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English 115
African Americans have endured a lot in the history of the United States.
Even though slavery was abolished a hundred and fifty years ago, African Americans
still go through suffering daily, whether it is coming from inside or outside their
community, and its usually not their fault, it is caused by the community and how their
African Americans are treated as if they are savages, that they are lesser than
everyone else and they are always out there to get you. In the article Black Men and
cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk of the
driver--black, white, male, or female-- hammering down the door locks. This quote
shows have African American men were treated as danger even though they have no
intention to cause harm to anyone and just minding their own business. Brent Staples
was just walking on the sidewalk and the car drivers and passengers would lock their
cars fearing that he will cause them harm and their only reason for their actions it is his
skin color. That fears didnt only come from just the people that are from different race
as Brent Staples, but African Americans feared him, doing the same thing as the other
people when they saw Brent Staples. Brent Staples was an educated man that, he was
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not a thug or a menace, he was a regular man, which should give lesser reasons for the
peoples suspicions.
The mistreatment does not only come from regular citizens, but comes from
people with power, like the police. I live in Santa Monica, an area where mostly white
people live. But my next-door neighbor, Dr. Johnson, is an African American, middle-
aged man. A while back, he would go for walks around our neighborhood very often,
around twice a week, however, one time the police stopped him, and asked him
questions and searched him. Dr. Johnson worked as a doctor in the hospital around the
corner from our house. HE wears khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirts and glasses. He is
African American, he gets harassed by police, and ever since then he stopped going for
walk around our neighborhood and he takes them at a nearby park, and thats the only
damage that happen to him. In some cases, the police take excessive actions and
shoots and innocent African American person. People, like Philippe Lemoine who wrote
the article titled Police Violence Against Black Men is Rare, might argue that police
brutality is rare Last year, according to the Washington Posts tally, just 16 unarmed
black men, out of a population of more than 20 million, were killed by the police. Yes,
that ratio is very low, but some of these shootings created nationwide protest and riots.
16 shooting mean a lot to people if they feel if they could be the next victim
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(not actual photo, but very good representation of actual appearance because DR.
poverty. They also dont get an equal opportunity to get out of their neighborhood like
other bad neighborhoods. The schools that are populated by the African American
students or near an African American community do not get the same amount of
funding and resources as other schools. Education is one of the main ways to get out of
poverty and the horrible lifestyle that comes with it. But if African American do not the
proper education that they need, their lifestyle will never change, and it will always be
bad. On the HBO show Last Week Tonight John Oliver talks about this topic in detail.
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Starting at 12:20 to 12:44 in the episode (the rest of the videos is NSFW), John Oliver
shoes how segregated school damages students and feeds into the stereotype that
African Americans are not equal to other races. Also, when the girl says, we dont know
how to act because we believe that that theyre better than us. Shows how the students
that go to segregated school feel that theyre less than other races.
African Americans go through many obstacles in the space around them whether
its in their community or in their schools or on the street. Their identity is taken away
from them and theyre treated as inferiors and savages, even though the civil rights
movement was decades ago, equality is still an issue for the African American in United
states.
Citation:
Lemoine, Philippe. Police Violence against Black Men Is Rare. National Review, 18
Lund, John. Black African American Doctor With Stethescope . John Lund, John Lund,
www.johnlund.com/page/2375/african-american-doctor-smiling-close-up.asp.
Staples, Brent. Black Men in Public Space. The Norton Reader, pp. 141143.