Oppressive Unjust Laws

The Declaration of Independance (US 1789) is a very important legal document, and outlines the general rights of a US citizen. In article 1, the phrase “all men are created equal” is declared in what could be considered one of the most pivotal statements in the entire document. In theory, this means that all American citizens are treated equally, without any discrimination or bias targeting certain citizen populations. Sadly, America has not honored this noble proclamation throughout the years. In contrast to the goal of complete equality, many horrific occurrences have happened throughout our history because of crude laws that have been passed. These laws are not based on logic, but on the creator's own skewed biases against certain populations.
People that are given unjust power begin to rationalize their actions in order to be able stomach being cruel to the target population, turning into brutal monsters. On the other hand, the oppressed are unable to fight back because their sense of self worth is degraded into nothing. Oppressive unjust laws based on biases very often have negative consequences on the oppressed, as well as the oppressors. Unjust laws have very damaging impacts on the targeted population. One of the most harmful effects these discriminatory laws have on the oppressed is the damaging of self-esteem and confidence. When these two very important aspects of a person is damaged, it becomes very difficult to fight against these ordinances. This has been experienced throughout
Unjust laws transform the people in power by justifying and validating these horrible behaviors and ordinances. It is easier to simply disconnect and attempt to validate unjust actions, than to take responsibility and fight to stop discriminatory laws. This was evident during the Civil Right’s Movement in terms of segregation. Martin Luther King Jr describes how the oppressors validated the horrible injustices that happened during segregation. Firstly, King claims that “segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality” of the segregator, because it gives them a “false sense of superiority” (King 383). This effect stands in direct contrast to the effect segregation had on the ones that were segregated. King furthers his argument by explaining that the oppressors were able to wrongly validate their choice to segregate because they ended up “relegating persons [of color] to the status of things” (King 383). Because they felt superior, the oppressors were able to dehumanize people of color in order to push discriminatory ordinances against them. It is much easier to brutalize an object than a human being. This phenomena of feeling superior because of unjust laws against a targeted population snowballed into a vicious cycle; because of the normalized feeling of superiority among the oppressors, it passed on to the next generation and so on. This is a negative repercussion of unjust laws because