Nicholas County, Kentucky. It is a small town whose significant events are surrounded by high school sporting events, The people who reside here often refer to it as the “small town with a big heart,” but more than often, that is not the case. This town has a tiny population of minorities, from the Amish to black people So, discrimination is a common thing that happens in Nicholas County, People get discriminated against when they are trying to discover who they are, for being a different religion, being a different skin color, or even if you consider yourself a liberal, but the primary focus of this paper is on racial issues, Racial issues have and will always be a problem in the United States.
In this paper, I am going to explain how racial issues of the past and present impact the present—day and future, Emmett Till was only 14 years old when he died, Emmett was visiting his family, and he and a few friends went to a store one day. A woman there named Carolyn Bryant claimed that Till “cat called” her by whistling, which she came out many years later and said that her accusations were false. One day, in the middle of the night, Roy Bryant and JW Milam kidnapped Emmett and beat him until he was unrecognizable. When they were down hitting him, the forced him to strip down, carry a seventy~five~lb. cotton gin, and shot him in the head They threw his body into the Tallahatchie River, where his body was found three days later.
Once this event was made public, Bryant and Milam went to trial, admitted to doing everything, but were not convicted or charged with any crime because they had an all-white, all-male jury who were biased, Another event was the death of 12-year old, Tamir Rice, One day, police officer, Timothy Loehmann, received a call from dispatcher Constance Hollinger saying that a guy is pointing a gun at Cudell Recreation Center. The man continued to tell Hollinger that the guy looks like a juvenile and probably has a fake gun. When Constance Hollinger relayed the information to Loehmann, he forgot to mention that the man said the suspect looks like a juvenile and probably has a fake gun. When Loehmann showed up to the scene, Tamir reached into his waistband pulled out the replica gun and that’s when Officer Loehmann got out of his car and fired two warning shots, killing Tamir Rice.
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Loehmann claimed that he shouted warnings to Tamir to drop his gun, but that only lasted for only two seconds. Emmett Till’s death is not respected and not as well-known as Tamir Rice. Rice was only 12—years old when he died, while Till was 14-years old when he died. Rice’s killer, Timothy Loehmann, was fired; while Till’s killers were not convicted of a single crime or charge. The murder of Emmett Till was referred to in a song called “Karate Chop” by Future and Lil’ Wayne. In the song, Lil’ Wayne says, “beat that up like Emmett Till.” Once this came out, this did not settle well within the black community. Airickca Gordon-Taylor, who is a cousin of Emmett Till, came out and said “To compare his murder and how beaten and how bullied, beaten, and tortured he was to the anatomy of a woman was very disrespectful.
We found it dishonorable to his name and what his death has meant to us as a people and as a culture. It was offensive not only to us but to our ancestors and to women and themselves as young, black men, I just couldn’t understand how you could compare the gateway of life to the brutality and punishment of death. And] feel as though they have no pride and no dignity as black menu.” ‘Also, another, more current event that occurred and was disrespectful towards Till was when a sign, in his memory, was vandalized. The sign was installed in 2011 in Mississippi. What happened was the panels with the 14-year»old’s image and his story was peeled off. 2 One piece of evidence that proves that racism is a learned characteristic, not a born trait, is the movie Remember the Titans Remember the Titans revolves around the 1971 Titans football team at TC, Williams High School.
Bill Yoast was the head coach and with 15 winning seasons under his belt was a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame When Herman Boone is named the new head coach, Yoast decides, after an offer from Boone, to stay on as an assistant to appease the white parents on his teamtThe players meet once in the gym and then depart for training camp where Boone and Yoast do their best to turn a group of individuals into a team. They are assigned seats and roommates based on position instead of race and are eventually assigned to get to know all their teammates of a different race. Boone assigns three—a—day practices to force the team to get to know one another. Gerry Bertier (a team captain and all»American linebacker) approaches Julius Campbell (a talented black linebacker) to fulfill his assignment, Julius and Gerry both walk away from the interaction having heard more than they wanted to hear.
The group of individuals seems to become a team, led by Gerry and Julius, once each learns the other has taken their advice to heart. However, Ray Budds (an offensive lineman) becomes increasingly disturbed and angered by the race mixing as the movie goes on, As the Titans prepare to leave training camp as a united team, they sing “Na Na Hey Hey” by the band Steam. The Titans return to protests about bussing and desegregation and before the first game we learn that as soon as Boone loses Yoast will get the football team back Boone and his team will not be intimidated. The Titans win their first game, although not without drama. Following a move by Boone, Yoast makes a move on defense that makes Boone question Yoast’s ability to treat players equally.
After the game, we are presented with two situations that remind us how deeply the racial divide still runs in the town. Societal pressure lends to the team slowly beginning to fall back into a group of individuals. Blue Stanton, along with Gerry and Julius, calls a meeting to reunite the team in the aftermath of the effects of public opinion, A new Titan tradition is born to remind the team how far they had come before each game. The Titans continue their winning streak with renewed vigor. Before the Groveton game, Boone and his family the victims of an attack based on his race. Yoast gets some insight into Boone’s life as his daughter, Sheryl, was in attendance Boone reacts aggressively to the media, and Yoast responds similarly to Boone putting his daughter in danger. Ray decides to take his chance to express his displeasure with his teammates during the Groveton game.
After Ray exacts his revenge, Gerry has him cut from the team. Yoast learns that the Hall of Fame committee has fixed the next Titans game, He proceeds to sacrifice his dreams of making it to the Hall of Fame, so the Titans get a fair shake. Following this Titans win Boone is surprised to find himself enthusiastically welcomed home by his white neighbors. Gerry decides to go home, but on the way is in an accident that ends his season and completely changes his life, The Titans go to the state championship without Gerry. Following a losing first half, Boone delivers a concession speech. Julius chimes in that since Boone demanded perfect and they haven’t lost a game; they weren’t planning on starting now. Boone, Voast, and their team make significant realizations and humble themselves on the path to winning the title.
The movie concludes with Gerry’s funeral ten years in the future with the Titans singing “Na Na Hey Hey” by Steam to bid him farewell. In this film, these young men were taught not to like each other based upon their looks, and not the content of their characters. This movie is a perfect example on how you can go from hating someone, just based on appearance, to meeting your lifelong friends, These events, that took place in this movie, kind of made it easier and more acceptable for schools to desegregate and the races to live in harmony. Today, every single school in desegregated and has mixed sporting teams, especially football, but not just on the high school level; it in elementary, middle, and high school, college, and you even have mixed teams in the NFL.
The impact that racism can have on a person‘s mental health is detrimentali It can cause depression, anxiety, and other mental issues. However, in the 1950-19605, mental health awareness was not a big topic that people truly talked about If anyone, at the time, had 5 mental health problem, that person would be considered “sick” and “not well” and were usually “outcasts” in society and were usually never treated for it, especially African Americans in the south, Racism differs from place to place, For example, in a rich, mostly white neighborhood, if a person of color were to walk around the neighborhood, it is possible that people would be watching having 9-1-1 on speed dial, This is because some people have the mindset and believe that people of color cannot afford these nice houses, cars, etc.
With the exception of professional athletes, singers, rappers, etc, who are often described as “irresponsible” with their money A personal experience that I have is a very recent one that happened a month and a half after I started college I was going to the bank to make a deposit and I had cash. So, I go up to the bank teller and I am being very respectful, but he is just looking down on me like I am the scum of the earth. He is asking me these questions and I do not think anything of it until I told my mom and she said, “that was strange because usually all of your information is on the deposit slip, so they would not need to ask all of those questions, just so you can deposit money.“
That was when I experienced racism at the bank, because once i thought about it, he didn’t ask anyone else who was in front of me any of these questions and they just so happened to be white individuals. Racism does notjust occur from person to person contact, due to recent technological advances, racism has expanded to the internet, where people can post anonymously, or not, on a person‘s social media account. This is a form of cyberbullying called cyber—racism. According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, Cyber—Racism involves online activity that can include “jokes or comments that cause offense or hurt; name—calling or verbal abuse; harassment or intimidation, or public commentary that inflames hostility towards certain groups” It is essential to teach those who do not know better, to do better.
Like in the film, Remember the Titans, racism, and hate is taught, One possible solution to this problem would be by parents to teach their children not to judge others by a characteristic that they cannot change, for example, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Another preventative method would be by telling others when they are wrong for something. For instance, if you hear someone make a joke about a minority that is downright disrespectful, then you should say something. You should inform them of how that is not appropriate because you never know who is listening and who you would be speaking up for because some people are scared to speak up for things that they believe in.
In conclusion, racism is a taught characteristic, not something that someone is born with, There are many ways to prevent racism, one is by telling the stories of young people who died of racism, like Emmett Till, Tamir Rice, etc. Another way is by having parents teach their children from young ages to treat each person with the dignity and respect that they deserve. No one should be treated differently for a characteristic that they cannot control, such as race, sexual orientation, gender, etc. Racism can have a major impact on someone’s mental health.
It can cause depression, anxiety, and even to extreme cases, like suicide. In the film, Remember the Titans, it shows us how a segregated community puts their differences aside once they realized the potential the football team has, which is made up of black and white students, and become more socially accepted of the mixing of the races. All of these events have impacted present day life and will impact our future Based upon events that happened in the past, America, as a whole, has progressively gotten better when it comes to racial issues, but there are still problems that need to be addressed and fixed so we can all live in peace and harmony.
