How does Racism affect a Population ?

Racism is a word used a lot in today’s world many people fail to realize the impact it has on different people. Many people say they are not racist; however, the sad reality is that many people use racial bias without them even realizing it. This can affect many people young and old and scare some people. This is all a root known as “systematic racism”. Systematic Racism is defined by dictionary.com as, “racism that occurs as a system instead of a part,” meaning it isn’t just one person, it is an entire group. Racism has been around for hundreds of years. There has been a great deal done to tone it down some, but it still needs work not just by the government but also by the people themselves.

First we must define racism itself, it is defined by dictionary.com as, “a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.” Many white supremist groups are basically the human version of racism for they oppose people that aren’t their race or believe what they believe. This is very sad for the African American community who are heartbroken and really hate to see such treatment due to them not looking like “people of color”. An author named Megan Bannister once said, “Our differences can tear us apart, or make us stronger.” I would say that quote is accurate, for in modern day, our differences aren’t accepted meaning many people can’t look behind a person with a scar on their face or the color of their skin. If we just looked at somebody for what is on the inside instead of the outside our world would become a better place.

A recent protest that many people have debated upon is Black Lives Matter. This was originally a protest against the killing of a man named George Floyd, and the unfair treatment that police officers used on him. He was killed due to suffocation from an officer that put his knee on his throat for over nine minutes, many people’s airways start to shut at about two to three minutes. This caused many people from different communities to join together to protest against this unfair treatment. While these protests were going on, many other African American people were killed due to police brutality, one of which was Breonna Taylor. There was also an infamous event known as the Kenosha shooting that resulted in a man named Jacob Blake being paralyzed after being shot by officers seven times. In addition to this, a man named Kyle Rittenhouse shot up a protest that was happening in Kenosha. Kyle Rittenhouse was sentenced to life in prison however a man named Rick Schroder did bail him out saying “This was Kyle’s life being destroyed”. However Rick Schroder failed to realize the severity of the crime and how Kyle had destroyed three lives that day. This is what many African American people feel that may happen to them if they are confronted by police officers. This leads to many people distrusting the police for this reason. The police have the motto “To Protect and Serve,'' however, they aren’t not protecting or serving people well. In the early nineteenth century, many police officers would attack African American people just for walking on the street. It isn’t as bad now since the government had put rules in place so that doesn't happen again, but it is similar in the severity of the punishment that the officers are dishing out.

Despite what has been done in the past, we still need to keep on trying to eliminate systemic racism. You can do this by simply not making fun of or being biased to people just because they don’t look like you. If we had a world where everybody was the exact same then the world would be pretty boring, but we are all unique and need to look past a face and look deeper down.