Discrimination of Races

Discrimination of races is something that is occuring in our society everyday. It still exists today because it started so long ago and once certain races had the hierarchy, some refuse to let go of the idea that they have more power just because they look a certain way and they choose to discriminate the minorities. Discrimination against a person’s race occurs when an individual or group of individuals are treated unequally because of their true or perceived race. I am researching the effects and origin of the idea that people deserve to be discriminated for their race.

Racism has been going on throughout mankind’s history. It is based on the idea that one’s traits, social and moral, are given at birth by biological traits. A Belief that has come to be that different races don’t deserve to be together and should remain apart from another is the idea of racial segregation. This belief developed some years after the reconstruction time in 1877. Many laws developed requiring segregation to keep blacks and whites separated and the blacks to be treated like they were below the whites.

The laws were known as The Jim Crow Laws and were passed in the South for many years. The laws were objected by some but the laws did not go away and were most popular during the 1880s and 90s . The laws kept white and black people separated in buses, restaurants, schools, restrooms, drinking fountains, and most public places in general by putting up whites only or no blacks allowed signs. They went on for decades and became part of everyday life and didn’t end until the 1960’s. Now there are strict laws that forbid for discrimination to occur in public accommodations. If someone feels they have been discriminated in a public place because of their race they can even go to a civil rights attorney to discuss their rights and the formal laws against it. Even after these laws though, some people can not let go of the idea that the color of your skin does not define the type of person you are. Facing discrimination for you race or ethnicity is still a problem widely faced by many people.

For example, just last month there were reports of a starbucks employee calling the cops on two black men for defiant trespassing because they were sitting at a table not ordering anything, but it was simply because they were waiting for a friend. Their story was approved and the police did not file charges for this incident. Starbucks was accused of being racist and it was true because these two men were completely innocent and were simply arrested for being black. Other people in starbucks at the time were even confused as to why they were being arrested and asked why, if they were doing the same thing, weren’t they too arrested. The men were released after 9 hours and starbucks posted an online apology to apologize for racial discrimination and even the barista who called requested for a face-to-face apology. This is just one example as to how racial discrimination is not only an issue of the past, but is still occuring in our current everyday lives.

Racism occurs because of people wanting to feel better than others and it continues to occur because older generations are bringing younger generations up into that belief. The people who are discriminated because of their race can take it mildly where they begin to feel badly of themselves, or it can affect someone so badly it drives them to hurt themselves and even begin to question their own worth. Studies show that by being racially discriminated, it can actually harm someone’s mental health by causing a reduction in self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and a spike in emotional and physical stress. Wisconsin even did a statewide survey where they asked their students if they had attempted suicide to take away their own life in the past year. Of all the high schools involved in this survey, 4 percent of white students said they had, while 16 percent of the black student population reported that they had. This proves that by experiencing this discrimination can ruin you more than people realize. There are only bad results to being a racist or by experiencing racial discrimination by being a minority group or individual. People need to take a stand to put an end to slavery once and for all! If we unite we can put an end to it by speaking up against it and realizing that the color of a person’s skin really does not matter. We need to stop teaching younger generations that the minorities are lower people just because they don’t look a certain way or come from a certain origin.

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