Friday, November 10, 2017

False Sense of Progress

In the novel Beloved, set in 1865, we see racial issues like the obvious one racial inequality, slavery, discrimination, the fugitive slave act, and the traumatization and isolation impacted upon ex-slaves. 152 years later have we really made a significant headway regarding racial equality?

In current news there are several thematic racial issues: police brutality, mass incarceration of minorities, unequal distribution of resources, and endless more systematic discrimination. And these matters are hushed, ignored, and/or unaddressed.

However it is a FACT that the police treat minorities differently. Either they are more frequently ticketed, cited, seen as suspicious, dangerous, a threat, beaten, or murdered. African Americans and Latinos have a fearful relationship with the police as they are living in fear and have a higher chance of going to jail and getting shot because of their skin color. 

The prison system is racially unjust. African Americans and Latinos are the majority in prison and under the 13th Amendment labor can be forced upon inmates legally. So now there is a new form of slavery but under a disguise. Slavery still exists and it is covert to those Americans who are privileged enough to never see even a sliver of the racial issue.

2 comments:

  1. "152 years later have we really made a significant headway regarding racial equality?"

    Yep. In 2017, 847 people have been killed by the police. Not 847 unarmed black people, 847 people total, 772 of which were armed. You can look for yourself here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/

    That seems like me to be pretty far from when Beloved was set. (not 1865, which was the year the civil war ended, and Baby Suggs was still alive)

    I just think it's a little disingenuous the equate today, where a black person is more than twice as likely to be struck by lightning than be killed by a police officer, most of the time lawfully, and post-reconstruction America, when tens of thousands of blacks were murdered by state-sanctioned lynch mobs every year.

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  2. I think this is incredibly important to be aware of, but it's equally important to be aware of how we have improved. I do honestly believe mass incarnation is the new slavery, and that the treatment of minorities is something we as a society like to shove under the rug. However, society's treatment of minorities is undeniably a lot better than it was in the slavery and post-slavery era. I think, if anything, those two factors need to be considered together: we can and have progressed, but we are not nearly as close to equality as we think we are. Therefore, we absolutely must keep fighting for equal treatment in any way we can.

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