Racism: A Problem In The United States

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Racism is when one favors or disfavors a certain race because of their skin color and/or their culture. “Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simple on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others,” written in Anup Shah’s article of Racism. Racism may seem like it is a little problem that others have to deal with; however, it was a problem in the past and continuing to become even worse over a period of time. The reason why racism is a major problem for the United States today is because this has created hate crimes and racial prejudice towards the minority groups. It started in the seventeenth century, when Africans were kidnapped and brought to the United States …show more content…
In 2008 Barack Obama was elected as president and in 2012 he was elected for a second term. He was and still is the first black president to run this nation. Before he was even elected there were speculations about him not being a native born citizen. He was accused of being born in different countries because people were finding reasons to not trust him. In the article Malik Obama says Israel Shouldn’t Worry About Barack’s Muslim “Connection,” it states that Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim. Nowhere in the article does Malik Obama, President Obama’s half-brother, state that president Obama is a Muslim or that the president was born in Kenya. The president does have a connection to Israel but through his father who was born there. Although these false accusations would upset anyone, President Obama continued to lead the nation and overlooked the hatred that he had received. In order for racism to decrease people should ask questions about someone’s background rather than speculate something false out of bitterness or hatred. How a person looks is not an acceptable reason to make up false accusations or should a person’s background be the sole reason of why an assumption was made …show more content…
Being less judgmental will help others get to know people before they judge them based on how they look or where they are from. Racism, of course, is not going to end completely because this is something that will exist forever. Even though it is not possible to end racism; nonetheless, it could decrease by teaching children at a young age to look at everyone the same and not judge them. During Obama’s presidential term there were many hate crimes that were related to racism. In June 2015 nine black church members were killed in Charleston and after that were followed by a series of police officers shooting unarmed black men. There seems to be no motive behind any of these activities. The killing of these individuals could have been prevented if the killers’ had an open mind. An open mind would allow them to think about why or who they are hurting and it would help them think of reasons why they should not do it. Obama says that the relationship between the community and law enforcement needs to improve because the law is supposed to protect us not scare us. Before judging whether or not a person is a criminal based on profiling, they should look at the facts or if the person will cause any danger at all (Chappell). Although the country is becoming more diverse it seems as if racism is getting worse. During an interview with Marc Maron, President Obama states that we are not cured from it, racism

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