Analysis Of Voodoo For Charles By Don Belton

Racism has been a prominent controversial issue in our society through out the years. It is the act of categorizing people based on their race, religion, and/or appearance. This discrimination has created an unethical world were people have become unaware of their actions and judgement towards others. The author, Jennifer Gonnerman, in the article “Before the Law” claims that the justice system allowed an African American teen to be wrongfully sentenced and dismissed due to the color of his skin. Kalief Browder was sent to prison based on charges that were not reliable. Also, he was not given his right “speedy trial” in court. In another article, “Voodoo for Charles” by Don Belton it similarly claims the mistreatment of a young African American …show more content…
This article is about a man and his phone cll to his troubled nephew. In the article it states, “I also wanted to tell him what it has been like for me teaching at a college whose faculty I joined in 1990, a college that has failed to tenure a single black professor in twenty years, about the stress of sometimes confronting a racism so covert and insidious our ancestors could not have imagined it.” (Belton) This quote from the article means that Charles’s uncle was a successful black man, but he still was a victim when it came to racism. He wanted to tell his nephew this because he thought it would benefit Charles to know that he too struggles with discrimination. When you think of racism and our U.S. systems, our judicial branch is usually brought up, though little think of the effects racism in our educational systems have on people. For example, In “Voodoo for Charles” it says,“From the time Charles began school, though he entered able to read, write, count, multiply, and divide, he was labeled a problem child by teachers who were either unwilling or unable to address the accelerated needs of a child like Charles in an overcrowded Newark classroom”(Belton). Analyzing this statement, you can see that Charles, from an early age, was affected by the color of his skin. His teachers lacked the motivation to help him grow because of their personal assumptions towards him. They labeled him as a misfit, so they treated him as a misfit. If Charles would have gotten the education that every willing child deserves, his life would be different. He would have the confidence to want to make something for himself. Charles felt as though he was destined for