Dear Future President,

You will soon take on the responsibility of an entire nation, and the whole country will be looking towards you for leadership. Thus, I think it’s reasonable to expect you to provide help and support to the groups of people requiring it, so that we can take a step forward to solving our social imbalance. Throughout American history, social equality has proven to be an eternal battle for civil rights and mutual respect. In the past few hundred years, a lot of progress has been made in the field. From the Emancipation Proclamation to the mid-1900s Civil Rights movements to last year’s legalization of gay marriage, there has certainly been documented improvement. However, people continue to be far too comfortable with what they think is socially fair. I hope you think differently, as there is always more work to be done. As a nation, we were built on the ideology of respect. Our country’s creation represented a unified statement of freedom and acceptance, so I stand by the fact that our national top priority should be achieving absolute social equality.

African Americans have an unfortunate history of being oppressed. Nowadays, whether you’re looking at unemployment statistics, incarceration rates, or the wealth gap, it’s clear that black people in America are still not being treated the same as the white majority, and are finding themselves in unfavorable positions. The aspect of this that has gotten the most media attention has been police prejudice and brutality, which does have evidence to show for it. Black people not only make up a mathematically disproportionate amount of murder victims, but the court system has focused on administering out the harshest of punishments to those responsible in cases of white victims. This is a clearly blatant area of inequality, but African Americans are certainly not the only community suffering such a fate.

In the past couple of years, some truly remarkable strides have been accomplished for LGBT equality, but the movement has a long way to go past the marriage legalization. The Miller v. Davis case from 2015 proved a significant example that discriminatory tensions were going to persist in a multitude of forms. It is still entirely legal for an employer to terminate an employee because they’re gay or transgender in 31 states. In 36 states, there are no laws preventing or prohibiting discrimination against LGBT students in schools. A solution I would encourage you to fight for would be passing the Equality Act, which would lawfully eliminate homophobia in environments of employment, education, housing, public accommodations, jury service, credit, and financial assistance. This is the kind of goal we should be working towards, as almost all other socially oppressed groups in America have at least been given these most fundamental anti-discriminatory rights. However, for some groups, these basic needs are still being flagrantly ignored, as is apparent with women’s equality.

Equality between men and women, specifically concerning employment, has been an ongoing topic with little sign of resolution. The problem is represented on the small-scale level of everyday adult jobs around the country. We’ve all heard about the unfair wage gap. The issue, however, is also shown in very large-scale operations as well. This is evident from the controversy revolving around the men’s and women’s soccer teams at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The women’s team outplayed the men’s and had been doing so for quite a while. However, in spite of how they performed, they never made nearly the same amount of money. This problem is especially frustrating because of how simple it is at its core. There are no intertwined convolutions or logical explanations. Women are doing the exact same jobs as men, and getting paid a great deal less. This is inequality at its most rudimentary base, and is something I hope ceases to persist during your presidency.

These problems are all morally troubling and require immediate attention. For you, this should be an issue that is worth fighting for. Individually, I am not a part of any of these oppressed groups. I’ve grown up into a privileged life with a economically healthy enough household to provide for five children. That being said, I think my lack of any personal connection to social inequality is what makes my support for it all the more important. If these minorities are to succeed, they will mathematically need help from the majorities. So, I believe that regardless of who you are or where you come from, a unanimous belief to obtain equality is not just ideal, it is necessary, and having our leader agree with that sentiment is the first step to achieving it. Now is not the time to halt or undermine the progress already set in motion. This is a battle that must be fought together with a united passion and morality, so to put it plainly, we need your help.

Sincerely,

Patrick Coy-Bjork