Dear Next President:

As you already know, our country has a huge problem with racism. Something has to be done to stop this problem now. Let's keep in mind that I am 16 years old and, although I may not have been around as long as you, I am still aware of the problems and tragedies that happen in our country. We have the typical white cop shoots black man. Black cop shoots white man. Terrorism and Racial profiling. It's not just one or two races, either. The sad thing is that every single race in this country is involved.

Lately, it seems like police shootings are happening more frequently. It seems as if every time I get on social media or turn to the news, a new person has been shot and killed by a cop. This year alone, there have been about 550 deaths by police. Although Caucasians have more deaths by cops than any other race this year, blacks have been killed at the highest rate, many of whom have been completely unarmed. Now we have a lot of these “groups” that racial groups are creating (a big one many recognize is the “Black Lives Matter” movement) in order to try and find a way to protest that this police brutality/racism has to stop. Of course our officers would never admit that they are racist, but with this many deaths and at that high a rate, it's really starting to raise eyebrows.

Another big brow raiser is the amount of racial profiling in the U.S.. When you hear the word terrorist, what is the first thing to pop up in your head? More than likely, it has something to do with Islamic people. Why is that? Could it be that our own republican candidate, Donald Trump said, “I think profiling is something that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country.” Or maybe that he said the Muslim community had to “Cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad.” With a lead over every other opposing person at a whopping 45% voting Trump in the new survey, he seems to have a big pull on the people of this country. With people taking action on the things that he says, of course we are going to have an enormous amount of racial profiling in this country. Even back in 2005, for example, our roadways were filled with racial profiling. “For the year 2005, the most recent data available, "[p]olice actions taken during a traffic stop were not uniform across racial and ethnic categories." "Black drivers (4.5%) were twice as likely as White drivers (2.1%) to be arrested during a traffic stop, while Hispanic drivers (65%) were more likely than White (56.2%) or Black (55.8%) drivers to receive a ticket.” Obviously, racial profiling has been going on for longer than we can probably remember. What are we as a country going to do about it? Elect a candidate that thinks profiling is an awesome thing and something we have to have?

Now on the other side of this whole dilemma, racism is still not a good thing! I guess maybe racial profiling might have led investigators to an Islamic terrorist in the past. Who knows. As a whole, racism is not a good thing for any country, especially America.

So as you can see, racism is a huge problem in our country. With police killings, beatings, terrorism, racial profiling and a ton of other messed up things going on in this country, we are going on a down spiral. Who is going to fix this problem? Who is going to be the one to stand up for what is right and break the mold? Dear next president, you have a very powerful voice. Use it for the greater good.

Sincerely,

Chandler Villarreal