Hillary Osei
Mr. Felder
AP English Language
January 3, 2016
Often times as humans we are only concerned with our own lives. We don't realize that the people in the world around us are being cruelly and unfairly targeted. Eventually an event affects our own personal lives and it builds our awareness of the world around us. It is important to realize that discrimination may not have affected you personally, but it is still alive and well in today's society.
Public figures who represent the masses are often found spewing statements that unfairly targets entire groups of people based on their religion. For example, if you turned on your TV to the news during the campaign season it is possible you would find Donald Trump exclaiming the need to stop all immigration of Muslim immigrants because of terrorism. Discrimination is the unjust treatment of people based on race, religion, sexual orientation and more. By excluding all possible Muslim immigration this perpetuates the stereotype that all Muslims are liabilities, terrorists and extremists. Not all Muslims are terrorists and by unfairly treating an entire group of people for rare acts of terror creates discrimination . Furthermore, discrimination can result in violent crimes. In 2016, hate crimes against Muslims increased about 70 percent, the highest since 9/11. The drastic increase in hate crimes and the words of public figures show that discrimination is still rampant and engaged in.
No one ever subconsciously imagines that they’d be purposely be targeted because of their race, at least not by simply walking in your neighborhood. Imagine if you were one of the eighty thousand people who have been victimized by Stop and Frisk. Police officers approach you aggressively and begin to question you while being patted down, there is no explanation about why they are doing this. Your heart beats so fast you could hear it. The police officers leave with their badges and guns while your dignity and self-respect was left right where they once were. This is the story of many Stop and Frisk victims. Stop and Frisk enabled police officers to search a person if there was reasonable suspicion. However, Stop and Frisk fell short and a unproportional amount of blacks and Latinos being targeted. Based on racial profiling police officers would primarily go to neighborhoods predominantly inhabited by minorities. There has been evidence of recordings with police sergeants telling officers to purposely target blacks and Latinos. About 90 percent of Stop and Frisk victims were innocent and they were cruelly and unfairly treated just because of their color in the name of justice.
The opposition argues that discrimination isn’t still prevalent in our society. Often citing the recent Supreme Court decision that legalizes gay marriage as progressive. That this law now shows the acceptance and favorable reception to the rights of the LGBTQ community. Opposing views believe that there is widespread acceptance of the LGBTQ community and thus discrimination isn’t thriving. However, this is largely not the case. Many people acted with defiance to the decision that openly gave civil rights to the LGBTQ community. After this decision many states such as Kansas, Alabama and Texas did not want to obey the law. Government officials blatantly resisted giving out marriage licenses or conducting marriage ceremonies. The fact that widespread powerful government officials can cruelly affect another person’s fate based on their beliefs proves discrimination is alive and well.
Discrimination isn’t something that people are born with, it is taught. Not acknowledging that discrimination exists will allow it to manifest and grow. The fact that someone could just look at you, stereotype and dehumanize you is actively happening in all corners of the world. The first step is to acknowledge discrimination exists and address the relevant issues. It isn’t really far-fetched to believe that world peace is possible with more acceptance to other people’s religion , race, sexual orientation and more.
The opposition argues that discrimination isn’t still prevalent in our society. Often citing the recent Supreme Court decision that legalizes gay marriage as progressive. That this law now shows the acceptance and favorable reception to the rights of the LGBTQ community. Opposing views believe that there is widespread acceptance of the LGBTQ community and thus discrimination isn’t thriving. However, this is largely not the case. Many people acted with defiance to the decision that openly gave civil rights to the LGBTQ community. After this decision many states such as Kansas, Alabama and Texas did not want to obey the law. Government officials blatantly resisted giving out marriage licenses or conducting marriage ceremonies. The fact that widespread powerful government officials can cruelly affect another person’s fate based on their beliefs proves discrimination is alive and well.
Discrimination isn’t something that people are born with, it is taught. Not acknowledging that discrimination exists will allow it to manifest and grow. The fact that someone could just look at you, stereotype and dehumanize you is actively happening in all corners of the world. The first step is to acknowledge discrimination exists and address the relevant issues. It isn’t really far-fetched to believe that world peace is possible with more acceptance to other people’s religion , race, sexual orientation and more.
