Aja Barber asked the Twitter community last week: "How would you sum up #AmericaInFiveWords?" Her question has since received over 99,000 responses. They were shocking and saddening and frightening.
One black woman responded: "#AmericaInFiveWords. Country founded on genocide/enslavement." This statement ties in to the ideas of Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness" and the concept of the Prison Industrial Complex, the use of surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social, and political problems. The prison system is often seen as an extension of slavery. While only 12% of the U.S. population is black, 40% of the prison population is black. As for genocide, American police officers shot and killed 1,029 people in 2014. In contrast, British police have killed only 43 people in the last four years.
Another response stated: "Liberty and Justice for Some. #AmericaInFiveWords." Again, this relates to the concept of the Prison Industrial Complex. Black Americans are discrimated against. A ProPublica report states that "black teens are 21 times more likely to be shot dead than their white counterparts." Why?
My father, an emergency room physician, told me a story the other day: There are about 50 other E.R. doctors that work at the same hospital as my dad. Once a month, actors impersonate someone with a medical problem, and evaluate all the doctors on how they respond, their bedside manner, etc. Last month, four actors came in to the E.R.: a white man, a white woman, a black man, and a black woman. They all said the exact same words, telling the doctors that they thought they were having a heart attack. When asked, 50 out of 50 of the doctors thought that the white man was most likely to experience a heart attack.
Why do we as a society discriminate against people of color? Where did this discrimination start, and how can it be stopped?
How would you describe America in five words?
Ellie,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post. I especially latched onto your anecdote about the ER actors. As sad as it is, I am not surprised that the doctors trusted the white man over anyone else. That it is a great example of how much further our society has to come. I think that this discrimination comes from the Jim Crow laws which taught our forefathers from a young age that black people were not as trustworthy as white and therefore should be discriminated against. As for my five words? I like the Justice for some, especially with Brown and Garner being such an accurate depiction and I would like to include the protests and demonstrations in their honor. So, #AmericainFiveWords: Free Speech, Justice for Some.
Ellie, this really made me sad while reading this because I like to think of our country as providing equal opportunity for all and no discrimination. However, I know this is very optimistic because people of course are going to be bias. I think the discrimination has been around since the pilgrims came on the boats. I think as a society we have progressed immensely, but the sad truth is we still have a long way to go. As the hospital experiment showed, white men are still those that have the best opportunity whether it be conscious or subconscious. I think my five words would be, continually progressing to be better.
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