Dear Next President,

Thank you for taking one of the most difficult assignments in the country. I am grateful to live in our generous and great nation. We are incredible people, yet we continue to suffer from some of the same issues for many years now. We hear and experience discrimination repeatedly, especially towards people of color that live in our country. We hear stories from our relatives, we read about this nation’s history, and we see it in movies. I want to ask for your help specifically to get us to better solutions.

The racism this country has housed is more than our entire world ever should. It has been fifty years since the Civil Rights Act was passed, so you’d think we would have moved on. Yet, racism still lingers throughout your average American’s everyday life. According to cnn.com, of the 318.9 million people that live in the United States of America, 49% of people think that racism is a huge problem today.

All this hate that people have for other races needs to come to an end. A lot of this hate is being influenced by stereotypical ideas that are being said and spread around. They are simply not true. It is not true that all Mexicans are drug lords and rapists. It is not true that all African-Americans are gang members who should be feared. It is not true that all Middle Easterners are terrorists. It is also not true that any race is inferior to another. I, myself, witness someone discriminate a specific race around five times a day. That’s five times too many. It feels like racism is everywhere I go. I hear forms of racism at school, I see it on the internet, and I see it all over TV and the news. It is also found out in the streets, where police are supposed to be keeping people safe.

As of 2015, there have been over 1,200 killings committed by US police officers. Most of the unarmed victims were black. What statistics shows us is that most of the police officers who are killing innocent, unarmed men are white. I see this as a form of racism. If there is something you could do to contribute to ending racism, it’s with this. Police brutality is something that you can help us change. Please consider enforcing different laws that will demand restraint from police officers when handling unarmed civilians. You can help offer better trainings for officers, and show our policemen how to deal with situations without guns. Many other countries are already on this path. Hopefully, ours will follow, too.

Thank you,

Isabelle