Racism has been a part of culture since before our country was founded. But it is the mixture of different races in the United States that has led to some of the ways our society has now changed; we have African Americans, Caucasians, Marshallese, Hispanics, Vietnamese and many other different races living together in our country.
I believe everyone is created equal and should be treated equally, no matter what their race.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “I have a dream. That one day everyone shall be treated equal, no matter what their race.” The word “racism” has a lot of meaning behind it. When I think of racism, I think of all the struggles that people of the past went through and all of the things they did to make everyone feel equal, and how many of them died trying to make things right between the different races. I think everyone should help out different races.
Slavery in North America started in the 1600s. African Americans were auctioned and traded. Slaves were basically property of their owners. During slavery the South was made up of nothing but hypocrites. I think this because, the slave owners believed in the United States but they didn’t pay attention to the fine print of the Declaration of Independence. Which said, “All men are created equally and are to be treated equally.” This inequality is one of the main causes of the Civil War.
We still have a long way to go before racism is gone, but our country has made significant progress. Let me share some examples in my life; there is a deaf Hispanic student in my P.E. class this year, and everyone in the class helps him with the different sports we play each week. Also, my family helped out a little boy in South Africa. My family gave him fifty dollars for a cleft lip surgery. And, when I went to Camp War Eagle, I had an African American adult as my camp counseler. Over the two weeks I spent with him, the other kids in my cabin and I thought no differently of him than any of the other counselors.
There are some great African Americans leaders. Like Dr. King Jr. who got his beliefs from Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was the major political and spiritual leader of India. Gandhi would not fight back with weapons; he fought back with words and with nationwide campaigns. Another leader is Senator Barrack Obama; he is running for President in the 2008 election. If I went back in time just thirty years and said that Barrack Obama was going to be representing the Democrats in the 2008 Presidential Election, everyone would have laughed. That’s how far our country has come since the end of the Civil War. Today, Dr. King would be very proud of our society.
I believe everyone is created equal. We have to accept everyone for who they are, no matter what their skin color, beliefs, or religion.