Injustice and Expectations, Essay Example

More than fifty years ago, a great American man stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He stood under the symbolic shadow of Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation five score years before that. The Emancipation Proclamation was designed to free the slaves and bring equality to a land that was haunted by injustice and slavery. A land that was supposed to be equally shared between all men, no matter the color of their skin. A land that was supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. The promises that the Emancipation Proclamation made had not been fulfilled when Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and made his touching speech, and they have not been fulfilled today, a half century later.

I come to you as a fellow man, beseeching you to look around you and see the injustices that befall black men, women, and children every single day. Look around you and notice the plight of your fellow man. Take off the blinders that are on your eyes and see that the color of your skin is still a disability in this country. A black man cannot walk down the street without being under suspicion of delinquency. A black woman is called ghetto if her appearance does not look “white enough.” If a black woman’s hair is natural and not chemically straightened, she is looked down upon. If a black woman’s skin is too dark, she is deemed less attractive than her light skinned counterparts. Bleaching creams make millions of dollars a year in sales to make black women look less ethnic. Relaxing serums make millions of dollars a year to make black women’s hair look silky smooth like that of a white woman.

Today, black men are imprisoned at rates much higher than that of the white man. Black men make up the majority of the prison system. Black men are considered dangerous. Black men are considered criminals. Black men are considered thugs. Black men are considered inconvenient, so society locks up the inconvenient truth—and black men rot in cells. After all, isn’t that where the black man belongs? He is nothing more than an animal. The prevailing thought in the backs of the minds of many white people in today’s America are still decidedly similar to the thoughts in the backs of the minds of many white people in America from fifty years ago.

Part of the problem is that the men and women that were growing up in America fifty years ago, who still remember segregation and the “way it used to be” are running this country now. Those men and women are the men and women that are in office. Those men and women are in the government. Those men and women are in the justice system. Those men and women are the Chiefs of Police in local police stations. Those men and women are the District Attorneys in charge of prosecuting the black men that are locked away every single day.

The laws may have changed fifty years ago, but the people from that time did not. It became less socially acceptable to openly treat the black man like an animal. It became less socially acceptable to openly choose a white man or woman for the job over a black man or woman simply for the fact that they were white. But rest assured that those injustices still exist today.

The injustices of yesterday are still just as unjust today, they are just hidden from the public eye because it is no longer legal to come right out and own the injustice. But rest assured, America, the injustices are still there. The injustice hides in plain sight. The injustice doesn’t even do a very good job at hiding.

Black children and black men are shot by police officers in government sanctioned murders. Those same white police officers are let off the hook without so much as a slap on the wrist. They walk away without even a tarnish on their service record. The corrupt justice system condemns the black man that has committed small crimes and lets the white police officer walk away a free man.

Although white men no longer own black men openly, there are still black slaves. The new black slaves are inmates of the justice system, working for pennies an hour cleaning the sides of the roads of litter. Black men and black women are enslaved to the prison guards and the states, while the white man walks free as is his right because he is white.

The other part of the problem is the black man himself. Do not let the white man cause you to lose yourselves, my brothers and sisters. Do not let the injustice of the society that we exist in to strip us of our humanity. React to the hatred with love rather than violence.

Do not burn down the cities that you call home. Do not punish the innocents for the crimes of the guilty. Protest peacefully as Martin Luther King, Jr. did. Do not resort to mobs and riots and give the white man more reasons to lock the black man up. The more violent we react to the injustice of our time, the more the white man has the excuse.

“See? The black man is violent. The black man is dangerous. Better to lock him up and throw away the key.”

“The black man is volatile. He cannot co-exist peacefully with the white man. The white man has done no wrong, so the black man must be locked away, while the white man walks free as has always been his right to do.”

The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not only for the white man, but the black man must go about his life, his liberty, and his pursuit of happiness more carefully. I tell you, brothers and sisters, be careful.

Be careful of your life, my brothers and sisters. Be careful that you do not give the white police officer reason to shoot you dead where you stand, my brothers and sisters.

Be careful of your liberty, my brothers and sisters. Be careful that you do not give the white man cause to lock you up and throw away the key.

Be careful of your pursuit of happiness. Be careful that you do not pursue your happiness in a violent manner. Do not give the white man more reasons to consider you dangerous.

I do not mean for you to take the injustice quietly, my brothers and sisters. Protest the injustice. Protest the injustice every day if you must. But protest peacefully. Do not burn down cities. Flood the streets of those cities to raise awareness to the black man’s plight, but do not burn down the city. That is your home.

Protest in the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. my brothers and sisters. Protest peacefully and show the white man that you are not the animal that they imagine in their nightmares. Be the person that the white man doesn’t expect you to be.