Lives of all people matter to the society, but some people believe that they are treated differently. The attitude of white people towards African Americans is often questioned not only by the minorities but also by representatives of the general public. The issue of inequality starts to be discussed with the appearance of slavery, which turned into racism. For many years, black people’s rights were humiliated, but the situation began improving.
American government adopted numerous laws that improved their position in society. Still, some individuals claim to face prejudiced treatment and underline that African Americans are suppressed. The article “Black lives matter because America tends to forget” written by Johnny Ricks was published on UWIRE Text supports the idea of black lives being threatened, and the author claims that Black Lives Matter movements are to continue. However, I believe that the reflected data is accompanied by biased views and fails to show real situation. Even though the article states that black people are often reported to be involved in crimes and receive negative attitude, African Americans are treated as European ones by the majority of the population and share problems and pleasures with them.
Ricks claims that the number of African Americans who are in custody or were engaged in crimes is so enormous that it is “quite frankly a national embarrassment” (par. 6). He supports his idea with some report, which tells that each 11th black American was somehow supervised in 2009. Personally I disagree with such view and believe that it is exaggerated. First of all, there was no national censure that would prove such rates, and this information cannot be taken to trust.
Moreover, the main thing this article omits is the general data. There is no information regarding European Americans, so maybe this year each 8th of them was also supervised. Omitting the assumptions, I would like to pay attention to the fact that only 12.4% of the US population are black people in comparison to 62.2% of white individuals (“Percentage of Population in the United States” par. 4). There are not so many of them in the country, so it is normal that statistically more African Americans are reported to be supervised.
It is also pointed out in the article that in percentage more black people are put in prison America rather than in South Africa (Ricks par. 7). I would agree with this fact but not with the perspective, in which it is considered. Many African Americans are incarcerated because they enter the country illegally. Being in their native territory, they are satisfied to some extent with what they have and are not trying to commit crimes. Those who want to change their life often come as illegal emigrants to other countries and the US as well (“Illegal Immigration is a Crime” par. 1). In this way, they are considered criminals, and the number of people under supervision increases.
The same law cannot be violated by European Americans. Moreover, coming to the new country, people tend to face problems as they do not know the language and rules or do not have a place to leave. They often enter poor districts with high criminal rates and become involved in wrongdoings. However, this is not the issue of black people. It is the thing the majority of immigrants are to deal with in every country. Today many African Americans leave in good districts and earn more than European ones, which proves that they are not prejudiced and made to face troubles.
In the article black people are said to be considered immoral and belong to criminals just on the basis of their race and the character it entails. Ricks believes that they are thought to be guilty without any evidence. Very often the police are searching for some unknown black individual who has committed a crime (Ricks 10). In fact, the research shows that European Americans are “1.7 times more likely than blacks die” being killed by the representatives of the police (Richardson par. 16).
It seems to me that we used to believe that the minorities are always treated badly so that now when the situation improves, and European Americans are even more limited than people from other countries, we are continuing to stick to that point. Nowadays many people start to notice this tendency and support such view. Ricks refers to the book, which describes current society as blind regarding the issue of race, but the studies show that the attention paid to it is excess (par. 7). Tony Morrison claims that the US are constantly discussing the rights of minorities and racial discrimination and all the changes they implement occur to be not enough for people to be satisfied (Richardson par. 2).
According to the article, the issue remains unsolved and black individuals should continue their movements and involve more people to find the solution. Still, Justice Department, media, and numerous organizations are always keeping an eye on it. Their focus is so concentrated on the minorities and their lives that they fail to provide the majority of the general public with needed attention and promote its condition. Thus, Ricks tends to provide only that information, which correlates with his own views and beliefs. In this way, he does not allow the readers to consider the issue and decide whether they agree with him or not.
The theme of victims is also discussed by Ricks. He claims that black Americans are often considered at least partially guilty of the crime, in which they occurred to be victims. The author underlines that it happens because of the racial stereotypes that exist regarding African Americans (Ricks par. 12). However, this information is given without any evidence. It seems to be just the assumption, which is not proved and supported, so how can it be believed? According to Olson and Zanna (81), victims are generally treated positively, and others tend to feel with them. The research was conducted to gain such results, so the data has credibility, which cannot be said about the article.
According to this source, African Americans are often called criminals because they are the ones associated with street offenses. The author starts to investigate the “black on black crimes”, which he believes to be named in a wrong way (Ricks par. 14). I agree with Ricks and his view that the crimes are usually committed among the individuals who live closely on one territory. Still, I do not understand how this fact justifies that “black on black” offenses. Millions of white people live next to each other and offend each other, but they all are not considered to be wrongdoers. According to this logic, numerous blacks who are among whites are law-abiding citizens, but those who spend much time with the representatives of their ethnicity are terrible people. Moreover, if I simplify the author’s words, his complex reasoning starts to look inconsequent.
It is something like: European Americans always treated African Americans badly, and the issue becomes even more complicated because they are said to commit black on black crimes while actually they just are often involved into intra-racial ones. So it seems that Ricks spent lots of effort to assure the readers that black people are given a raw deal and become wrongfully convicted and changed his mind by the end of the article. Then he returns to his previous point of view and says that we limit and humble African Americans, so they are to show their protest. It looks as if when they commit crimes within their community, the general public and government should pay no attention, but when this framework is trespassed, the rights of blacks’ should be protected. Personally I find this approach rather strange and questionable.
So it can be seen that the author exaggerated the facts to make them reflect his vision of the situation. He discussed the issue only in one perspective, which allowed him to support his opinion that black Americans should continue the black lives matter movement as their rights are violated. The data he provided the readers with is questionable, and some claims have no proofs. Moreover, Ricks went so far in his discussions that they became confusing and just looked sophisticated while failed to support his idea. Thus, the article is not authoritative, and cannon be used as an only source of information while considering the topic.
Works Cited
Illegal Immigration is a Crime 2013. Web.
Olson, James, and Mark Zanna. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Sydney: Elsevier, 2015. Print.
Percentage of Population in the United States as of 2014, by Ethnicities 2015. Web.
Richardson, Valerie. Police Kill More Whites than Blacks, but Minority Deaths Generate More Outrage. 2015. Web.
Ricks, J. “Black lives matter because America tends to forget.” UWIRE Text 1.1 (2015): n.pag. Academic OneFile. Web.