Racial Equality In The Civil Rights Movement

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Racism has existed since the early 1600s when African Americans were first brought to America against their will to work as slaves. It wasn’t until the Civil Rights Movement, beginning in 1955, that the lives of African Americans started to transform and the U.S. Supreme Court began to terminate “Jim Crow” laws and ban segregation (“Civil Rights Movement,” n.d.). The main goal of eradicating segregation was to reach what is known as “racial equality”, which is the balance between all the races making everyone equal. Since the Civil Right Movement, our country has continued to make steps of improvement including, swearing in our nation’s first black president and the fact that black people and white people are now able to go to the same school. …show more content…
Even though there have been attempts in improving racial equality, like no more segregation and finally swearing in the first black president in history, it has not fully improved because the fight between blacks and whites continues, especially in the areas of police force and income.
Definition of Racial Equality According to Streich, “racial equality is the belief that individuals, regardless of their racial characteristics, are morally, politically, and legally equal and should be treated as such” (2005, para 1). In other words, it is an equilibrium between all of the races where everything is fair for everyone no matter the color of their skin. Based on a recent survey done by the Pew Research Center, “6 in ten Americans say the country needs to continue making changes to achieve racial equality” while the other 32% say
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For one, people of the black race are generally associated with more crime than whites. Although, that discrimination against them is proven to be incorrect based on the chart put out by the FBI in 2014 that shows the total crime rate and arrests for all races. The total number of whites who committed crimes versus the total number of blacks who committed a crime and were arrested for it was shocking to me. There were 3 times more whites who were arrested than blacks in 2014. According to the chart on the left, there were around 2 million total blacks arrested for crime versus 6 million whites (“2014 Crime in the United States,” 2014). In my opinion, if there were two suspects for a crime, one being white and the other being black, many people would argue that the black one was the one who committed the crime. Also, there have been many instances in the news lately where a cop has shot a black person because they felt like their life was in danger. Take for example, Henry Thomas Bennett, a 19 year old from Belle Glade Florida who was shot to death by a white cop on January 16, 2016 (“Anger in Belle Glade, Florida, after cop shoots ‘black 19yo’to death,” 2016). Many people have argued that the cop shot the black person due to racial discrimination. After many court cases and arguments due to things like this, those in the police force

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