that introduced the idea of post racism, or the period after racial disputes. In this article Ono says, “…people participate in what journalist Mary Valbrun called the ‘I-Love-Obama-thus-racism-no-longer-exist phenomenon’”. This sounds crazy, right? Just because there was an African American president does not alleviate the idea of racism. Racism became a more common topic of conversation when Obama rose to presidency. Many whites were angry and unhappy with his plan for America along with the color of his skin. So for people to say race no longer exist in America, is a lie. No matter how hard a person tries to diminish racial discrimination, it will always still be around. Race factors into where we choose to live, school our children, and where we pray. It also influences how people look at us and how we are treated by other people and the criminal justice system (Valbrun). Another reason why some whites do not see racism as a problem is the simple idea of white privilege, the superiority of white racial identities. Whites have more opportunity, more power, and more structural advantages because of their skin color (Bonds). Since whites have the upper hand in society, they struggle to relate to the things that African Americans experience. They can read about it, learn about it, teach it, but they will never understand what it is like to be black. Therefore, it makes it hard for them to believe racism still exist in America.

Racial inequalities have been haunting American society for years. It affects the way we worship, act towards certain groups, and consider job applicants. It has effected many families who have lost loved ones to police brutality. Racism should be something every American should be ashamed of and instead of continuing it, someone should make a change. College campuses should have an equal distribution of blacks and whites, churches should be more integrated to bring people together, and black men should be stereotyped in a suit and tie instead of baggy clothes and a gun in their hand. All lives do matter, but black lives are the ones facing the victimization. It is time for American to come together as a country and take away the colors and look at everyone in the same light. 
