Race relations are moving backward
Photo credit: David Molina
Race relations in the U.S. are starting to move backward.
Sixty-three percent of Americans believe that race relations in the United States are generally bad and that a majority of Americans think that race relations are getting worse, according to several polls by the Washington Post.
Anywhere in the country, whether it’s Ferguson, Charlotte, Dallas, Chicago or Milwaukee, the dissatisfaction is clear.
As the first African-American president finishes his second term, the only progress made is the revival of segregation.
The only thing that really seems to make sense is that poor race relations don’t actually exist, people just think they do. Not to say that everyone gets along, poll numbers obviously show differently, but there is nothing to point to that purposely tries to divide us. All of this unrest comes from people simply thinking there are problems with race relations, and then acting on these problems because they think they exist.
Most of this unrest comes from the idea that there is inherent discrimination in our justice system against blacks and other minorities. If this were true, we should be able to point to statistics for evidence.
Except statistics actually tell us the exact opposite: all races are on an even playing field when talking about our justice system.
Looking at numbers taken from 2009-2012, the number of people killed by police each year is around 0.00012 percent of the U.S. population, and a majority of the people killed by police were white males, according to research done by the University of Toledo. During these years, there was an average of about 120 black males killed by police each year with only 38 of the incidents happening without justification.
With the U.S. population being over 320 million this is far from a trend that is terrorizing the nation. With a nationwide police force of over 1 million officers, the numbers hardly prove discrimination.
Statistics show that our labor force is undoubtedly becoming more diverse, with the number of Hispanics, African-Americans and Asians being proportional to how they are represented in the overall population.
Most of our country may show some slight racial bias. Close to 90 percent of white Americans who take the Implicit Association Test show an inherent racial bias. However, the racial bias exists across all cultures in the U.S. and isn’t exclusive to white people.
Since there isn’t any noticeable racial discrimination and races are equally represented in different areas socially there isn’t a reason to believe that America has a race problem. Yet, most Americans still get this impression.
People simply have the impression that race problems exist. It’s complete nonsense. The notion has only further divided the nation.
Jeff Guzman can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter
TPS // Oct 27, 2016 at 3:15 am
A+ article. When I see protests in Berkeley creating human chains to keep white students out, and POC housing and safe spaces at UCLA, it makes me wonder when MLK will finally roll over in his grave. Systematic racism doesn’t exist in 21st century America and the wage gap isn’t real. Americans (liberals) need to quit being victims and take some personal responsibility for themselves.
– A gay, POC, Chico State Student
Quinn // Oct 21, 2016 at 9:25 am
I won’t even go into how offensive and poorly researched this is… I’d like to point out the other issue of deleting/disabling comments. That is unethical. You’re supposed to be the voice of the students, but you’re silencing them. If you can’t handle people disagreeing with you, you shouldn’t be writing in the opinion section.
Rachel Ward // Oct 19, 2016 at 1:41 pm
I am so disappointed in this piece.
Not only is what y’all wrote incredibly inaccurate, I am saddened and angered by the harm and pain this will cause our fellow students of color. “Race Relations are Moving Backward”? Really? Progress has the potential of moving backward when pieces like this get published.
Chico State communities of color deserve MUCH better than this insensitive, fictitious excuse for an article. Please think deeply about the role you occupy on this campus and whether spreading hate and prejudice is really the role you want to be playing.
-a fellow white Chico Student