African American Speech

To be African American in 2016 is frightening. You look at the news, read the paper, get on the internet and see nothing but blacks being killed or arrested. African Americans in the 21st century can be be frustrating, you get tired of seeing and hearing the same bad news. It’s heart breaking to know a white cop can kill an innocent black person and get away with it, It’s disappointing to witness black on black crime. I love being African American but it isn’t easy.
If another race were to spend the day with a African American they would see how unfair things are for us. We are constantly judged, and treated differently just because of our skin color. “Black lives matter” is a phrase that we are hearing frequently, but why should we have to remind everyone of that if we’re human too? A few month’s ago a 37 year old black man
name Alton Sterling was killed by a caucasion officer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alton Sterling’s altercation and death was caught on video, he was not armed, he was simply murdered for nothing. Selling CD’s should never result in you losing your life. It’s ashame, and upsetting that there are people in the world that think the officer who killed Alton Sterling is innocent.
If 2 people commit the same crime they deserve the same consequence, but I don’t believe the justice system looks at it that way. If a black man kills another black man he is guilty and being sent to prison with no hesitation, but when a white officer is caught on camera killing a innocent black man there is reasoning and justification behind his logic. Police should be the people that you feel safe around, but now people are afraid to even encounter a police officer. There are black people that are as brave as lions, but when they see those red and blue lights flashing in their rearview they are as weak as a kitten. Being an African American is spine-chilling, questioning your life when you come across a police officer, or getting that call saying your loved one has been arrested or murdered. The media often potrays the black community as being poor, uneducated, and negative, but we have many black leaders that are overcoming those stereotypes. A lot of businesses are owned by blacks, we have many black leaders such as judges, mayors, even our president is black. You dont hear a lot about the positive things that blacks are doing, because so much time is spent talking about the negative things. African Americans have some of the best performers, actors/actresses, and athletes, this is so special because back then we didn’t even have the opportunity to do the things we are great at today. This makes me proud to be in the skin im in. Growing up we’ve learned about slavery, whether it were in school or at home from some of our elders.
Once upon a time racism was legal, it was normal for blacks to get treated unfairly. We here our elders say from time to time “your generation has it easy” that may be true in some circumstances but that really isn’t the case. Our generation goes through some hostile situations, our innocent men are getting killed and harassed by cops, our teachers in school treat us different from other races, store owners look at us as criminals and the list continues to go on. Why does our dark colored skin affect the way we are treated? Why are we categorized as bad people? These questions will always remain unanswered, because their is no clarification or reason why we should be treated differently, we just are. As years go on history just repeats itself. Racism started a long time ago and it’s still going on till this day. Going into 2017 I firmly believe that things are going to just stay the same. I dont see anything happening thats going to better the situations, nor make them worse. All we can do as a society is hope for better, and do
better.