The Injustices of our Nation
By Jaiden Lagalo-Blinston
Since the birth of our great nation our country has dealt with many injustices for minorities. What makes the United States such a great country is our ability to work together but even though the U.S. proceeds to prosper, as a society we still continue having to deal with these issues. The question is, has the U.S. done enough to address the historical injustices to minorities and what needs to be done? There are still many issues facing minorities and people of other cultural backgrounds, there has been a lot of progress and key events in changing the idea of equality in the course of U.S. history, but there are still a lot of people that choose to be silent and need a voice to these injustices today.
Minorities and people of other cultural backgrounds are still facing discrimination in society. Even though our country has established laws and foundations that have helped minorities to have more rights, there is still prejudice against minorities, online and in real life. In 2016, ProPublica found that using a designation called “Ethnic Affinities,” Facebook let advertisers target and exclude certain groups of users when placing ads for a new apartment or a house for sale. ProPublica said Facebook approved an ad for a housing-related event that excluded African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanics. “When Facebook uses the vast amount of personal data it collects to help advertisers to discriminate, it’s the same as slamming the door in someone’s face,” HUD Assistant Secretary Anna María Farias said.“This is a serious issue in our country that needs to be changed, it’s already bad enough racism still thrives in society but it’s even more disturbing to see that in 2018, racism is starting to take over online platforms.”
There has been progress throughout U.S. history in changing the idea of equality with minorities. With events such as the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement, this helped our country progress and get to where it stands today on equality and with human rights. (“Who is Martin Luther King Jr. to Us, 50 Years Later?” states, “King’s battles in the South brought him into conflict with an array of powerful white racists, but the struggles against housing discrimination, school segregation and police brutality produced a different set of combatants, many of whom were protected by Democratic Party machines and black political operatives who acted as gatekeepers in black communities.” This article explains a brief summary of how Martin Luther King Jr was a leader of the civil rights movement and what has been addressed in the past that prompted an end to segregation laws in the 20th century. Our country’s current laws have changed politically because of our country’s want and need for change, but what about scientifically? For example, Henrietta Lacks was anAfrican American woman who had cancer and was mistreated horribly for the color of skin when getting cancer treatment. Because of her suffering, she prompted a whole new perspective of inequality in science and medicine. This was a time when “benevolent deception” was a common practice (in the 1940’s and 1950’s) – doctors often withheld even the most fundamental information from their patients, sometimes not giving any diagnosis at all. They believed it was best not to confuse or upset patients with frightening terms they might not understand, like cancer. Doctors knew best, and most patients didn’t question that. Especially black patients in public wards. Black patients like Henrietta Lacks in the 1940’s were more prone to being discriminated against in the medical field and because of Henrietta’s advocacy, this introduced the idea of patient protection laws, in which our country still uses today.
Even though there has been a major change, people are still not able to voice injustices and to say how they feel about the idea and meaning behind equality. With the groups like Black lives matter and the rise of the feminists, modern media and society is starting to fight back racial injustices. (Jones) Andrew, 17, from Ridgewood, New Jersey says, “Blacks and whites are too confrontational about everything. I regard myself as being liberal and progressive, but there’s no need for confrontation. Black people now, so many of them, they’ve got this idea that everybody is attacking them. We’ve gotta love each other. It’s not ‘them’ against ‘us.’ It’s all ‘us.’ Black Lives Matter. Well, all lives matter.”… “Teens today may look up to Selena Gomez (as well as LeBron James, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicki Minaj), but they also idolize Beyoncé in part because she injected race, police brutality and civil rights into one of the largest, most American moments of the year. Brooks points out that in the past two years the NAACP has witnessed more racial conflict and challenges “than we’ve seen in nearly a generation,” and has had 28 percent more young people join the organization online. “At a moment of conflict, crisis and challenge, rather than sliding into a civic and depressive funk, what do teens do? They join organizations. They take to Twitter. They do something about it,” he says. Today, 75 percent of teens own smartphones. “And that’s not because they can watch cat videos all day. But because they can engage in the world. And that says a lot about their character and morality.” Even though racism still continues to be a part of our society, younger people want and are starting to get involved in their community and this encourages other people to use their voice to stand up for others . With events such as rallies, protests and fundraisers, people will continue to fight back against these injustices against human rights.
Our country still deals many issues facing minorities and people of other cultural backgrounds, there has been a lot of progress and key events in changing the idea of equality in the course of U.S. history, but there is still a lot of people that choose to be silent and need a voice to these injustices today. When considering if our country has done enough about the human rights and inequality, it is important that we acknowledge our country’s current injustices while understanding our past mistakes in order to become a more equal and more unified society. In the end, the U.S. needs more people like Henrietta Lacks and Martin Luther King Jr.- so our country can continue to progress and get closer to the idea of the American Dream.