Dear, President

  My name is Hannah and I am a ninth grader, who has taken a sudden intrigue in this year's election. It has come to my attention on certain issues that take place, one of that is being a minority in America. The fact is not exactly the actuality of being a person of color, rather the difficulties they face. According to "The Washington Post","Racial Profiling has destroyed public trust in police. Cops are exploiting our weak laws against it."

  The media, whether it be for news or entertainment, many cannot help but see the underlying problem of how it indulges in outdated or harmful spotlight on minorities. People, to most of us, may not see the obstacles that can occur when television places attention on people of color, a lot of the time negatively, while it may not be broad, it is very subtle. The main complication is the fact that no one seems to filter out what may be fact or fiction, often placing a generic formula onto them, causing prejudice. Similarly, when I was a child, I remember watching cartoons all day on Sundays, they were funny and amusing, however, when growing up and revisiting these shows, their subtle racism did dilute some part of my mind. They created stale stereotypes, which doesn’t help with the fact that people of color usually do not receive much positive notice. The shows they do manage to obtain portrays them as rowdy, “ratchet”, and “ghetto”, this particular trope is popular among horror or supernatural themed television or movies. 

  My point is, popular entertainment outlets neglect the hardships that minorities face, opting for the flashy and comical outlook it has for oblivious and impressionable readers. This is detrimental for progress. If someone, particularly a black American, were to try and discuss their vexation on topics that dehumanize him or her as a person, the listener, unaware of their mental segregation from society, can easily tap into the life long fed idea that their feelings are merely relegated to “Angry black person.” It is a tiring process that can emotionally wear a person down. In a sad way, men of color are perceived to be these unhinged animals with no sense of direction and always living a life of crime. Such institutionalized thinking can cause unfair judgment and from recent year, death.

  They told us they thought he had a gun, so they fired. He was an unarmed man at the wrong time and wrong place. So here he lay, in the cold earth without the warm hearth of our hearts to touch him. The pain is dull as I remember the faint memory of the only crime he committed was the color of his skin. 

The purpose of the poem is to show that misconceptions leads to mistakes and an early grave. From Internet research, news reports, and police records in 2015, Black people were killed 6.78 per million, with Hispanic/Latino at 3.2 per million, and White people at 2.07.  "A year ago today, a white police officer shot and killed a black teenager in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, catalyzing a firestorm of protests and re-animating national conversations on issues of race, policing, and violence in the US. " and “Police Have Killed at Least 1,083 Americans Since Michael Brown's Death ” according to information by VICE News.

  Basically, VICE News is saying that after a year since Michael Brown, the teenager that was killed, which of whom did nothing to cause his demise, another thousand have died at the hands of police.