“Black.” “Nigger.” Those words were spewed at Caleb like lava coming out of volcanoes rock. Venomous, spiteful, and hateful words gushed at him, all because Caleb’s skin was a different color than his teammates. Watching the movie Woodlawn with my family made me squirm and cringe. All Caleb wanted to do was play football. Yet the color of his skin made the job wearying, difficult, and sometimes dangerous. Both recent and past history has displayed that the skin color and race of people is one of the greatest causes of war and hate.
Color has always been the dividing line to make African Americans feel less worthy of a legitimate social identity than Euro-Americans and less favored over those with lighter skin within their own race. During the Civil War, colored people were not allowed to use the same bathroom, water fountain, ride the same buses, eat at the same restaurants, or basically do anything that allowed them to interact them with white or lighter colored skin individuals. It was as if the African Americans were still in slavery, though they were free. …show more content…
In 2014, Charleston, South Carolina police officer, Michael Slager was arrested and charged with shooting and killing Walter Scott. Scott, age 50, was shot in the back eight times by Slager before collapsing a few hundred yards away. Again and again, incidents like this pop up, and show their ugly faces. Not only are whites killing blacks, but blacks are also guilty on the same crime. In 2015 Memphis police officer Sean Bolton approached an illegally parked care, apparently interrupting a drug deal that was taking place inside. After engaging in a physical struggle with the car’s passenger for a few moments, the car’s driver shot Bolton multiple times. Bolton died as the ambulance arrived at the
Color has always been the dividing line to make African Americans feel less worthy of a legitimate social identity than Euro-Americans and less favored over those with lighter skin within their own race. During the Civil War, colored people were not allowed to use the same bathroom, water fountain, ride the same buses, eat at the same restaurants, or basically do anything that allowed them to interact them with white or lighter colored skin individuals. It was as if the African Americans were still in slavery, though they were free. …show more content…
In 2014, Charleston, South Carolina police officer, Michael Slager was arrested and charged with shooting and killing Walter Scott. Scott, age 50, was shot in the back eight times by Slager before collapsing a few hundred yards away. Again and again, incidents like this pop up, and show their ugly faces. Not only are whites killing blacks, but blacks are also guilty on the same crime. In 2015 Memphis police officer Sean Bolton approached an illegally parked care, apparently interrupting a drug deal that was taking place inside. After engaging in a physical struggle with the car’s passenger for a few moments, the car’s driver shot Bolton multiple times. Bolton died as the ambulance arrived at the