The Language of the Unheard
Since the country’s inception, racial inequalities have been a hallmark of the United States. For decades now people have been attempting to change this fact and gain equality for all in a multitude of different ways. These attempts include policy changes, sit-ins, protests, rallies, marches, and in some instances, riots. Whenever a race riot does occur, people frantically ask about whether it is justified or if it is the right thing to be doing. However, when looking at the fact that race riots are never random incidents, are these really the questions we should be asking? I believe that in the event of a race riot people focus on the event itself and ignore the real problems that led to the riot in the first place, …show more content…
In recent years the black population has been moving out of the cities and into surrounding suburban areas due to gentrification, and with them the same problems that plagued them in the cities follow. As stated in the article “Ferguson: New Ghettos Burning,” the cities have gone through “a process of white flight, in which many wealthier people left the region as the economy was restructured, their aging houses taken over by poorer people seeking better schools and housing, neither of which existed in the deindustrialized and then mildly gentrifying core of urban St. Louis.” Interestingly enough, as the black population has moved throughout the country, the occurrence of race riots have followed, as they continue to be disenfranchised wherever they …show more content…
In fact, according to Susan Olsak, Suzanna Shanahan, and Elizabeth McEneaney in their article “Poverty, Segregation and Race Riots: 1960 to 1993,” during this time period analyzed there have been 154 race riots in this country, which is an average of over four per year during that thirty-three year period (601). However, no matter how much we talk about these events we never really get to the heart of the problem. When race riots happen people fixate on whether they are good or bad, but when that happens the grievance of the event in the first place go unheard. When a riot occurs we can hear all about how much damage was caused, or how many people were arrested; however we never hear about the circumstances of the ghetto that the riot took place in, or the many problems those people face on a daily bases. Until this changes the country will never be able to truly gain equality, and we can never truly be free from the threat of a race
Since the country’s inception, racial inequalities have been a hallmark of the United States. For decades now people have been attempting to change this fact and gain equality for all in a multitude of different ways. These attempts include policy changes, sit-ins, protests, rallies, marches, and in some instances, riots. Whenever a race riot does occur, people frantically ask about whether it is justified or if it is the right thing to be doing. However, when looking at the fact that race riots are never random incidents, are these really the questions we should be asking? I believe that in the event of a race riot people focus on the event itself and ignore the real problems that led to the riot in the first place, …show more content…
In recent years the black population has been moving out of the cities and into surrounding suburban areas due to gentrification, and with them the same problems that plagued them in the cities follow. As stated in the article “Ferguson: New Ghettos Burning,” the cities have gone through “a process of white flight, in which many wealthier people left the region as the economy was restructured, their aging houses taken over by poorer people seeking better schools and housing, neither of which existed in the deindustrialized and then mildly gentrifying core of urban St. Louis.” Interestingly enough, as the black population has moved throughout the country, the occurrence of race riots have followed, as they continue to be disenfranchised wherever they …show more content…
In fact, according to Susan Olsak, Suzanna Shanahan, and Elizabeth McEneaney in their article “Poverty, Segregation and Race Riots: 1960 to 1993,” during this time period analyzed there have been 154 race riots in this country, which is an average of over four per year during that thirty-three year period (601). However, no matter how much we talk about these events we never really get to the heart of the problem. When race riots happen people fixate on whether they are good or bad, but when that happens the grievance of the event in the first place go unheard. When a riot occurs we can hear all about how much damage was caused, or how many people were arrested; however we never hear about the circumstances of the ghetto that the riot took place in, or the many problems those people face on a daily bases. Until this changes the country will never be able to truly gain equality, and we can never truly be free from the threat of a race