By Jordan Eghdamzamiri
America’s history when it comes to black people is one of the more controversial handling of foreign ethnicities in world history.
The United States is the land of the free, and that is undoubted. But the human mind is prone to corruption, and racial injustice against African-Americans does exist in our society.
Although these problems do exist and must be rectified, the travesty that is racial profiling occurs for a reason.
Maybe it is the fact that 72 percent of black children grow up in a single-parent household. Maybe it is because 52 percent of homicides in the United States are done by black people, despite only making up only 13 percent of the population. Maybe the reason for it is that the high school graduation rate for black students is 69 percent, when the United States average is 80 percent, all according to a yearly report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
With these discouraging statistics, it is plausible to believe that there is a problem when it comes to the modern black culture.
Although the arguments for protesting against racial injustice, most notably with the protests of the United States National Anthem in the National Football League fueled by polarizing figure Colin Kaepernick, are valid, the purpose for the protest must change.
Instead of protesting to stop racism from police as well as the rest of society, the real protest must be within black communities to have both parents, more particularly a father figure, in black households, as there is a direct correlation between the lack of a father figure at home, and high crime rates.
The protests should be against the people who cause these astronomically high homicide rates, or for better schooling in predominantly black areas, to raise the high school graduation rate.
A suggestion to correct these lurking issues proposed by English teacher Victor Mejia would be to “create some sort of convention where black people could spread awareness of what must be done to improve black communities.”
It will take much effort from many people within this nation, but if these horrible trends continue within black communities, the problem that is racial profiling may not soon be rectified within the United States.
Being African-American myself, it is disheartening to see our culture being viewed as negative due to the preventable issues that exist within it.
It is time for the excuses to stop and accountability for our own actions to be taken. To change the cause for which we fight, to create an equal chance for black children to succeed in life, and not have to worry about their ethnic category tarnishing their chances at a future.
