Looking Deeply at a Social Problem
justice & law
Behind the Smile
By Gabriela George
26.4% of undergraduate females experience physical violence or sexual assault. Seeing this statistic was incredibly saddening, as I had not managed to evade this experience. Instead, I became a living statistic…However, my experience is not uncommon. Approximately, 1 in 5 women in college will experience sexual assault on campus. This egregious number has proliferated not because of the naivety of young women or their provocativeness enticing the wrong kind of person—it stems from the social expectations men have of women and how they should act. Yes, there are bad seeds and they deserve to be punished for their actions, but this speaks to a larger systemic problem.
Who is the Enemy and How Do We Fight Against It?
By Tam Tran
Many people considered what Chauvin did a really unnecessary force, and many of them even called that police brutality… Many of us thought that there might be particular people who were simply racist, for instance, white police officers. We believed that the issues were about individuals, and we thought that they were our enemies… I would love to show you deeper aspects of what has happened in America, that relate to system racism. I hope that this essay helps you see that our enemy is something beyond an individual, and how to fight against it. To begin, I would like to let you know that Chauvin, like many other people, is shaped by bad soil.
The Sound of the Police
By Kevin Garnica
This leads us to another misconception surrounding this problem, that people don’t want to admit that there is a problem with the system that employs the police, not any individual police officer. The issues surrounding our police force are systemic, not on the shoulders of any individual police officer to redeem or surrender to.
This is Not a Struggle Black Americans Face Alone
By Anonymous
I was moved by the video of George Floyd’s death. It was the tip of the iceberg that motivated me to dig deeper into this country’s issues and participate in protests like the Black Lives Matter car march that would change my perspective forever. We can and should all be inspired to do such research and learn the truth of Black Americans’ history and try to understand the unequal system they face everyday. This is not a struggle Black Americans face alone. We all see the inequality they endure and know through history and present that systemic racism is an ongoing issue. We must never stop fighting for a just system until it is just for everyone.
Prison Stories
By Esbeidy Campos
My views changed after high school I met someone that I fell completely in love with and everything felt perfect, the first thing he told me about himself that he felt I should know was that he is an ex-felon, he said it wasn’t anything hard core and was only in prison for a few months but that he felt he needs to let people know because the judgement is there and people have chosen to stop associating with him because of it. I asked to listen to his story because I definitely didn’t think it was my place to judge a story I had never even listened to. His story was the perfect example of what’s wrong with our justice system today.
This Disregard for Black Lives is an Echo of the Past
By Tiffany
As an Asian American coming from a widely anti-black community, I have been warned and taught by my family as a child about the dangers of black people. Imagine my confusion when the black people they’ve vilified, became my classmates and friends and were nowhere near the way they were described. As I experience life and learn about the history of systemic oppression by our country, I began to see the faults in myself, my community, and our biases. The truth of our country’s history is normally pushed under the rug and sugar coated by our education system, which causes misconception and false narratives to spread within our communities. We, Americans of all races, need to collectively move away and unlearn this narrative.
The Broken Promises of the Justice System
By Katy
When looking at the two different cases, it is apparent that for people like McMillian, their backgrounds and stories did not matter in the eyes of the justice system. McMillian was harshly punished compared to Myers even though they were indicted for the same crime. As for McMillian and Turner, both had no prior significant criminal offenses but received starkly contrasting sentences. The United States justice system states that all men are equal in the eyes of the law, but the reality is that people are discriminated against based on factors like race, gender, religion, and class. Because of this, some people will never procure the truth that rightfully belongs to them and, eventually, will disappear amongst a multitude of stories like their own.
Forced Outside of Society
By Jacob Khaliqi
The prison systems tend to target these kids, by knowing that they live in these neighborhoods, and tend to use or sell certain drugs in order to get by. The laws for these illegal activities have larger consequences which makes the kid stuck in prison for a longer time. This forces a kid to live outside of society, and inside of a prison. Prison becomes their world.
Stories So Loud They Make Change
By Ayesha Ali
My post-9/11 experience has given me empathy for the racism black communities face. For black people they’re a criminal, savages, thugs and are destroying their own community. Hundreds of years of black people being treated as though they are not human lead to the constant abuse and discrimination lead by racist individuals. Black children are taught by their parents on ways to handle an encounter with the police, from placing your hands in the eyesight of the officer to not talk or fight back. Mothers and fathers already have a fear when it comes to their children, adding on the fear of being stopped and frisked for just their skin color ignites a greater fear.
Nonviolence as a Tool for Protest in Hong Kong
By Anonymous
The Hong Kongers are indeed gaining the benefits of nonviolence mentioned by Martin Luther King Jr. They educated and transformed so many citizens that are on the Pro-Chinese side to Democrats side. Also, they gained friendship and understanding from the International community, the United States already passed through a federal law “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” to impose sanction against Chinese and Hong Kong officials that are responsible for human right abuses.