Race Inequality in America

2004 pg. Despite all these differences, there is an issue that has thrived due to this constantly changing environment since way back in the 17th century is none other than racism. Racial inequality in America has been among one of the most controversial and pressing issues up to date. Racial inequality has been manifested in many parts of the society such as in the field of education, employment and even in the criminal justice systems. The police, in particular, have been severally accused and even caught with both video and audio footage evidence of them assaulting and even shooting unarmed civilians who are from the minority races. ” The whites are said to benefit from the fact that they are white regardless of whether or not they are aware of such advantages.

One instance is whereby the whites can often drive and walk at night along a street without having to fear being stopped by the police in the name of being white. In educational institutions, college students do not have to worry that they will be verbally abused with racial slurs during their stay in the schools’ dormitories. They also do not need to worry about being victims of hate crimes due to their race. These are some of the so-called “privileges” the majority races are endowed with while other races in the country are unlikely to have. All this, however, can be traced back to some centuries ago. Since the era of slavery when Africans were persuasively transported into America, they have remained unfortunate targets of racist and biased exercises which were being inflicted by the police.

With all these recent events of police brutality against people of African American origin, there was the need to form a movement to address the issue which was now growing out of hand. This, therefore, led to the formation of Black Lives Matter, an activist movement which is internationally recognized which leads the campaign against violence and systematic racism towards people of African-American origin. It has since been termed as a revolutionary movement since it has been at the forefront in addressing African-American issues by use of peaceful marches and standoffs in major cities across the United States of America (Rickford, Russell. pg. With the Black Lives Matter movement having gained countrywide popularity and acceptance, some of the celebrities decided to join in the campaign by ushering in their support.

One of the celebrity supporters was the NFL quarterback player, Colin Kaepernick. After recent incidences of police brutality and racial injustice, he decided to kneel down when the national anthem was being played before his team’s game against the Los Angeles Rama in Santa Clara, California on September 2016(Sheppard, Barry. 2017 pg. Instead of watching the game, they pledged their time to help uplift the youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Kaepernick and the Black Lives Matter are just but examples of people and individuals who made an extra effort to address the issue of police brutality (Smith, Kerry. pg. Despite all these actions, there has been a very minimal reduction in the levels of brutality based on race. This issue should not be viewed as a problem of a mistaken action on the part of the particular police, but a wider problem of structural racism.

In spite of all this, there has been encouraging signs such as the improvement of the academic performance of minority races in the country. Annotated bibliography Ullucci, Kerri. "Book Review: Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. " Urban Education 41. The book handles the current issues of racism being faces in America such as color-blind racism among others. , and Glenn C. Loury.  The anatomy of racial inequality. Harvard University Press, 2009. This book has a sensitive and wise knowledge concerning the political economy of a race. It also narrates how black mothers have endured the loss of their sons through police shootings. Apart from that, it also states the measures taken by black women to ensure their rights are upheld and their voice is heard.