Sania Saberi

Professor Malvin
English 115
23 November 2015
A Realistic Racist Society
Racism is an unfortunate massive prospect in society today. From extreme police
brutality towards black citizens to stereotypical and racist comments said daily, racism
can be seen virtually anywhere. In the novels, Always Running by Luis J Rodriguez,
and Twilight: Los Angeles by Anna Deavere Smith it is very noticeable that racism has
become a natural instinct for mankind. People these days are so quick to judge others, by
the color of their skin, by their tone of voice, etc. Many claim that racism no longer exists
in the United States, however, it most certainly does. Racism has now become more
subtle, not how it was in the 1960s when communities were segregated. It is one of the
biggest problems in the United States of America and sadly still exists today. People
claim it is because people are scared of what they do not know but that does not give
them the right to harm others based on stereotypes and fear.
To begin, from the start of civilization, people have been discriminated all over
the world because of one's race. Racist comments eventually lead to stereotypes and
leave Americans with closed minds and unwillingness to change. In Luis J. Rodriguez's
memoir, Always Running, Luis and his family of many, came to Los Angeles in hopes of
a better life rather than living in Mexico. The idea of the American Dream drives most
people to come to America in hopes for a better and more successful life. Although life
was not easy for the Rodriguezs, and many other Hispanic families who could not afford

to live in the better parts of Los Angeles. Therefore, this created boundaries and
unofficial segregated communities. The LA River, for example, became a new barrier,
keeping the Mexicans in their neighborhoods over on the vast east side of the city for
years (19). But how are people going to be successful if our society constantly judges
people based on their race to the point where boundaries are set in certain areas? America
is about people coming together and being able to live in freedom and being successful.
However, due to racism this is not realistic.
Many people claim that racism does not exist anymore. This is believed due to
the fact that the United States forty-fourth president, President Barack Obama, is an
African American man. This is an oblivious comment to be made. Most of the racism that
occurs today is through, direct police brutality or through the little things that people
cannot see through. If racism does not exist anymore then why are there many
communities all over the United States that house these minorities? Also, why are these
communities and cities so poor and under kept compared to nicer cities that are well kept
and under control? This is just another version of segregation that needs to be solved.
This is compared to the famous comment of, When a Latino gets shot nobody cares, but
when a white man gets shot the world, the media, people go insane. Not only are the
cities under kept, but the majority does not see minorities as real human beings. In
Always Running, Luis mother sits down at a bench with her children as a white woman
comes up and says, Look spic, you cant sit there! You dont belong here! Understand?
This is not your country (19). Luis has experienced this all throughout his life, and at
some point people get tired and hurt when others are constantly pointing out race and

how that differentiates citizens. America is about people coming together and being able
to live in freedom and being successful.
Furthermore, over the years, police brutality has become one of the hottest stories
on the news lately. From the start of time until Michael Brown, the African American
community has suffered years and years of racism and discrimination all over the world.
Although, President Barack Obama winning two elections is a big leap in society, it does
not fix all the problems that are still continuing today. An innocent boy named Michael
Brown was shot and killed by a white male officer who claims that he felt threatened by
an 18 year old boy who he believed had a gun on him. Video surveillance shows that
Brown was not carrying a gun, and that the officer was just a racist. The United States
blew up after this death occurred and has still not been settled. There are many different
viewpoints, but the action was an act of racism. However, before Michael Brown, a
similar incident happened in 1991 that stirred up the city of Los Angeles. In Anna
Deavere Smiths play, Twilight Los Angeles, a section of the book is dedicated to the life
of Rodney King. Rodney King was a taxi driver who is known for an extreme police
brutality. King was caught on video tape by a bystander that watched several white male
police officers beat him. All of the police officers who participated in the beating were
found not guilty in court and were left free to go, just like that. The Los Angeles
community exploded in rage due to the obvious fact that the beating only had one thing to
do with it; the color of Rodney's skin. In Twilight Los Angeles, Smith writes about
Angela King and her feelings towards the beating. I wanted justice and I wanted
whatever them things had comin to them done to them regardless-- you can call it
revenge or whatever, but what I saw on that video, on that TV, that was a mess (57).

Angela was Rodneys aunt and she expresses her true feelings in this section. She longs
for the police officers to receive justice for what they did to her poor nephew. Sadly,
justice was not served for Rodney King or his family. In Always Running, Luis and his
brother cross over the train tracks into a much nicer city named South Gate to go grocery
shopping. However, on their way back, LA Folks catch them, beat them up, and steal
all their groceries. In a normal situation, people would call the cops and report the acts of
violence called upon them. Although for the Rodriguez boys, calling the police would not
benefit them. Police are racist because they would not believe that two Mexican boys got
ambushed by white folks. The racist view of life is that white people are superior and are
not evil. These stereotypes are incredibly false and inaccurate. There are good and bad
white, hispanics, african americans, etc. However, certain stereotypes have severely
hindered the way Americans look at other human beings.

Many stereotypes are used today as jokes but in all honesty, are very racist
comments. For example, some stereotypes of the African American community are that
they ALL steal, are apart of gangs, and are very violent. Notice the use of the capitalized
word ALL. These are huge generalization, which makes those comments racists. Not
every African American steals, is apart of gangs, or is violent. Different kinds of people
exist for every race. According to The Huffington Post, six police officers resigned from
their positions in Parma, Missouri after the first African American women was elected as
their mayor. Tyrus Byrd was a former city clerk who won the election over Randall
Ramsey, a white man that served for 37 years. (Huffington Post). Not only did the police
officers resign, but the city attorney, clerk and water treatment supervisor left their jobs as

well. The six police officers resigned because they believed the town would not be safe
anymore due to an African American women running Parma. (Huffington Post). This
example leads back right back to African American stereotypes. Parma is mainly a white
small town in Missouri and its police force could not handle an African American women
being in charge. By resigning with the reason of, safety concerns shows that these
police officers believe in the stereotype that all African Americans are violent and have
no order. One of the police officers talked to the news and said, "Rather than put my life
in danger more than I do now on a daily basis, I decided to walk away," (TPM).
Assuming that all African Americans are dangerous is an extremely racist comment to be
made. The city of Parma does not have lots of African American folks, however, that does
not give the right for anyone, especially these police officers, to act on fear and just
assume that those stereotypes are true, because they indeed are not.
In the present day, there are many people who believe that racism does not exist in
our society. In their minds, racism has been long gone ever since segregation was
abolished. There are others that are convinced that ever since President Barack Obama
was elected, there's no way that racism exists in the United States. With cases of police
brutality, racial profiling, and stereotypes, people tend to generalize said stereotypes into
believing that if one African American person is violent then that means the entire race is.
They believe that the said statement is true and not racist; it is just a fact. However,
people cannot judge and assume that one's actions are due to the race they are. The
United States and the world in general is filled with good people and bad people
regardless of race. For example, the man who barged in and killed lots of people in a
Colorado movie theater, was a middle aged white man. Although after this event, people

still believe that white people cannot do anything bad. This is completely false. White
people do as many crimes as any minority, it however does not attract as much attention
because people tend to think, oh that person just made a mistake. But when ONE
person of a minority race commits a crime, it just adds to the stereotype and creates more
and more racism that spreads throughout society.
Racism becomes more subtle and subtle everyday to the point where some people
believe that it does not even exist anymore. Instead of shaming people that use
stereotypes as jokes, people laugh along because they do not see it as racism. People tend
to see it as a true fact which makes it laughable. Police officers automatically do not trust
minorities and have refused to listen to or have killed out of fear. Our society is scared
of the unknown and will use any kind of racist act as an excuse for protection. This is
unacceptable and shows exactly how racism is still alive today. Throughout the stories of
Twilight: Los Angeles, and Always Running racism is boldly expressed and needs to
come to an end.

Works Cited
Chen, Kelly. "Police, Officials Resign After Small Missouri Town Elects First
Black Female Mayor." Huffington Post. N.p., 19 Apr. 2015. Web. 30 Nov. 205.

MacNeal, Caitlin. "Parma Cop: I Feared New Mayor Would Keep Me From Doing My
Job." N.p., 21 Apr. 2015. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running. Willimatic: Curbstone, 1993. Print.

Smith, Anna Deavere. Twilight Los Angeles 1992. New York: n.p., 1992. Print.

Dear Professor Malvin,

Writing this essay for me was one of the most challenging ones. I
felt like the topic of Racism is really broad and it was hard for to me to
sort of narrow it down to one subtopic. The nice and sad thing about
this topic was that it was not hard at all to find examples to support my
claims. Always Running and Twilight Los Angeles are perfect examples
of racism that is still going on in the United States. I think my use of
examples were good, especially the most recent one being the female
African American Mayor in Missouri and the police officers that
resigned due to safety concerns.

Thank You,
Sania Saberi