On March 3rd, 1991 Rodney King, 27, a black man, unarmed pulled out of his car

and beaten by the police within an inch of his life, many people think racism is no longer
a relevant problem that's just not the case.There are rising numbers of people that are
getting fed up the fact that racism is more American than the Fourth of July. America
has been an enslaved or segregated country longer than it has been a liberated and
equal country but as we learn more of what's happening its not all that equal.

Police brutality against african-americans is one of many signs of racism thriving

today. Eric Garner is a more recent example of excessive lethalness and brutality from
police against black people. Garner was going to be arrested for the minor crime selling
loosies. The cop who killed Officer Daniel Pantaleo did so by using an illegal chokehold
and he wasnt even indicted (MCWhorter). Police getting away with illegal acts is
nothing new. Understanding relationships between black communities and law
enforcement requires a deeper look(Hasset). Armed or unarmed law enforcement in
America was redirected to militarism, indoctrinated with fear of Black men and trained
for war on Blacks says former black panther Blair Anderson regarding law enforcement
killings of african-americans. America generally has not been all to nice to AfricansAmericans and other minorities since its come to existence, even the colonies had
slaves. Even after the slaves were freed they were still not treated as human beings
where they were different bathrooms,restaurants,waiting rooms and even schools. It
wasnt even until the 1960s when the civil rights act was passed that made it lawfully
equally. It wasnt until another twenties years that it seemed like things were equal. But
as we know it still isnt quite truly equal Eric Garner being one of many examples.

Referring back, Rodney King was a big wake up call. People were in outrage the
country was pretty much split there was also the infamous L.A. riots. which caused
caused 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, with almost $1 billion in
financial. But at least this is one of the cases with a somewhat happy ending with
officers being charged. But still this type of thing should have never happened in the first
place.

One of the most recent and known is of Michael Brown, black, 18 and unarmed
was shot by Officer at the time Darren Wilson. The encounter isnt exactly clear but what
is, is that it doesn't take 6 bullets to kill someone not only that Darren Wilson emptied
his clip when he fired more than twelve rounds. One of the worst things about this is that
this entire incident was avoidable, apparently the PD in the area only has 1 taser
(Hasset). 1 Taser! Wilson said he doesn't like to wear taser because they're
uncomfortable that is one terrible excuse because his comfortability level some one
now has a chalk outline. Thats not even the worst of it, there are maybe a handful of
protests that got violent but the rest were peaceful. But the Gov. of Missouri decided
that the peaceful ones needed to be punished. The police sent military esque officers on
them tear gassing and bombing the peaceful protesters.

Stereotypes, it happens to everyone but worse minorities to be more specific

black people. Stereotypes have always been around some worse than others. Its been
very prominent in our entertainment industry. Starting with blackface that started in the
1820s as white people covered their face in pitch to look black and then act out
stereotypes on stage for laughs.This was still a very popular thing throughout the years

until around 1950s. But the effects of the blackface is minimal compared to the effects of
the govt. it self. Considering the govt. once allowed the slavery of black people it comes
to no ones surprise political cartoons used to be extremely stereotypical with big puffy
red lips and exaggerated.Not to mention we still have football team named the
Redskins. But many people cant help absorbing stereotypes given to them by the
media today (Mooney).

A lot of educators have been forbidden to talk about Mike Brown

(Gumbrecht).But children should know about racism, ignoring it isnt going to help it.
Children in school nowadays rarely are show the I Have a Dream speech, racism
being taught in school is thought of as being unnecessary (Gumbrecht). Black history
month is often glossed over. Children are often seen as innocent and unaware of race,
but that is far from the truth. Children are taught from a young age by the media to be
racist but well get to that later. Saying racist things isnt anything out of the ordinary for
teens with white teens often Nigga as a substitute for friend,homie, etc. Kids also do
hurtful,insensitive racist things without knowing such as stretching their eyes and saying
they're Chinese (Gumbrecht). Children will often during recess put hands on and off
there mouth yelling like a Indian, children are also taught to sit Indian style. Children
arent all that innocent after all.

The cultural component is often described as institutionalized racism.-Blair

Anderson said regarding cultural racism. Racism is everywhere you look. The media
news outlets are an easy place to go. Fox news has always been an infamously racist
news outlet. Recently they were talking about the Paris shooting in 2014 and they said

that you could detect a bad guy by the tone of their skin. Not to mention that also
obsessed like most the right wing is about black republicans going along with the right
its okay to mention that Andrew Breitbart showing a doctored video of Shirley Sherrod.
Representation is a problem too with about 45% of blacks shown on television are
republican but only 4% being so (Deggans). Black people are often portrayed as thugs
and criminals in the media, even the police are quicker to think a black man is a criminal
(Deggans). Media is also very racist to Arabic muslims often assuming terrorist=dark
islamic man. The media and culture have never been nice to african-americans and
other minorities.

Racism isnt inherit you arent just born with it, its taught. It cant be stopped
unless it is recognized and called we cant stop just ignoring. Racism is alive and well in
america today and we have to stop it.

Racism Today

Mr. Huegh
3rd Hour
Nick Easterling
3/11/15