Dear Future President,

I am in the eighth grade and am sending you this in regards to racial profiling. As a young African American girl, I find it appalling that police officers have killed unarmed black men and have not been charged with anything. Not many people know about these problems and I find that a huge issue. In article “Young black men killed by US police at highest rate in year of 1,134 deaths,” Out of the 1,134 people, 7.13% black people were killed by police over the years.

This is highly important to me simply because I’m black, and because in the future I plan on having children and I do not want one of them getting shot because they are black. I am not insinuating black people are the only people being racially profiled, but this was a topic that was easy to connect with and I take interest in. Many Muslims are being classified as terrorists, but according to “Muslims Are Not Terrorists: A Factual Look at Terrorism and Islam,” the FBI claims that 94% of terrorist attacks carried out in the U.S. from 1980 to 2005 have been by a non-Muslim. This means that an American terrorist suspect is over nine times more likely to be a non-Muslim than a Muslim. When some citizens think of Spanish people, they unfairly think of think tacos right? Well, that’s stereotyping and besides, tacos come from Mexico, not Spain. Just because they speak the same language doesn’t mean they eat the same food. You may not think these things are necessarily important, but they are.

Only ten of the 102 cases in 2015 where an unarmed black person was killed by police resulted in officers being charged with a crime, and only two of these deaths resulted in convictions of the officers involved. A 13 year old black child was killed by the police in Columbus, Ohio, for pulling out a BB gun. He shouldn’t have had the BB gun on him and there was no way for the police officer to tell it wasn’t real, but if the victim was thirteen, don’t you think the officer would be able to tell the difference between a real and fake gun? Instead of shooting an innocent thirteen year old, he could have asked him to put it down or he would've surely gotten him to the ground. The reason tragedies like this are happening is because officers and many other prejudiced people think that any black person with a gun is a criminal and a threat. I hope that by the year 2020 Racial Profiling is not an issue anymore.

You can help me, and America, with this by giving punishments for these heinous crimes and speaking out for what is right. If they are listen to you as president and you aren’t showing that it is important, they won’t think it is of importance. You have to show where you stand and that it’s not okay to kill people because of their race. As president you have the power to move mountains.

It’s all in your hands. Will you put an end Racial Profiling? Will the next generations have to live through this? Do you want to live in this kind of environment? You have the power, will you use it for good or not?

Sincerely,

Brianna G., Pennsylvania