In chess, white goes first. The player with the white pieces takes their turn before the player using the black pieces. Because of this rule, the “white” player is given an immediate advantage. They can always stay one step ahead of the “black” player, forcing the “black” player to counter every move they make. As most people know, this advantage does not necessarily mean the player with the white pieces will win, but it puts them a step ahead of the player with the black pieces. This is similar to how white privilege works in American society. The fact that certain people’s skin is white doesn’t mean their lives will be struggle free, it just means that the color of their skin won’t make their lives harder. Unfortunately for the player with the black pieces, and black people in America, their color does put them at a disadvantage. African Americans are more likely to be ruled guilty in court, arrested, and be on the receiving end of police brutality. Dark-skinned American citizens are forced to be on the lookout for things light-skinned citizens never even notice.

A couple years ago I was sitting at the kitchen table with my brothers because my mom wanted to talk to them, and being the bothersome older sister I am, I refused to miss that conversation. I thought maybe they would be scolded for yelling or for not doing their homework before watching television, but this time they had done nothing wrong. This time society, our fellow Americans, were at fault. She told them they couldn’t keep their harmonicas in their pockets anymore because if they were to pull it out, a police officer might mistake the shining metal for a weapon. She told them that they weren’t allowed to wear black sweatshirts because someone might mistake them for a criminal. She told them that if a police officer ever pulled them over, to do whatever they say, even if you didn’t do anything wrong, you do whatever they tell you. These shouldn’t be things parents deem necessary to tell their children, and my mother wouldn’t have told them these things, if my brothers weren’t black. My brothers weren’t even in the seventh grade yet, and already they had to take special precautions. They had to protect themselves because the officers who protect the rest of us, might do the opposite for them.

America is racist. When I say this I don’t mean that every individual citizen consciously believes that dark-skinned people are inferior to those with light-skin, I am addressing the bias our country’s history has planted in the minds of its citizens. America legally oppressed people of color for 353 years. It has only been 64 years since our country deemed it illegal to oppress African-Americans. The toxic mentality that allowed for that oppression has not been wiped away. Our subconscious makes thousands of decisions for us everyday, and some of them are unethical. Even if we don’t realize we’re doing it, many of us treat people with dark skin differently than those with light. Sometimes those split second decisions can ruin someone’s life, they are not harmless, and we are responsible for them. To prevent these racist decisions, we must become aware of them.

Racism Strips Black Children of Their Childhoods

In his Ted talk, “How to Raise a Black Son in America” Clint Smith talks about the things his white friends were allowed to do growing up that he wasn’t. He reflects on the rules his parents put into place that seemed unfair at the time, but he now realizes were only to keep him, an African American boy, safe.

According to a study published by the American Psychological Association in 2014, starting at the age of 10, black boys tend to be viewed as less innocent than their white peers. They are more likely to be assumed guilty and are more likely to be at the receiving end of police violence if accused of a crime.

Photo by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr

One of the recent tragedies that supports the results of this study is the death of Tamir Rice. Cleveland police officers received a 911 call that reported a person pointing a gun. They arrived on the scene and shot 12 year old Tamir Rice within seconds. The alleged weapon was a toy pistol with its orange safety cap missing. The young black boy died the next day. Some people may argue that the toy gun looked like a real weapon, justifying the officer’s decision to shoot. The Denver-area District Attorney S. Lamar Sims wrote in a 52 page analysis about the incident, “There can be no doubt that Rice’s death was tragic and, indeed, when one considers his age, heartbreaking. However, I conclude that Officer Loehmann’s belief that Rice posed a threat of serious physical harm or death was objectively reasonable as was his response to that perceived threat.” For those that agree with this argument I want you to ask yourself this question, would the officer have ever shot if Tamir had been white? The white teenager who killed 17 students in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was detained without injury. This school shooter definitely posed a threat of serious physical harm or death. Police were willing to peacefully arrest a known school shooter but not a 12 year old boy. Children suffer from the bias of adults, and it’s unfair.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon is also visible in our school systems. An article published by The Washington Post reports that although black students accounted for only 15% of the student body during the 2015-2016 school year, they were the subjects of 31% of school arrests. Similarly, a report published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that black students were disproportionately disciplined in all types of disciplinary action throughout all school poverty levels and types of schools. These punishments involve black students in the criminal justice system at a young age, which can increase the likelihood of criminal activity in the future.

The places that are supposed to educate and inspire these children are dumping them right into the trap of crime and poverty that many minorities find themselves struggling to get out of their entire lives.

Cheating Black Citizens out of Opportunity

Did you ever wonder why so many black people are impoverished and why it seems like so many African Americans resort to crime, well it’s not just coincidence, and a lot of the time, it’s not entirely their own fault either. Not only does America deprive its black children of their education and childhoods, it also cheats its black adult citizens out of opportunity and chances to improve their lives. It forces them into a cycle of poverty that very few will ever escape.

Many Americans believe the only thing holding African Americans back is their own lack of motivation and effort. In a poll, YouGov asked adults from the United States whether they agreed with this statement: “It’s really matter of some people not trying hard enough; if Blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites.” 40% of white people who participated in the poll said they either somewhat or strongly agreed with the former statement. What these people don’t realize, is that throughout their entire lives, black citizens face a multitude of obstacles caused not by them, but by those around them.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“The world is whirling around you but you’re not in the loop. You don’t know what’s going on and that breeds anxiety.”[/perfectpullquote]For many African American citizens, the problems begin the second they decide find their own source of income. An analysis of multiple studies focused on the hiring process, found that on average, white applicants receive 36% more callbacks than equally qualified African Americans. The analysis also reveals that these numbers have hardly changed at all in the last 25 years, and it’s not because we have already eliminated the issue. America has hit a plateau when it comes to racism awareness. We think that because slavery and segregation have been abolished, we’ve fixed all our problems, but we haven’t. These numbers should be getting better every year for many years to come, but they’re not. People aren’t aware of, or aren’t willing to fight against the racism present in everyday life. An article published by Fortune quotes a black employee at Facebook who said he was “very lonely” at the office because he has no mentors or sponsors there, despite the presence of diversity advocates. He went on to explain that his co-workers have not always been helpful and sometimes he doesn’t ask for help because he feels isolated: “The world is whirling around you but you’re not in the loop. You don’t know what’s going on and that breeds anxiety.”

Poverty is a trap, and once you’re in it, it’s nearly impossible to get out. Only 6% of those in poverty will ever escape it in their lifetime. When people lack the money necessary to buy food, or pay rent, they often turn to crime. We must remember that violence is a symptom of poverty, not a cause. Saying poverty comes from violence gives the misconception that the situation the impoverished find themselves in is always their own fault. With no other options, these impoverished African Americans often end up selling drugs, which leads to a prison sentence. It’s even harder to get a job after prison than it was before, which leads to continued poverty, forcing them to return to selling drugs. This never ending cycle is often broken only by death. Why would someone choose this lifestyle if they had any other options?

Trouble with the Law

If African American and Hispanic citizens are incarcerated at the same rates as white citizens, the populations of our prisons and jails will decrease by almost 40%. A study found that for felony offenses, blacks are incarcerated 51% of the time, while for whites that number drops to 38%. According to an article published by The Huffington Post, black and white Americans are incarcerated in equal numbers, despite black people making up 13% of our population and white people accounting for 64%.

Photo by Daniel Foster via Flickr

One possible explanation for black people being arrested in larger numbers is that they are policed more heavily. African Americans tend to live in dense urban areas which are monitored much easier than rural or suburban areas. This allows for people committing crimes to be caught more frequently, adding to the large amount of African Americans in our jails. Another explanation is that our judicial system tends to see them as guilty until proven innocent, rather than the other way around.

In 2010, a study gave mock jurors the same evidence from a fake robbery case but different surveillance footage, one with a dark-skinned suspect and one with a light-skinned suspect. The jurors were more likely to find the dark-skinned suspect guilty, despite having the same information.

An article published by The Huffington Post created a fictional situation in which 1,000 white people and 200 black people commit the same crime. Using statistics, they calculated the most likely outcome of this scenario. 100 white people and 74 black people may be arrested, 50 white and 48 black convicted, and 19 white and 24 black sent to prison. Even though the number of white people who committed the crime far outweighed the number of black, more black people would end up in jail.

A portion of Americans seem to be under the impression that “black on black crime” is the issue our country is facing. They argue that the “Black Lives Matter” movement is unfair because the only people killing African Americans are other African Americans. We can see proof of this theory all over the internet, specifically in a tweet posted by Don Hamilton.

Why haven't we heard from the Black Lives Matters group? Its Blacks killing Blacks and so far We haven't heard a peep from them.

— Don Hamilton (@DonHamilton_) July 9, 2018

Although some black deaths are undeniably at the hands of other blacks, white deaths are often at the hands of other whites. This is not the problem. The issue our country has is that black people are more likely to be killed by police than white people are. Unnecessary black deaths are disproportionately common in our communities compared to those of whites.

The Washington Post reported 830 people fatally shot by police in America so far this year. Of that number, 326 were white and 164 were black. 11 total were under 18, 4 of those being white and 3 black. 37 total were unarmed, 18 of which were white and 14 black. When looking at these numbers we must remember that the white to black ratio in America is about 5:1. The numbers of blacks killed in all of these categories are alarmingly high.

Image by QUOI Media Group via Flickr

A Vox article explains that black murders end in arrest less often than white murders. Police arrested a suspect in 63% of killings with a white victim, compared to 47% of those with a black victim.

Not only are those who murder African Americans not being caught by the police, police are murdering African Americans. Eric Garner, a 43 year old black man, was put into a chokehold by a police officer and was killed. His last words “I can’t breathe” have become the rallying cry of many protesters. The police officer that killed him was not indicted by the grand jury.

Solution

In her book Ghettoside, Jill Leovy writes, “Take a bunch of teenage boys from the whitest, safest suburb in America and plunk them down in a place where their friends are murdered and they are constantly attacked and threatened. Signal that no one cares, and fail to solve murders. Limit their options for escape. Then see what happens.”

We, as citizens of America, need to stop blaming black citizens for the situation they’re in. Violence is a symptom of the cycle of poverty they are forced into, not a cause. African Americans are stripped of their opportunities and then expected to be model citizens. They are thrown in prison and kicked out of school. Employers refuse to hire them despite their qualifications. Their murders don’t end in arrests but their lives do.

America was dependent on slavery for a much longer time than that in which it has been abolished.

Chart by Mya Yoder

We cannot expect to have already fixed over 300 years of toxic mentality in only 64. It will be a long time before the United States of America finally overcomes the racism that has been embedded in our history, but that does not mean we should just give up and hope for the best. This means each individual person must do everything they can to help their country and their fellow citizens overcome this obstacle.

Children are children, no matter what color their skin is. No child should be shot, and children should not have to look out for themselves. Police officers need to make sure they are protecting each and every citizen of the United States. Now I’m sure the officer that shot Tamir Rice regrets what he did. No one is ever proud of shooting a innocent child, but this should never have been an issue. All Americans grow up in a society that plants the roots of racism inside them. Each and every day we need to fight back against those roots. Until we as a country can finally uproot racism once and for all, we need to be more conscious of our decisions. We need to ensure sure we are not making assumptions based on the color of someone’s skin, because we do see color. Its okay to see color, but what’s not okay is treating someone differently because of the color of their skin. Our subconscious should not be making possibly devastating decisions for us, because for many of us, our subconscious makes unfair assumptions. We need to learn to notice when our subconscious tells us to make decisions based on the color of someone’s skin and stop ourselves. This may seem ridiculous at first, double checking every decision we make to be sure it’s fair and just, but that’s what our world has come to. It is essential that we change our the way our country views people of color. This solution requires the effort of each and every person, including you.

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