After centuries of slavery, oppression, and human rights violations, Africans Americans still endure racial prejudice, racial profiling, and police brutality. Even though there are people that make a living by arguing the contrary, being black is not easy in a majority white America. During a time of racial tensions and divisions, it is noteworthy understand the similarities between Citizen and The Mexican Flyboy that illustrate the adversity that African Americans face in their lives in order to demonstrate the ongoing prejudice and racism in America. According to both texts, a black individual is more like to be stopped by the police, perceived to be a criminal, charged for a crime that a white person would not be in a similar situation,
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The two texts show that an individual’s skin color plays an important role in determining the way they are treated by police officers and civilians. Throughout his documentations of mistreatments of various people in The Mexican Flyboy, Alfredo Véa mentions many cases of African Americans, including Amadou Diallo. Perhaps, if Diallo were a white man, the police officers would not have perceived that he was going for his gun, instead of his wallet, and he would not have been shot nineteen times by trained American police officers. “Simon winced when he heard the hard crack of guns firing, and he witnessed the body of Amadou Diallo collapsing downward—the lethal, life-threatening wallet flying from his hand. Simon moaned as he watched the last of nineteen rounds entering Amadou’s shaking, jerking body” (Véa 80). Furthermore, it is important to understand that he was not shot while in the process of being reprimanded, but he tried to take out his identification, as he anticipated that he might be asked for an ID due to racial profiling and stop-and-frisk. How ironic! He must have been used to being stopped and ID’d by the police. This single case should be enough to debunk the whole notion that skin color is not a determining factor in America. Furthermore, Citizen also documents many …show more content…
In many of the cases where a white “citizen” or a police officer killed a black person, they defend themselves by stating that they felt “under threat” or they felt “suspicion.” Rankine mentions many of these cases including Trayvon Martin, which is a fairly recent case. What was it that separated Trayvon Martin from all other teenagers to his murderer? Perhaps, Martin’s skin color left a preconception in his shooter and he did not treat Martin the same way that he would have treated a white teenager in the same situation. Rankine demonstrates that without race involved, Martin and all other black teenagers are just the same: just teenagers. “My brothers are notorious. They do regular thinks, like wait. On my birthday they say my name. They will never forget that we are named. What is that memory?” (Rankine 89) Martin was not allowed to celebrate another birthday because of his skin color. This case is just another demonstration of how the black experience and the white experience is just not the same in a racist America. Racial prejudice affects all black people, regardless of whether of not they committed any
The two texts show that an individual’s skin color plays an important role in determining the way they are treated by police officers and civilians. Throughout his documentations of mistreatments of various people in The Mexican Flyboy, Alfredo Véa mentions many cases of African Americans, including Amadou Diallo. Perhaps, if Diallo were a white man, the police officers would not have perceived that he was going for his gun, instead of his wallet, and he would not have been shot nineteen times by trained American police officers. “Simon winced when he heard the hard crack of guns firing, and he witnessed the body of Amadou Diallo collapsing downward—the lethal, life-threatening wallet flying from his hand. Simon moaned as he watched the last of nineteen rounds entering Amadou’s shaking, jerking body” (Véa 80). Furthermore, it is important to understand that he was not shot while in the process of being reprimanded, but he tried to take out his identification, as he anticipated that he might be asked for an ID due to racial profiling and stop-and-frisk. How ironic! He must have been used to being stopped and ID’d by the police. This single case should be enough to debunk the whole notion that skin color is not a determining factor in America. Furthermore, Citizen also documents many …show more content…
In many of the cases where a white “citizen” or a police officer killed a black person, they defend themselves by stating that they felt “under threat” or they felt “suspicion.” Rankine mentions many of these cases including Trayvon Martin, which is a fairly recent case. What was it that separated Trayvon Martin from all other teenagers to his murderer? Perhaps, Martin’s skin color left a preconception in his shooter and he did not treat Martin the same way that he would have treated a white teenager in the same situation. Rankine demonstrates that without race involved, Martin and all other black teenagers are just the same: just teenagers. “My brothers are notorious. They do regular thinks, like wait. On my birthday they say my name. They will never forget that we are named. What is that memory?” (Rankine 89) Martin was not allowed to celebrate another birthday because of his skin color. This case is just another demonstration of how the black experience and the white experience is just not the same in a racist America. Racial prejudice affects all black people, regardless of whether of not they committed any