Essay on Racism in the United States

Racism is a huge problem the United States faces every day. Discrimination against black people is a past and current problem that people have to face in their daily lives.  Despite the Coronavirus Pandemic, the biggest issue facing the United States in 2022 is racism because of the racial bias in the United States’ criminal justice system and blatant racism in communities across the country. The Coronavirus Pandemic has devastated the United States for about two years, leaving many families afraid and grieving.  But racism has affected so many generations of Black people that it is undoubtedly the biggest issue in the United States.  Racial bias against Black people in a supreme court setting has led to so many false convictions.  And the blatant racism in our country has left millions of African Americans terrified to do everyday things.  

The US criminal justice system has targeted minorities for all of history.  Including homosexuals, Asians, Hispanics, immigrants, and of course Black people.  Studies show that “Black Americans are incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of Whites” (Carrega).  The incarceration rate of Black people is so high that over half of prisoners on death row are Black.  It was found by the Innocence project that “innocent Black people are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than innocent white people.” These facts prove that racism is still apparent in places that are set up to be fair and equal.

Every community faces racism in the United States today. Gentrification causes lower-class people to move out of their homes, and into other low-class towns.  Systematically this often causes social segregation, where certain towns are inhabited by mostly White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian people.  In the few towns that are not as socially segregated, Black people will still be victims to hate crimes, racial slurs, racial jokes, and overall unwelcoming interactions.  Interracial couples are also still frowned upon.  Although the support for interracial couples is on the rise, hundreds of thousands of people do not accept them.  An experiment at the University of Washington showed the “disgust” (Bach) college students had while looking at photos of interracial couples.  Bach wrote, “The research involved three experiments. In the first, 152 college students were asked a series of questions about relationships, including how disgusted they felt about various configurations of interracial relationships and about their  willingness to have an interracial romance.”  The article goes into detail about the positive and negative reactions the college students had to interracial couples. Data shows that the “U.S. Approval of Interracial Marriage at New High of 94%,” (Mccarthy) but that still leaves about 12,258,000 white adults that still are against it.  Racism in the supposedly progressive United States has been around forever and remains a real issue today.  

The law still shows unfair bias.  Black people do not trust the law as much as white people.  Author Laura Santhanam shows data that “Two-thirds of Black Americans don’t trust the police to treat them equally. Most white Americans do.” In an article that surveyed people’s opinions on what race faces more brutality, Fahmy wrote, “84% of Black adults said that, in dealing with police, Blacks are generally treated less fairly than whites.”  This goes to show the lack of trust between police and the Black communities.  A Harvard writer stated, “Black Americans are 3.23 times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police, according to a new study by researchers from Harvard T.H” (The President and Fellows of Harvard College).  Due to the police brutality, they could face, Black Americans find it more difficult to trust the police. It is not uncommon for Black Americans to be punished more harshly.  Studies show that “Nearly half the people currently on death row are Black” (Selby).  Selby from the Innocence Project also wrote that “It takes longer to exonerate an innocent Black person.”  Systematic racism fuels unfair criminal justice treatment of Black People. Unfortunately, the Justice System is not the only place where African Americans are targeted.

It is very common for Black people to face racism in their daily lives.  There is some form of racism in every community across the US, whether that is colorism, economic issues, unfair educational opportunities, and more. Gentrification causes people to move out of their homes, not by choice but because they can not afford to live there after renovations. This may cause Black people to have unfair educational opportunities.  Feder from Stanford University expressed, “the study found that residents in predominately non-Black gentrifying neighborhoods have a broader set of neighborhoods they moved to, while those from Black gentrifying areas were relegated to less advantaged neighborhoods and faced fewer options.” White people feel superiority over Black people, therefore pushing them out of communities.  Colorism is a thing in every community as well.  People with darker skin are treated as inferior by society.  Lighter-skinned people, including mixed people, are seen as more acceptable due to the overall racism against Black people.  There are other huge issues in the US as well.

One huge issue in the US is the coronavirus pandemic.  The pandemic has been in the United States for around three years.  Due to new variants popping up once we get the last one under control, the country has not been able to overcome the virus.  The virus seemed to have been growing stronger and spreading quicker.  The countless deaths have devastated the country and the residents living here.  In the US there have been around 987K deaths so far.  The CDC explains, “The risk of severe COVID-19 increases as the number of underlying medical conditions increases in a person.” The pandemic has caused hundreds of thousands of families to mourn their loved ones.  

Despite the Coronavirus Pandemic, the biggest issue facing the United States in 2022 is racism because of the United States criminal justice system’s tendency to show racial bias and the everyday racism people face in all communities around the country. So many races face racism in the United States.  This issue has been around forever, it may never go away in our lifetime.  The end goal is for everyone to be viewed equally and just.