Academic Final Paper (for Kim Woods Only)
Fundamentals of Written Communication – Week 8 Assignment
Academic Final Paper – 500-750 words
Submit a revised copy of your academic draft! Check your composition for an introduction, thesis statement, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. Utilize your text, Pocket Keys for Writers Pages 240-250 to evaluate your use of infinitives, nouns and articles, as well as overall sentence structure.
Remember to apply all of the concepts studied, and reviewed in our course for this assignment!
For an academic paper, it is advisable to find at least one source of reference, but not required. Use the following link to find a source if interested
https://scholar.google.com/
, or use Grantham’s online library (linked on the top of Blackboard).
There are a few topics that you will
not be allowed to write about: anti-gay marriage, anti-gay adoption, abortion, gun control/gun rights, partisan politics, drinking age, and legalizing marijuana.
Running head: DOES RACISM STILL EXIST IN THE UNITED STATES? 1
DOES RACISM STILL EXIST IN THE UNITED STATES? 2
Does Racism Still Exist in the United States?
Roderick Wooten
EN100
Does Racism Still Exist in the United States?
It is over a hundred and fifty years since the thirteenth amendment to the federal constitution became effective rendering slavery a thing of the past in the United States. However, the legacy of slavery continues to adversely affect the position of African Americans in the United States (Horowitz, Brown & Kiana, 2019). Approximately four out of ten Americans hold the views that society has done very little in the realization of racial equality in America. Black people believe that they will never have equal rights with their white counterparts. About two-thirds of Americans assert that it is very common for individuals to express racist remarks. About eighty percent of African Americans believe that the legacy of slavery continues to harm their position in America. However, a section of Americans believe that racism has been contained in the United States. Whereas many people believe that racism does not exist in America, the most persuasive arguments such as mass incarceration of black people, school to prison pipeline, and racially skewed police brutality prove the contrary.
There is no doubt that mass incarceration of people of color is a perfect explanation of the existence of racial exclusion in the United States. Most African American youths are targeted by the law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system for incarceration even for minor infractions of the law. The problem is worsened by the war on drugs where people of color experience discrimination at every level and are an easy target for search, arrest and conviction. The sad part is that even the innocent ones are meted with harsh sentences. Before the introduction of the war on drugs, the United States operated under the Jim Crow laws that racially segregated the people of color and denied them every opportunity to better their lives (Pettit & Gutierrez, 2018). These laws were reinvented under the war on drugs as a system of social control to suppress the rights of African Americans and relegate them to the lowest caste in America so that they cannot compete with the whites. As such, people of color are targeted, arrested and convicted thus subjecting them to legally accepted segregation such as inability to find employment to due felon or the inability to access government programs.
School to prison pipeline is another persuasive argument that invalidates any suggestions that racism is a thing of the past in America. After family, the school comes next as an important site of socialization. Unfortunately, black children are removed from schools as a form of discipline. This takes them out of a formative environment and structures that support education. The black children are unfairly and disproportionately treated or disciplined by the American education system (Chakara, 2017). Schools are suspending and expelling more African Americans and this leads to a harmful cycle of criminality in the United States that is persistent throughout adulthood. School to prison pipeline funnels African American children into poverty and incarceration thus making it emphatically impossible for black children to compete with the whites on the save level playing field. Once the black people are sent to prison, their chances of completing education are significantly reduced and this affects they compete with the whites in society.
Police brutality is racially skewed to make the lives of African Americans extremely harder. African Americans are racially targeted, stopped, searched and arrested for no compelling reasons and in complete violation of the provisions of the fourth amendment. Those who appear resistant are short and killed by the very instruments that are legally charged with the responsibilities of protecting all American lives irrespective of the race. Though not certainly the only target, the people of color have had and continue to have the worst experience in the hands of the law enforcement agencies (Carbado, 2017). Black people are more likely to be killed by the police compared to whites. In fact, several researchers assert that one in every a thousand African American youths can expect to lose his or her life in the hands of the police. The police are used by the rich white Americans who label black people as criminals to target them for intentional demise.
To sum up, the legacy of slavery continues to affect the position of African Americans in the United States. Despite the gains made by the civil rights movements, such persuasive pieces of evidence as mass incarceration, school to prison pipeline and racially designed police brutality are a leaving proof that racism persist to date in America.
References
Carbado, D. W. (2017). From Stopping Black People to Killing Black People: The Fourth Amendment Pathways to Police Violence. Calif. L. Rev., 105, 125.
Chakara, M. (2017). From preschool to prison: The criminalization of black girls. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2017/12/08/443972/preschool-prison-criminalization-black-girls/
Horowitz, J. M., Brown, A., & Kiana, C. (2019). Race in America 2019. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/
Pettit, B., & Gutierrez, C. (2018). Mass incarceration and racial inequality. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 77(3-4), 1153-1182.