What a tragic topic that we must deal with during these times. We’re already dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, but we also have to deal with something severe that has polluted the nation for decades: racism!

Racism has been dating back hundreds and hundreds of years. Slavery was a major market in the world. Going back to the colonial era, Great Britain took people from Africa, and placed them as slaves in North America for the colonists. However, despite the fact that the colonies had separated from Britain following the Revolutionary War, America was born, but slavery continued in the country for many years to follow. Going from the 18th to the 20th century, slaves were treated inhumanly, which largely consisted of them receiving cruel painful torture, tiring labor, and continuous sexual assault. But this didn’t just happen to adults. Young children had to endure all this pain as well. Particularly in the South, slavery was more common and white Americans treated slaves as objects, not as people, only because of the color of their skin. Only because they looked “different” from everyone else in the United States.

Even though slavery had ended in 1865, African-Americans still had to endure pain and hatred by white people. During the Civil Rights movement from 1954 to 1968, the top two advocates for African-American rights were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most well-known civil rights activists in the world to ever exist, fought for about thirteen years for racial minorities to live equally in the country. Despite him trying to put an end to racial injustices, King was unfortunately assassinated. However, Malcolm X, who also fought for human rights for African-Americans, was considered to be a more “radical” leader. Both leaders had fought for the same purpose. Yet, they each had a different point of view on how life for African-Americans should progress. Malcolm X believed in making change through violence, while King instead wanted to make change peacefully. At the end though, both leaders ended racial segregation and gave African-Americans social and economic prosperity.

Flashing forward to today, racism has still been a major problem in the United States. Even though the Civil Rights movement did make things better, it still did not eradicate racism from the face of the Earth. In Sanford, FL in 2012, a 17-year old African-American boy named Trayvon Martin was fatally shot to death by a man because of his skin tone. This was the spark of the Black Lives Matter Movement. There have been countless other deaths that have happened in the past due to racism.  In Ferguson, MO in 2014, an 18-year old black man named Michael Brown was even shot by a police officer even though he had surrendered by raising his hands up. However, the movement expanded significantly eight years later. One of the murders that year that lead to the major movement was the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Ahmaud, 25-years old, was jogging in Satilla Shores, GA. However, he was chased by white residents, who racially profiled. Then one of them shot him six times to death with a gun, just because he assumed Ahmaud was doing suspicious because he was black. However, that same year, what made the word spread around the world happened in Minneapolis, MN. A 46-year old African American man named George Floyd was brutally arrested by three merciless and racist police officers. The arrest ended in a public assassination of a black man. However, Floyd’s murder  fueled the protesters more in their fight and more people took to the streets to fight for change. This was not just a national issue but a global one as protests started occurring all over the world. This pivotal event is what changed the world entirely. Floyd’s tragic passing made people take radical measures to prove their point. The protesters wanted to show that African Americans have been suffering for too long and no change has been made to eradicate the deeply rooted systemic racism.

Discrimination. Racism. These words have become embedded in The United States’ past and present. However, now is the time for progression and making an impact. What was happening in the last three centuries in the United States before should remain as times of tragedy that should never happen again. Hatred toward African-Americans and other ethnic groups have to stop. Just because the fight to end racism isn’t over, it doesn’t mean people should give up. It doesn’t matter who someone is, which gender they are, or which ethnic background they came from, we all have to stand together, united.

To find out more, here are some resources:

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr#:~:text=was%20a%20social%20activist%20and,of%20injustice%20through%20peaceful%20protest.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html

https://www.racialequitytools.org/resources/fundamentals/history-of-racism-and-movements/overview-and-timelines

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/12/901632573/black-power-scholar-illustrates-how-mlk-and-malcolm-x-influenced-each-other#:~:text=via%20Getty%20Images-,Martin%20Luther%20King%20Jr.,%2Dmeans%2Dnecessary%20political%20renegade.