User:Wjmoore17/EN12
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The United States has had problems with racism since it's founding. Those problems continue even today. Originally, the problem was that many people of white skin color thought they were better than those that were black. In fact, by thinking they were "better", many white people figured that blacks were "sub-human" and subject to being owned as slaves. Well, eventually the voice of dissent was heard. Someone stood up and said "enough is enough". With the American Civil War, racial equality won it's first battle. Though slavery was illegeal in the United States, racism continued. Blacks and Whites were segregated ito seperate schools, sepearate bathrooms, and even seperate water fountains. Once again, it took enough people to stand up and say "enough is enough" to get anything done. After years of fighting, "seperate but equal" treatment was deemed unconstitutional. Today, racism is a ghost of it's former self. Many people would like to believe that our society is level, that everyone has equal rights and oppertunities. This should be the case, guarnteed by the constitutuion. However, that is not the case. Racial discrimination is still a large problem in the United States today. Worse yet, is that it is largley accepted in society. From television to racist organizations to even admittance to colleges, racism is all around us each and every day. Yet nobody complains. By now, you may have guessed it. I'm talking about what many refer to as "reverse discrimination". Reverse discrimination, to put it frankly, is accepted by the general public and media as "good racism". It's okay for black people to have special black-only organizations such as the N.A.A.C.P., pagents like "Ms. Black USA", and TV stations like "Black Entertainment Television", amoung numerous other things. I'm sick of this outrageous behavior and I think enough is enough.
First and foremost is Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is a law that gives advantages to many who routienly fight for equal rights, and say that everyone deserves an equal shot. Colleges and Universities are more likley to admit a a student if they're black rather than white, even with the same credentials because of this. The constitution says we're all "created equal". I don't see what the idea is, but Affirmative Action seems to give special benefits based on nothing but race. How can the constitution say that we're all created equal, and then go on to say that one race deserves special benefits. How can we ever truly become a colorblind society, or even try for that matter, if there are laws promoting racism?
Each year, many crimes are filed as "hate crimes", crimes based on racism. A white guy murders some black guy just because he's black. But if a black guy murders a white guy just because he's white, it's just murder. Is it impossible to be racist if you're black? The law would seem to think so.
The issue presents it's self again and again in our society. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, better known as the N.A.A.C.P., is an association for the exact purpose that's in the name. An association for the benefit of black people. Well, I don't know, but I don't see a National Association for the Advancement of White People. I don't see it because it doesn't exist. It could never survive in our society. Black and white people alike would yell and scream "racism, racism"! The same applies to Black Entertainment Television, or BET. It's exactly that, television for black people. That racism works one way and not the other like this is sickening. I can't begin to imagine the field day politians and members of the media would have with "White Entertainment Television". There's no point in even going into it's all-white programming, because it would never happen. Our stupid society would call it racist and boycott it instantly, even with BET sitting right next to it. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be up in arms, while the media would question it's constitutionality. Meanwhile, Congress would be in an emergency session discussing legislation to shut down the network. It wouldn't matter, though, as no decent satellite or cable company would even carry WET for fear of being drawn into the mess.
Finally, I'll just touch on racism in sports. I can't just write the essay and not include sports in some way. In the National Football League, there;s a rule that when searching for a new head coach, a NFL team must interview at least one minority canadate or be fined a sufficent penalty. This is just ridiculous. Everybody knows that no NFL franchise needs this rule. An owner looking for a head coach isn't going to be looking for a coach based on race. This guy is going to be in charge of a hundred-million dollar team. No owner is going to invest hundreds of millions of dollars on a football team and then not get the right coach for the job just beacause of his skin color. This rule is an insult to minority coaching canadates as well, as they may feel they've been interviewed just to avoid a penalty.
All these examples sum up why it's clear that there are major problems with our country and socitey today. In order to move forward toward a more colorblind society, we must first look back and fix this problem of reverse discrimination.
