Americans are free, but are we equal?

Although I do not suffer from or face this problem there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who do. All throughout history in America we have dealt with the immense problem that we still face today: racism and inequality. Very frequently do I see this happening, but there is so little that I can do. That is why we all need your help to support and unite this country, so we can have equality throughout our nation. I know we face many problems, but today I wanted to write about something we need to bring attention to.

We have faced racism for as long as we can remember. Even though racism still plays a huge role in our society and is everywhere we go, we have yet to help prevent this problem and help those who are suffering from it. As of 2012, 51% of Americans expressed anti-black sentiments in a poll, what is this saying about us Americans as a country? Do we have a serious condition of xenophobia in our country, or do whites just think they are better than everyone else? They say our country's flag stands for equality and equal rights for every American, but how can we stand for a flag when we suffer from racism and inequality? For example, in our workforce today black Americans with the same level of education as white Americans, the unemployment rate is consistently twice as high for black Americans over white. This is showing us that in our country whites are looked up to and favored.

Remember when getting a job was about your education not your skin color? Do you remember a time when we were all equal? As of 2015, white Americans are 3 times more likely to get a callback for a job over black Americans with the same education, and blacks have an arrest rate three times as high as any other race for the exact same crime, why is this happening? Why does one see himself better than others? Although most people don’t face this problem in America or have to deal with it, we have to see the many who are suffering from racism. We will bring attention to this matter and help those in pain.

As kids, we all looked up to and saw police as heroes and protectors of our nation, but now we see the news and think to ourselves and wonder what happened, aren’t they supposed to be the good guys? We can still see them as our heroes, we simply need to be equal. Every time we flip on the news you see a shooting almost every time. For example, in 2015 it was recorded that 102 unarmed black men were shot and killed. That is nearly twice a week just for unarmed blacks, not even the total amount of blacks killed in 2015 just the ones that were unarmed. Unarmed black people were also killed at a rate 5x greater than unarmed whites. We need to ask ourselves why we jump to conclusions about other races and assume they are armed or have weapons just because they seem to be “different”. Our police force needs to see us all as people not just skin colors so we can come back to seeing them as our heroes not the bad guys.

We can and will come back to looking up to the police and getting a job through equality based on our education, skill, and knowledge, we just need to see everyone as an equal person, not a skin color. We must come together as a country and see we are all people here, not just objects, and that no man is greater than another, as Thomas Jefferson said “all men are created equal”. No man should ever be treated differently because of his skin color, once we all see this, we will have equality and trust in our country. Let us stand together and stop racism through treating everyone equal and not just by color.