Racial Discrimination is Still Alive and Well

When many of us, including myself at times, think of racial discrimination, we tend to think back to the Civil Rights movement when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. We like to think of the Civil Rights Movement of 1964 when racial discrimination was “outlawed” (whatever that means). Many people look at this momentous occasion and view it as a major achievement for colored people. Although I will not disagree with the previous statement, the fact is simply that the different forms of discrimination (social, economic, institutional, etc.) are all psychological issues, and therefore, cannot be easily resolved by a mere piece of legislation. Several recent events that have occurred in the United States over the last few years have led me to this conclusion.

The most recent event that most of us have at least heard about are the events that are still occurring in Ferguson, MO. To sum it up for those who have not heard, recently, a young black teeneger named Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a local law enforcement officer. The significance of this event is that Brown was unarmed at the time of the shooting and many are questioning Wilson’s rationale behind shooting the young man. The event has sparked riots, protest, and looting throughout the local area and many are calling for justice in the situation. To be fair, I have no idea if Wilson was actually using selective profiling and shot Brown simply because he was African-American. Maybe there was justification for shooting Brown, however, even the fact that a large portion of the community believes that Wilson should be charged as a criminal shows that racial discrimination is still quite visible in the world today.

In addition to the events that occurred in Ferguson, MO, there was another incident that occurred a little over two years ago that most have heard of by now. The case of Trayvon Martin is still very much controversial today, mainly due to the outcome of the case itself. On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in the gated community that Martin was living in at the time. Like Brown, Martin was unarmed. The details in this case are a little more well known due to the amount of time that has passed since the incident. George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, however many believe this was the right decision as it does follow the passed legislation.

It’s obvious that the two incidents shared many different aspects, which makes it easier to see that racial discrimination could have played a factor in the outcomes of the events. Clearly, racial discrimination has not been eradicated by the Civil Rights Movement or even by time, it just exists in different and generally more subtle forms.