Racism- A Scar on the Face of Humanity
Racism took roots in American society when the first Europeans landed on this soil. Discrimination and segregation have long been condemned by many individuals, but it took about 200 years for American government to grant equal rights to every citizen, after the Civil Rights movement. The law for equality was passed in 1964, but its implementation is not yet complete. Racism can be observed in our lives in the form of police brutality, both physical and psychological, racial profiling and hate crimes.
Police, who people view as protector of Civil Liberties, has become one of the leading causes of racism in this country. Physical abuse of ethnic minorities by cops was commonplace before the Civil Rights movement, making Martin Luther King notice that "the Negro is the victim of unspeakable horrors of police brutality" (20). Even though actions have been taken to stop police brutality, it is still prominent.
English: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin ...
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Crowds surrounding the Reflecting Pool, during the...For example, two white police officers, James Comito and Matthew Thiel, kicked and beat Jeremiah Mearday, an African American eighteen-year-old in Chicago ("Chicago", par. 2). Officers reported that Mearday resisted arrest and punched Comito, but both these charges were false, as Comito had no physical injury and the officers were arresting Mearday without probable cause, just based on his race. Cases like these fuel the fire of racism, which this country has been trying to suppress for decades.
Abner Luima, a Haitian immigrant living in New York, became another victim of police brutality, when cops abused him in a police station bathroom, in !997 (Cose 42). The physical abuse included, among other things, "shoving a nightstick up Luima's rectum." "Since that day.... I have vowed to do everything I can to ensure that the torture and cover-up I suffered will not be inflicted...