First Draft

Danny Lynch
Ms. Thomson
AP English
1/17/17
Adolescents make mistakes day-in and day-out. They can be fixed, most of the time, and
everyone moves on. Not all mistakes can be addressed at once, leaving much room to improve.
Compared to other countries, the United States of America is very young. Our country can be
compared to an adolescent human being, in the way that they both make mistakes. In the early
stages of our nation, we did not treat everyone equal. That was one of our largest mistakes, and
now our citizens are up in arms about the issue of prejudice or racism. The history of the United
States may not be the greatest of stories, but the change over time is amazing. Since the time of
the Civil War, Americans have substantially changed their view on equality; however, there is
still room to improve.
After the Civil War, our country had rebuilding to do. The Union and Confederacy
needed to make amends before we could be called the United States again. As a result of the
Civil War, we made amendments and added laws that were supposed to make everything work
out between the races. However, though some laws allowed our country to progress to an
idealistic society, many laws still impaired our chances of treating everyone equally. Even
though some of these issues have since been resolved, their repercussions are still being felt
today in our society.

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Our nation has tried to pass laws, mandating that minorities receive fair treatment in the
workplace, in schools, and in baccalaureate education. For example, in the 1970s, a legislation
known as Affirmative Action was implemented. This was an idea that hoped to help lead our
country to giving fair opportunities to all minorities and women. Examples of what this led to
were requirements to admit certain amounts of minorities to schools, and to hire a number of
minorities for every Caucasian hired. At the time, this seemed like a great idea that would help
propel our country to having equality for everyone, but the repercussions are not what they might
have liked. Affirmative Action is not mandated to all organizations, schools, or groups today, but
it is still used in general terms. This idea seemed like it would become very influential, but today
it is not the same.
Just because a law is passed, does not mean that it will solve the issues at hand. This
statement is proven true by our countrys history regarding Jim Crow Laws. While slavery may
have been abolished, many white people did not recognize African Americans as citizens; they
saw them as lesser humans. One of the first Jim Crow Laws explicitly states that an African
American cannot shake hands with a white person because it implies equality. Furthermore, a
law in Georgia required that no African Americans were to be buried in the ground either used or
set apart for white person burials. The fact that our country lived by these standards is
embarrassing. Many would think that our country has matured enough to not do anything
remotely similar to what we did in the 1870s up until the 1960s. However, not much has
changed.
The results of what our country did during the time of Jim Crow Laws were somewhat
dramatic. We, as a nation, had many growing pains during this time. Many smart and outgoing
people stepped forward to speak their minds. At the same time, people who were more reserved

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still spoke their minds through their actions. People such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King,
Jr. helped to express how African Americans felt. Because of people similar to them, our country
was able to mature and get passed segregation. However, the segregated water fountains may
have gone away, but racism is still around. Unfortunately, our country has not changed much
since the time of the Civil War.
African American teens face terrible discrimination inside and outside of schools. In
school, a case study done of Virginia public schools showed that African American students were
suspended more often than white students. The study dug deeper to find that the same
correlation occurs when looking at expulsion rates. Black students are often expelled more than
white students. Whether the students deserved their punishment or not, this creates stereotypes
that are unfair to all African Americans. Just because one person deserved to be punished for the
severity of their actions, does not give anyone the right to label similar people and believe they
all are the same.
This stereotype not only affects kids in school, but it also affects kids out in public.
Police officers have killed African American teens too many times in the recent years without
evidence. This leads many people to wonder why they pulled the trigger. The officers use the
excuse that they were in fear of their lives, but in multiple examples, there was no reason to be
scared. Investigations proved the officers assertions of the boys holding weapons false. This
leads everyone to question if there was an underlying reason for shooting, something officers
could not explicitly say without having serious repercussions.
Similar to unfair treatment with police, minorities face what they call
prejudice in normal conversation. Micro aggressions are defined as, a

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comment or action that is subtly and often unintentionally hostile or

demeaning to a member of a minority (www.merriam-webster.com). While
normal conversation between two Caucasians may seem harmless, as soon
as one of those phrases is said to a minority, the speaker becomes a racist.
Why does a harmless phrase such as, you are dumb addressed to a white
person become racist if it is addressed towards a minority? The answer is
simple. Minorities will try to have the majority demeaned by calling them
racist, hoping for an end result of pity felt towards the minority. This idea
about a harmless remark about a persons intellect being racist is absurd,
because they are not racist at all.
In a similar manner, employers do not always hire a minority, for a reason that is obvious.
However, those minorities rejected often claim it is because they are a minority. The reason that
they were rejected should be due to merit. If the minority has the credentials required for a job,
then they should be hired. If they do not have the required credentials, then they deserve to be
rejected while another person, who has the required credentials, is hired. This is the way it is
most of the time: merit based decisions. However, albeit that is the correct moral thinking, some
people still do not accept minorities. This is an issue that is still around today, but it is definitely
changing.
Furthermore, the example of a Presidential election represents this very well. For the past
eight years, President Barack Obama has led this country through thick and thin to help create a
better environment for all citizens of the United States. Originally, he ran against John McCain.
Obviously, two different races were involved. Does that mean that Barack Obama only won due

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to the color of his skin? No, in fact, on the contrary, it means that he was the better suited option
to run our nation. However, if he was to lose that election, there would have been an uproar of
people saying, He only lost because of the color of his skin. That is just an excuse to hide the
obvious; he was unfit for the job. Just a few months ago, our nation underwent another election,
this time between a white man and a white woman. Both were suitable candidates for the
Presidency, however, because we have a system in which we vote for our leader, we chose the
best option. The best option means that individual voters based their votes off of their own
political viewpoints. Whoever matched up more, won the election. The difference in gender
does not matter, in an ideal world. In todays society, many women voted for the female
candidate because of her gender, rather than their ideology. On the opposing side, males voted
for the male candidate because of his gender also. This is not morally correct, but this is how our
system is based; the people get to vote for whichever candidate they believe should run the
nation. Many people may have said that the female candidate lost due to her gender, when that is
only an excuse to pardon her lack of suitability to run a country.
Our country has become hyperactive when it comes to reacting to racist remarks. Racism
does exist, and it is a huge issue that needs to be solved. Nothing is funny about racism, and
racism is not acceptable anywhere. Everyone at one point in time has thought, whispered, or
outright said a racist remark. If someone says that they have not done that, they are lying. Ever
since the end of the Civil War, our country has tried to create barriers to stop racism. They do
not always work, nor do they cause the desired result all of the time. Our country has influenced
racism, for the better and for the worse. Today, minorities are not considered property, as they
were back in the early stages of our nation. Most of the time, decisions are made due to merit,
not due to color or gender. Nobody is perfect; therefore, some decisions are immoral. The

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United States has dramatically changed their ways when it comes to equal treatment, but there
are still areas in which we can improve. It will not be long before America is made great again.