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Zamon Mustafaa

Dr. Kenly

British Literature

21 March 2019

What is the meaning of racial discrimination? Well, racial discrimination refers to

unequal treatment of persons or groups on the basis of their race or ethnicity. Some people that

are in a higher position like a police officer or a judge may produce or reinforce a racial

disadvantage. Law enforcement plays a huge role in racial discrimination. Institutional processes

do not value what’s right or wrong but who can create the best picture in all situations that occur.

African Americans have been misunderstood and abused by the justice system for many years,

From the police brutality and the disbelief of the innocence from an African American. I know

that all police officers are bad and all African Americans are good. I want to point out the bad in

the judicial system decision making.

Racial discrimination affects society throughout world history, governments have violated and

ignored the human and civil rights of their citizens. The system has denied human dignity and

respect. As people, we don’t feel protected or safe from our rights that were made for us. On the

news, you see a police officer killed a black person for no reason. They say they felt threatened

from them but the people had their hands up with no weapon on them. For example, Rodney

King, a twenty-five-year-old black man, is severely beaten by several Los Angeles police

officers. Some police officers were charged and some got away with the crimes they committed.

In society eyes, we feel as if police officers don’t care about us. Don’t get me wrong, there are

some police officers who dedicate their lives to protect society from any danger. But, we need a

change in the system.

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Society has racial discrimination against African Americans in the judicial system because

African Americans have longer and more severe sentences than white people does. African

Americans are most likely to get punished way more than white Americans. African Americans

are incarcerated at over five times the speed of whites. African Americans are incarcerated at

more than 5 times the rate of whites. According to Criminal Justice Fact Sheet, African

American children represent 32% of children who are arrested, 42% of children who are

detained, and 52% of children whose cases are judicially waived to criminal court. People who

commit the crimes deserved to be arrested but if people are innocent and arrested for it then it’s a

problem. But where did the racial discrimination began?

Racial discrimination had started from slavery. Slavery began in 1619, when a Dutch ship

brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. Slavery had

African slaves helped build the nation into a powerful economy through the production of

lucrative crops such as tobacco and cotton. During the 17th century, European settlers in North

America had made African slaves work without pay and lack of care. Slaves were a labor source

that did not have any choice but to work. African Americans were forced to do what the slave

owner says; if we didn’t then we would get punished or killed. We had a lot of movements and

leading activists that was apart of African American freedom. In the North, the movement from

southern blacks help created the growing abolitionist movement.

From the decade to the decennary, the movement to get rid of slavery in America gained

strength, diode by free blacks like emancipationist and white supporters like William

Lloyd Garrison. In the decade, the compromise declared that the states from the South were

slave states and every one northwest states were free states for slaves. it had been designed to

keep up a good balance between slave and free states. however that didn’t gave all African
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Americans in America freedom. it had been till Chief Executive, the sixteenth president in

America, to assist the slaves be freed. in line with the website’’, Slavery in America,’’On Sep

twenty two, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary freeing proclamation, and on Jan one, 1863, he

created it official that “slaves among any State, or selected a part of a State rebellion,…shall be

then, thenceforward, and forever free.”Though the freeing Proclamation didn’t formally finish all

slavery in America. Slavery would finish thanks to the thirteenth modification once the Civil

War’s finish in 1865. Former slaves received the rights of citizenship and therefore the “equal

protection” of the Constitution within the fourteenth modification and therefore the right to

choose the fifteenth modification, however these provisions of Constitution were typically

neglected or profaned. The Reconstruction was a frightful fundamental measure for African

Americans, particularly once the increase of the racism organization, the KKK, was formed.

African Americans needed to be treated right and were uninterested in the abuse of white

Americans. within the Sixties, the Civil Rights Movement was born and was diode by activists

like Dr. theologist King Jnr., Malcolm X, and lots of a lot of. all of them suffer from beatings,

humiliation, and deaths. They sacrificed their lives to assist African Americans get our equal

rights. However will the system work and what must change? The U.S. system is partly

inheritable from English common law associated depends on an adversarial system of justice. In

the associate adversarial system, litigants gift their cases before a neutral party. The arguments

expressed by every litigant measure presupposed to permit the decide or jury to see the reality

concerning the conflict. Besides presenting written or unwritten arguments, proof and testimony

square measure collected by the defendants and their lawyers and conferred to the court. In court,

it looks like it’s a game of World Health Organization will build the decide to believe that they're

innocent. though the crooked authority understands they're guilty, they need a far better
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likelihood to urge away with no matter crime they committed. each litigant ought to lean a

decent professional once they square measure in a trial. The system is aware that a number of the

defendants can’t afford to urge a decent professional therefore why the system ought to set the

person up like that? the chances square measure stacked up even a lot of if we tend to case

against the upper authority once they square measure within the wrong. If the upper authority

abuses their power to associate innocent individual, however, the person will afford the

professional then what can we tend to do? The system must offer everybody associate equal

likelihood with their claims and qualified attorneys.

Why do police officers need to stop abusing their power? For years, racial inequality has been a

feature in African American lives. Police brutality has been a huge part of racial inequality.

Police brutality is defined as the use of unwarranted or excessive and often illegal use of force

against civilians by police officers. When a police officer pulls you over without reason and they

abuse their power to an innocent bystander. I know that all police officers are bad; there are some

good police officers who love protecting the citizens from any danger. But we have to put the

crooked cops on noticed. On the news, you will see a young African American killed by a police

officer for no reason and the police officer doesn’t get penalized as much as they should. For

example, on March 3, 1991, Rodney King, a twenty-five-year-old black man, is severely beaten

by several Los Angeles police officers. A bystander videotapes the action from a nearby

apartment balcony and sends the tape to a local news station. This was caught on tape but for

some reason, it took a long time for the officers to get charged. Other victims who got killed

from racial profiling are Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Philando Castile and many more. There

are so many police brutalities caught on camera that it’s no way you don’t have evidence on
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what happened. We need to penalize the police for the crimes they commit. They are trained to

sense danger so they need to make better decisions.

Racial discrimination has changed in some ways but the way African American had to suffer has

repeated itself for centuries. In the past, they had segregation which means that African

Americans couldn’t do certain things or we couldn’t go to places where they were just whites

allowed. If we did, we would be punished and get arrested for that. African Americans had to

watch where they were going because the places that we're Ku Klux Klan territories was a threat

to their lives. In the present, the crooked police officers would often pull young African

Americans over and start harassing them without a warrant. There’s a lot of young African

Americans who don’t know want to do when they get pulled over. The police officers see the

little things that might seem a threat. If a person raised their hand then they seem a threat to

police officers. Sometimes they would also judge you from your appearance as well. But in

today’s society, a lot of things are controlled and operated by technology. A huge part of

technology is the media. The media have probably the most evidence of racial discrimination

with videos of police brutality and the disrespect from white supremacists. Many have turned

Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to criticize the mainstream media’s coverage of the shootings

and bad behavior from police officers. Social media has been a helpful tool for us to have proof

and acknowledge the abuse from authority. For example, from the article Police Brutality

Timeline, The Black Lives Matter Movement begins with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter after

George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter begins protesting against racism

and violence, including police brutality, against black people. It’s good that people all over the

world see but we need to make changes in a peaceful way.

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White supremacy culture may be a traditionally made culture that expresses, justifies and binds

along u. s.racism system.

This brings both together white-controlled institutions into systems and white-controlled systems

into the global white supremacy system. According to Showing Up For Racial Justice, White

supremacy culture is reproduced by all the institutions of our society. In particular, the media and

the education system have played central roles in reproducing the idea of white supremacy. Even

the older generations like the grandparents have put that mindset into the children and they carry

on to the next generations to come after them. People in this society kept this mindset that white

people should have full control over everything. The white supremacist does not trust other races

especially African Americans. White supremacist sees us as ignorant no good criminals. We can

be great and do great things for our country but everyone should have equal opportunities. We

shouldn’t be discriminated from how we dressed, how we talk, or where we live. The higher

authority should not that almost all African Americans are guilty of something. We should be

punished for the things didn’t do. Everyone is not innocent and a lot of people commit heinous

crimes but just get the people that do those crimes. Don’t just accuse people they did something

and you don’t have the evidence. All of the white supremacists who work under the Judicial

System should be fired.

Racism, unfortunately, can’t be stopped by no one. The only way racism can be stopped if every

human is killed but we don’t that to happen. Racism is an idea that is born, which eventually

became eternal. There are going to be some people that are narrow-minded people who don’t

understand why racial discrimination is wrong. They more than likely don’t want to understand

why racial discrimination against other races is wrong. There are going to be some racists who

don’t respect other people. No one wants to be a victim of racism, but it can change from a
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negative to a positive if we start now. We as people have to take the negative to turn it to a

positive. The one thing people needs to realize that people are not born being racist; they were

taught. People aren't born with hatred. Hatred is something that we learn from our community,

and from our family. A newborn child doesn't care if you're black or white, or if you're gay or

straight. If the community and people stopped putting up black people as a bad image in the

society then racism wouldn’t be an issue. Racism is always shown everywhere in this society.

People should understand that we all are human beings and we shouldn’t view others in a certain

way just because of their color. The methods I introduce to you would help make our society a

better place. Discrimination occurs from unfavorable or even unfair treatment due to their race or

religion. There are some instances where a person will not be hired based on the color of their

skin. Even though we are talking about racial discrimination gender discrimination also takes

place in the workplace. Women are often discriminated against in the workplace. When you are

in an interview and the interviewer start to ask you questions about your race they are probably

going to discriminate against you. Since some jobs discriminate against people there has been a

law put in place that falls under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Which states failing or

refusing to hire an employee based on their race, firing or disciplining an employee because of

their race, paying an employee less than what they should get or providing fewer benefits on

account of their race all fall under racial discrimination. State legislation dealing with the

workplace is fairly widespread and the general mirrors federal law in prohibiting the

discrimination based on race. In most businesses most of the people that are on the board are not

African Americans, they hold no stake in companies because it is harder for them to do so. The

action of racial discrimination in the workplace is very hurtful. Most people view like if they

can’t get a job for just being themselves than they will have to work ten times harder to try to be
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something they are not. Many people don’t realize they have been discriminated against until

they sit down and evaluate how the interview process went and some of the questions they were

being asked.

African Americans arrest statistics are higher due to discrimination in the criminal justice

system. When police see an African American they automatically think they are up to no good.

They are quick to judge blacks how they walk, talk, and just how they carry themselves. In the

system, today are mostly blacks that are locked up and taken away from their family. Most of the

people that are in the system are wrongly accused because they were in the wrong place.

Although the higher incidence of crime may initially appear to justify the high arrest rates.

African Americans are two and a half times as likely to be arrested as whites and are even more

over-represented in violent crimes, which make them three times more than likely to be arrested.

There are many reports that are out about young men being incarcerated at a faster rate than any

other race. They try to take extra precautions so they don’t have to deal with law enforcement.

Being stop by the police for no apparent reason is not okay unfortunately we liked to call it

“Driving while black” and that makes it so widespread because everybody is trying to figure out

why blacks are always targeted. We all have to come together so we can put a stop to the racial

discrimination amongst African Americans in the world. Every time you get a chance to watch

the news you will see a lot of things dealing with African Americans in the world. People are

racially profiling African Americans for no reason at all and it is taking a huge toll on how we

act on a daily. Since African Americans are always discriminated against they are trying to find a

way around it so they don’t have to deal with that. Black teenagers are more likely to be handled

formally and be trialed as an adult while others get either house arrest or probation.
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Racial Discrimination can affect people in more ways than we will ever know. Racial

Discrimination does not only take place in the judicial system, but it also takes places

everywhere. Racial Discrimination can take place in the workplace, school, sports and etc. For

students, it is hard for them to try to deal with racial discrimination because they don’t know how

to really deal with it. Most of the Discrimination can come from the media. The media plays a

huge part because many people think that just because that’s what you see on the internet that is

how they act in real life when that is not usually the case. Racial Discrimination can also come

from the stereotypes that are being put out about that particular race. The stereotypes that are

being put out can cause people to look at those people differently. The stereotypes that cause

racial discrimination can either be good or bad. You just have to figure out how to overcome the

discrimination you are being faced with. Dealing with the Judicial anything can happen, you

have to be ready to put your best foot forward and keep going. You should never let the racial

discrimination cloud your judgment because you can always come back harder than ever. Racial

Discrimination can take place literally anywhere and when you least expect it to take place.

1. What is your age range?

Their was 27 respondents who took my survey was in the range between 12-18 years old.

2. Are you male or female?

Their was 9 male respondents and 18 female respondents.

3. What is your racial identity?

All of my respondents was African Americans.

4. Have you ever been through racial discrimination?

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There was 10 respondents who experience racial discrimination and 16 respondents who

didn’t.

5. On a scale from 10-100, how much do you think that the judicial system is corrupted?

The average number from the respondents was 82.

6. Do you feel that racial discrimination can be prevented?

19 respondents felt that racial discrimination can be prevented and 9 said no

7. Do you know your rights against racial discrimination?

24 respondents said they know their rights but 3 respondents said they didn’t.

8. On a scale from 10-100, how much do you think police brutality is an issue in our

society? The average number of respondents was 92.

9. Have you witnessed police brutality?

9 respondents witnessed police brutality but 17 respondents haven’t

10. Is the United States Judicial System is fair and equal to all citizens?

23 respondents said no but 4 respondents did

Racial Discrimination plays a huge role in our everyday life. Many people don’t know how to

deal with the racial discrimination they are being faced with. Sometimes the discrimination takes

a long time to get used to because they don’t really play enough attention to it. There are a lot of

things to take into consideration when you are dealing with racial discrimination. Discrimination

happens in the workplace, school, law enforcement and etc. Many blacks looked down to

because they are easily discriminated against.

○ You have to address the situations

○ You have to compromise

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○ State the facts

○ Examine your own biases and consider where they may have originated

○ Challenge the ‘’Colorblind’’ ideology

○ Find how businesses or schools works to expand opportunities for people of color

Work Cited Page

Editors, History.com. “Slavery in America.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12

Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.

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Staff, ProQuest. Police Brutality Timeline. Leading Issues Timelines, 2019. SIRS Issues
Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Harris, Frederick C., and Robert C. Lieberman. "Racial Inequality After Racism: How Institutions
Hold Back African.." Foreign Affairs, 2015, pp. 9-20. SIRS Issues Researcher,
https://sks.sirs.com.

Editors, History.com. “Slavery in America.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12

Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.

“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet.” NAACP, www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.

“8 Everyday Way to Fight Racism - Elimination of Racial Discrimination.” NNEDV,

nnedv.org/latest_update/8-everyday-ways-to-fight-racism/

Balko, Radley. "There's overwhelming evidence that the criminal-justice system is racist.

Here's the proof." The Washington Post. 18 Sept. 2018. WP Company. 18 Apr. 2019

<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/18/theres-overwhelming-

evidence-that-the-criminal-justice-system-is-racist-heres-the-

proof/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bca5859a46ba>

“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet.” NAACP, www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.

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“Civil Rights Laws.” Findlaw, civilrights.findlaw.com/enforcing-your-civil-rights/civil-rights-

laws.html.

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www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-supremacy-culture.html.

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2007, people.howstuffworks.com/judicial-system.htm.

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(Online), 12 May. 2017. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.