The Struggle for Equality Against Racism

The problem of racism has long troubled our nation through out history, the lack of humanity and humility was and still is a cause of the unjustifiable blame and finger pointing. The shear despise for being treated so unjustly sparked many altercations with many left bearing war wounds or even worst, the loss of their lives. Very often minorities were at the center of these attacks, due largely to the absurd assumption that minorities could not and protect themselves and were not thought of as having the character to stand up for themselves and fight.

The happenings occurred before our very eyes through out history; the extremely visible and brutal example of such heartlessness is carved deeply in the twentieth century. It is my belief that in order for the reform of our once overwhelmingly racist country to have transpired, no deed other than that of warfare could have been effective.

At the fore front of these cultural stereotypes and racial imagery were white Americans. An underlining excuse concocted by many white Americans was that they felt threatened by such minorities' ways of livelihood. An instance of this prejudice took place on the coast of Lake Michigan in 1919, when a young African American boy, Eugene Williams, was brutally murdered by a white man who through rocks at him as he waded in non territorial waters. Williams was seen by the white man as a threat to normalcy, thus he decided to use murderous violence to take his aggressions out on. In another incident, a group of Mexican Americans known as Zoot Suitors were targeted and beaten by Navy sailors for allegedly using excessive amounts of fabric for clothing. In doing so, Mexican Americans were considered to be hurting the war efforts of conserving which meant they were unpatriotic. This claim couldn't be farther from the truth; in essence the attack on the Zoot Suitors was simply an attack on a race. Another case of racism can be witnessed in the deportation of Japanese Americans to internment camps throughout the western United States. This was done by the government in the midst of a great scare; nevertheless the government targeted a minority to take the horrible fall in order to maintain a false sense of security.

All three of these stigmatized groups faced dire social, political as well as economic consequences, due to the prejudice inflicted white aggressors. Although minorities may have had different cultural values or practices,