Racial Tension In America

Racial tension is not a new product of American society. In reality, racial tension and ultimately discourse and conflict has been a costly foundation for America. Dating back to Lincoln's era with slavery, followed by the Jim Crow era, and then the Civil Rights movement, how our nation deals with racial conflict has always been a defining factor. Today America faces a new form of ethnically charged discrimination in police brutality. In recent years use of excessive force and intimidating psychology have risen in prominence in police and minority interaction, most devastatingly in African American communities. African American citizens should not feel fear towards the police and should be able to trust them - in order to make this happen,
Following the revoking of the Jim Crow laws - laws created to suppress the place of African Americans in society - powerful white people have still continued to search for a way to cheat their common citizen. Law enforcement has been found time and time again to be purposefully targeting African Americans since Jim Crow's collapse for a variety of reasons. Offenses ranging from petty theft to minor drug possession charges have imprisoned 30% of African American males(Police Brutality and Race). When someone is a felon in the United States, they are ostracized from aspects of society. The most important of these aspects is the right to vote. Losing the ability to vote suppressed black voices and stigmatizes African American felons as “the bad guys"(Up in Arms). Such a stigma can only lead to tension and unease in law and minority
Unfair stoppages and seizures of property are frequent occurrences for otherwise innocent citizens and is a result of nothing outside of prejudice(Up in Arms). The danger of these situations arises when the persecuted vies for the rights they have, which can often incur violence and frustration from wrongful police officers. Many cases of beatings and sometimes death have arised in recent years, most notably with the death of Trayvon Martin, a teenager shot to death by a neighborhood watchmen. He died with a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea on his