Lets Get Political

Let us continue looking into the case of Ahmaud Arbery, which has recently outraged the world once again. Not too long ago, there was a video released by a bystander who had seen the crime being taken place. This video gave the Ahmaud Arbery case solid evidence that a murder was being taken place in broad daylight. This case has now received the support of many individuals who have been part of the Black Lives Matters movement. We started to see some justice being served with the two suspects, Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael, being arrested due to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Although there has been an uproar from many democratic and liberal supporters, there have also been conservatives who still claim that the killing of Ahmaud Arbery is justified. There has been a Facebook support group for Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael that brought in quite a bit of attention and outrage. The direct quote from their Facebook page is shown below.  "These 2 God-fearing men wer...

"Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was shot and killed by a white man in Brunswick, Georgia" (Equal Justice Initiative ).    He has a story similar to the ones we have heard, like Trayvon Martin. I know most conservatives do not want to talk about the never-ending "victim" stories of the African American community. Although we cannot avoid this issue anymore. We have an unjust criminal justice system, and this has been proven over and over again. Let us discuss the details of this story, and you can decide if this killing is justified? How often can we let US citizens take the law into their own hands? Numerous sources have stated that Ahmaud Arbery was a active young man that had gone for a run on February 23, 2020. This ultimately led to his untimely demise. Here is a little background of where this young man was running. According to neighbors Brunswick, Georgia, had been experiencing many break-ins. Only one burglary, an automobile burglary, was r...

The justice system throughout history has shown that it targets minorities in a very unfair manner. This is shown in many different ways specifically, let us talk about New York Cities stop and frisk policy. This policy allowed police officers to stop New Yorkers, interrogate and search them simply due to "reasonable suspicion." This policy started because of the high crime rates in New York City, but this is deemed to be not a plausible way to stop the crime rates from going up. The stops mainly targeted the African American and Hispanic populations. In 2019, 13,4459 stops were recorded by the NYPD. Of these 13,459 stops, 66% were innocent, 59% were black, 29% were Hispanic, and 9% were white. The stop-and-frisk policy came into play in 1968. It was often called the Terry stops because of the court case Terry vs. Ohio. This court case said that the stops had to be "reasonable." By 1999, Hispanic and African Americans accounted for 50% of New York City but made up...

Throughout undergrad and graduate school, I had multiple discussions with my college professors about white privilege. Only recently did I realize that many conservatives do not even believe white privilege exists. And I have concluded that most people do not understand the definition of white privilege. Therefore, the first step to understanding is to define it. In the article,  White Privilege in Health Care: Following Recognition With Action,  Joseph Hobbs states that "White privilege is defining a set of privileges available to white people because of their race and unavailable to others." With this definition alone, I can start to understand the issue some individuals might have understanding white privilege. The most common misconception of this concept is that white people believe that this means they get handed free stuff due to their skin color. This is not the case. The way one should be thinking about white privilege is not based on what white people have but ins...

This is a prevalent argument that many conservatives and liberals have. The most common statement I see pro-life individuals say is mainly for religious purposes. If your religion tells you to not have an abortion, then you should 100% not have an abortion. The fact is that we should not be mixing politics and religion. We live in a country where religion and politics are simply separate. Ultimately, the choice to have an abortion or not have an abortion is up to the woman. Her body is her choice. That is not a flawed statement. Pro-life individuals argue that a fetus is actually an innocent life form that deserves a chance at life, but they often support the death penalty. This is a flawed argument. If you choose to believe that life is so valuable, then why keep the death penalty? Furthermore, that's not to say that pro-choice individuals do not value human life. They most definitely love human life, and most importantly, the mother's choice and choice are the most valuable t...

Interestingly enough, I had a conversation with someone that stated that African American men are more likely to end up in jail because they grew up in a single-parent household. This shocked me to even believe that someone would think that this is the main reason why the majority of our prison inmates are African American. Here are some proven facts. Discrimination is a huge issue in this country; although police are not meant to discriminate, they do. Police stops are racially targeted. In fact, black drivers are 31% more likely to get pulled over by the police. Black drivers are searched 3 times more likely than white drivers. Furthermore, traffic tickets have become more of an issue for poor-income individuals. They are fined for unpaid tickets, and this usually only affects poor income families. African Americans have the highest poverty rate at 24.7%. The bailout system penalizes poor people. There are thousands of individuals who are presumed innocent and awaiting trial because ...