Getting Over the Past Helps Make a Better Future.

The Rodney King case has shaken Los Angeles for years to come. Faith in the police department was shattered in April 1992 for so many living in Los Angeles, and as time goes on in recent years, the same happens for those living in any city where racially charged police brutality strikes. One might ask themselves, why would so many cops in so many cities would act in such a prejudiced manner? And when looking at racial statistics on crime and imprisonment, one might wonder why it is that so many minorities are arrested and imprisoned, and why it seems that racial minorities are committing a disproportionately large amount of crime in America. In today's society It seems there are no laws that are as blatantly racist towards minorities as have been previously, yet still it seems like minorities are arrested for small crimes more often and receive longer sentences than whites. I interpret that the reason these disproportions exist today is not because of a generally held bias of cops against race because of genetics, but because of culture.

In today's America, the only place you'll find rhetoric that claims that minorities in America are biologically inferior are in groups like the KKK and other backwards-minded groups of people. The more common racist seems not to think that minorities are inferior because of their genetics or by the color of their skin per se, but rather because of that minority's culture in America. This country is filled with cultural groups from all around the world, all mixing and interacting in a country of well over 300 million people. Unfortunately, Real racism, that is, racism based on a belief in genetic superiority of one race over another, has negatively shaped the history for most minorities living in America now, especially those of black, Chinese and native american, and because of that, the culture of those minorities has evolved in a society that has been systematically- until relatively recently- against them, and as such, has evolved to be "against the system." It is perfectly understandable that members of these minority groups which have been historically outright oppressed by the government would develop this way, but its long term effects are the reason cops get more cautious when they enter a mostly black neighborhood, and why some cops like those involved in the Rodney King beating were driven to be racially prejudiced. Racial disproportions in prison systems and crime rates are not due to a government or police department that truly believes that some people are genetically inferior, but rather are due to many minority cultures that have been hurt thruought history lashing out against a system that has largely been disintegrated. Racism in America may be at its all time low, but citizens of all colors are still feeling its negative effects today, and it is that pain that we feel that pushes cops too far. As I interpret it, cops today don't want to discriminate against minorities, and minorities don't want to put their lives at risk going against the law, but the history of our flawed nation has put these two groups on opposite sides of a battlefield, and it's up to every American to rebuild that old battlefield into a placed of unity.