At a young age, I would look at myself and would wonder if my skin color was supposed to be lighter, maybe a tint or two more pale. Am I just very tan? Who’s to think that at such a young age I would find out the ideologies people had about skin color. Who’s to know that society had already got to me, as young as I was, forcing me to think that being white was the default setting, the norm in the system. These ideas have become tradition; set in our programmed minds. I guess that’s how it goes. That how it’s supposed to be. There is something about having lighter, paler skin that creates a sort of persona, and decimates any possibility of equality with others who are not the same. White is what a normal person is meant to be; any other color is almost seen as abnormal. This white persona is celebrated among society, even though it is just a physical attribute. Being white has become a social role that everyone must fit into, and that determines the level of respect a person gets. The evaluation of an individual’s ability to adapt to this white persona “saves us”. This “white supremacy” has affected every aspect of the United States’ culture and has created a nightmare; a dominant sponsorship of discriminating ideologies.
Minorities and different racial groups such as Blacks and Hispanics are currently battling the political and judicial system against biased judgements in punishment. Police brutality has become a common thing against blacks, and Hispanics because of the stereotypes set in place within our culture. Discrimination and racial profiling have become a massive influence in certain convictions. Out of thousands of cases, here are a few of racial discrimination and biased judgments due to the stereotypes of blacks and Hispanics.
First example is the case of 22-year-old John Enochs, a former student of Indiana University. Enochs, accused of two counts of rape on two different occasions, only spent one day in jail after his second charge. The first incident was filed on October 2013, and the other charge in September 2015. Enochs, the white male was sentenced to only a year of probation. The charge was dropped from a “level 6 battery felony” to a “class A misdemeanor” according to ABCNews reports.
One the other hand, when black high school student Brain Banks was accused of rape at the age of 16, Banks was tried as an adult and received a punishment of five years in prison. Additionally, Banks was given five years of parole as a sex offender, according to an article on Identities.Mic. This was Banks’ first offense. Later on, in 2012 the accuser rescinded her accusations against Banks, stating that Banks was innocent.
Let’s also not forget the controversial case of the 20-year-old Stanford student, Brock Turner, who was convicted of rape and received a six-month sentencing for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. The judge said that Turner would be “severely impacted” if he was sent to prison, and Turners’ lack of criminal history helped his case. In Banks’ case, there was no sign of mercy or considerations. Those are just a few examples unfortunately, of the racial profiling and discrimination that occurs within the judicial system.
It’s crazy to think how just the color of your skin can affect how you are treated, how you are seen and how you are judged in certain situations. Physical appearance overall, has become a governing factor in classifying individuals. I mean we can only do so much. We can clean ourselves up, put make up on, put on our finest clothes, but for the color of our skin? This is something we cannot change, so we must change our ideologies of skin color instead. We build communities, and instead of integrating our communities and learn to live like the humans we are, we tend to segregate each other into tiers of power and success. Do we help anyone but ourselves? Do we only look out for those are are most similar to us? And if so how long will this last? Our democracy is not created to be the survival of the fittest, we should not be monopolized but the ideal of white supremacy. After all, we only have each other to learn from.
Grinberg, Emanuella, and Catherine Shoichet. "Brock Turner Released after 3 Months in Jail." CNN. Cable News Network, 02 Sept. 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Myers, Gary. "Wrongfully Convicted Brian Banks Disgusted by Brock Turner Ruling." NY Daily News. NY Daily News, 06 June 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Noman, Natasha. "A Black Student Got 5 Years for a Rape He Didn't Commit." Mic. Identities.Mic, 10 June 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
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Shapiro, Emily. "Prosecutors Explain 'Unusual Set of Circumstances' in Indiana University Rape Case." ABC News. ABC News Network, 28 June 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
