In 1955, African-American teenager Emmett Till was killed by white men in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. Fifty-seven years later, 2012, Trayvon Martin was killed by a white, Hispanic, neighbour hood watchman. The press surrounding Trayvon's case is leading him to become our century's Emmett Till. Mark Naison, a professor of African-American studies and history at Fordham University in New York has compared the two cases and has said that both were killed because they broke "unwritten rules" of their time. Trayvon's death has sparked debates over how much racism has really been eradicated from our society. Some have even said that some are no better off than they were in the twentieth century. Another striking similarity in their case is the lack of action by the law enforcement involved.
As much as I hate to say it, the author of this article was not entirely wrong when he said that racism today is almost as bad as it was in the fifties and sixties. Though things have changed, there is not denying that, we can look back in our recent history and see that racism is still alive and well in our society. Look at the man in Mississippi from my last post. A group of teenage boys beat him and then ran him over with a truck because they believed he deserved it because he was African-American. As much as people try to deny the fact that racism does not exist, it does. And Trayvon's case has made many rethink how safe it really is in our society.
i agree with you that racism is still alive. I believe that their is no way of stopping racism, its somepeoples way of life to bring down others with a different ethinicity. The Trayvon's case sparked something that still teaches us today that racism is very strong.
ReplyDeleteRacism is still as strong as almost ever. I believe racism will always happen and it is very hard to even control. I believe Trayvon was minding his own business when he was just killed. This is pure racism and cannot happen.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, racism can still be found in society today, but it is important to remember where we used to be as a culture and how far we have come. 100 years ago, this would most likely not have even made the local news, let alone gain national attention, and today the amount of press that is covering this horrible story is somewhat encouraging to those fighting racism today.
ReplyDeleteThanks Austin. I was feeling discouraged. "The most violent element in society is ignorance." and there will always be ignorance, so to that effect we will always have some racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia..... but we always have the potential to learn.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean. At least the racism has sort of died down, since enslaving people is against the law. But there will always be those self conscious people that think some people don't deserve rights based on race, sexual orientation, ect.
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