End Racism

Hey Guys, and welcome, the in the past few weeks no matter where you look, whether its mainstream media or social media you would have witnessed recent reports on protests against racial injustice, inequality, and police brutality.

There have been numerous peaceful protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd and other members of the black community at the hand of law enforcement officers. The Black Lives Matter Movement has been the loudest so far. 

 

We are currently living in the information age where news is no longer controlled by a limited few. Today anyone with a cellphone can capture footage of human rights violations and have it go viral in a matter minutes through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more recently TikTok. 

The killing of Black People by the police has happened numerous times throughout our history,  over the past few years, however,  each time it has happened it sparked protests and calls for justice from the black community. But this time it is different. Because everyone is witnessing the heavy-handed tactics being used by the police and disproportionately inflicted upon the black community. This time other people are standing up with the black community against inequality, injustice, and police brutality.   The list of Names of Black Men and women killed by the police is very long and the list of names of those profiled because of their skin color is even longer. 

For decades the black community has been calling for the end of systemic racism.

The type of racism that creates a vicious cycle that keeps many black people under-educated, under-employed, over-policed, and over-incarcerated.

To end systemic racism, America needs to stop failing people of color. Because right now it is failing them.

I believe that poverty is the biggest factor that influences crime. According to statistics from the last census, the percentage of blacks who are poor is twice that of whites who are poor. And the crime rate in poor neighborhoods is higher than the crime rate in the rich neighborhoods. In countries where the majority of people are the same color, more crime is committed in poorer areas. Therefore its not people’s skin color that causes them to commit crimes, its socio-economic problems that influence criminal activity. As a society, we need to encourage and enable Black People to rise out of poverty. We need to encourage all Americans to overcome poverty. Because a society that has more people gainfully employed will see a reduction in crime. But we should not marginalize people because of their skin color.

 Now we cannot leave it up to corporations to solve this problem by just creating jobs. Because corporations have one main goal, making profits. So it will seek its ideal customer which is more often than not an affluent individual. Just look at who banks choose to loan to, people who already have money. The policies that these companies have tends to be very biased against low-income people.

 The Federal Government needs to take up the mantle of First making comprehensive laws that will eradicate systemic racism automatically. For example, voter suppression, when political parties commission studies that determine the types of IDs blacks are less likely to have and then implementing the use of that  ID as a requirement to vote or when they close polling stations in black communities and the nearest one is hours away are examples, of how racist and corrupt our system is. 

 

Education

One way to get out of poverty is to be educated. We have an education system that needs a lot of work.  Best Practices need to be adopted from across the world. Countries such as Canada, Japan, and Isreal have better education systems than we do. But just improving education is not enough, we need equity in the school system where people in poor neighborhoods receive the same quality of education as people in richer communities. The quality of education our children get should not be dependent on where they live or how rich their parents are. Education should be identical whether you live in  Greenwich or Compton, whether your parents are billionaires or make minimum wage. It is my opinion that the public school system should be better than that of private schools to the point that sending you kids to private school is setting them up for failure.  The government should increase public school spending and establish a plan that will have every child excelling in school. And I know people will ask,  but who will pay for this? Because that question is always asked when there is progress to be made. Well here is my logic on this, taxpayers will pay for it, but this is an investment that will pay back for itself in full because when we have a highly skilled educated population we will have more people opening businesses and we all know that small businesses run America. These businesses will be able to hire more people who will buy more houses, buy more cars, take more vacations, and pay more taxes. We will have fewer people living on welfare and being a burden to the economy. 

 

Secondly is income. I understand that not everyone has the skills that will make them productive members of the workforce. But there is a solution for that and it incorporates mandatory skills training for all employable adults who are currently unemployed. The skills to be taught will be dependent on the current demand in the job market. This training needs to be accompanied by a universal basic income that is determined on the cost of living for the area the individual lives. Once the training is completed and the individual is employed then the universal basic income tax will be assessed to his income to recoup the money he received under the program. This program will become less needed as more educated children become adults and enter the workforce. 

 

Equal Employment and advancement opportunity. 

When I look out on the streets of new york city I see people, black, white Asian, men women young and old. They are all there trying not to bump into each other as they go about their day. But once you go inside the skyscrapers, into the huge white-collar firms that run the economy all the color and variety are filtered out and all you see is white. That is a representation of the majority of private sector companies in the United States. But it’s not a true representation of this country. 

Look at the top ten companies on the fortune 500 lists. 

Walmart has 57 people in its top Leadership but only 5 are Black. Yet a large number of their lower-level workers are black. 

Amazon Has 16  and only one black person. 

Pepsi Has 23 people on its leadership team and only 3 are black. Corporate America needs to do much more to end racism once and for all by making it corporate suicide to not stand out against racism. 

 

The not so obvious trend is that while blacks are no longer slaves they are still treated as second class citizens. Relegated to mediocre jobs with poor pay just as they were in the Jim Crow Era. They are so disenfranchised that when the president seeks their vote, he is quick to ask “what do you have to lose.” But blacks have lost a lot, is still loosing to this day, and there is much more they have to lose, just ask George Floyd, but wait you can’t, He lost his life to a racist white police officer. He lost his life in a society that sees black people as a nuisance if they are not providing entertainment or doing menial jobs. Think of all the times, excluding sports, that you’ve heard a black person getting a genuine compliment from a white person. What were those circumstances, were any of them for a dirty or risky job that no one else wanted to do?

If you answered no, then your experience is in the minority.  

I know that we have equal employment opportunity laws but if you look at many private sector companies they keep most people of color in the lower ranks of the organization. I like to call them white top-heavy. The fact is black people make up 13 percent of the American population but that is not represented in the top executive positions in fortune 500 companies.

Since the protest, many companies have pledged a large but limited amount of money to the development of black people. But that alone is not whats really needed. What’s needed is a deep look at your organization to see how well the black community is represented throughout the ranks. And bring more black people into the fold. Look out for them, just like how you would look out for your own. Because you will be helping to develop a part of America that has been left underdeveloped or neglected. The same goes for the entertainment industry, more nods for lead roles should be given to black actors. I shouldn’t have to watch an all-black movie to see black stars or black heroes. Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Wonderwoman can all be played by black actors. I think Trevor bell would be a great spiderman. Check him out on Instagram. And who wouldn’t want to see Kerry Washington as wonder woman? People, we need to look past skin color and educate those who don’t know-how. 

To end systemic racism we must first admit that it exists.  But some are denying that there is systemic racism in the police force and in America. These include people currently holding prominent positions in government. 

The term Black Lives Matter has been explained thousands of times by activists, however,  there all always those who will say that All lives matter, what they are really doing is running away from the difficult discussion about the dark history of this country and how remnants of the malicious of treatment black people are still evident. All lives do matter but do they matter equally, if the black people in that equation are being persecuted then  All Lives Matter needs to be fixed. And the only way it can be fixed is to realize that black lives matter just like all those other lives. The people who do not grasp this must have a reality where they have not been treated unfairly simply because of the color of their skin But I’m sure they have seen the number of killings of black people at the hands of police. I’m sure they have seen the videos of police brutality towards protesters who are fighting for the rights of black people. 

For everyone in the black community, their reality is one of inequality, fear, and loss. And nowhere is that manifested more than in the justice system. The numbers show that black communities are policed far more than white communities. And when there are interactions with the police for the same infraction a black man is at a higher risk of being incarcerated, injured, or killed. And the white person will probably sue the police department.

 

There are some out there who say that black people are targeted because black people commit more crime. Not true there is no correlation between crime and skin color. If that were true then the whiter you are the less likely it would be that you would commit a crime when placed in the identical situation that a black person lives in.