Racism in the US and what we can do to put an end to it

[WARNING: super controversial post. Whether you agree or disagree, please try to be polite commenting.]

Racism does exist in the US, although not as much as some people claim and it doesn’t make our nation racist. Obama even stated that racism is, “still part of our DNA that's passed on. We're not cured of it.” I don’t think racism will ever completely leave the country, but it’s not in our DNA. If it were ingrained in our DNA, I don’t think we would have made as much progress as we have. It’s terrible that all people weren’t equal from the beginning of the United States, and it’s even more terrible that it took into the late 1900s for African Americans to have the same privileges under the law as Caucasians. However, seeing how recent that was, it should give hope that racism will one day not be as bad as it is today.

One problem of racism right now is the police to African American relationship. I really think making the police assigning more local would help with that. It starts to make both sides see the other as their friends and family instead of a potential bad guy.

Racism doesn’t only work white-to-black, although it is a huge problem. It goes both ways as well as other ways. Our society blows up about racism towards African Americans, which, don’t get me wrong, is something worth blowing up about, but if someone is racist towards Latino people, Asian people, Polynesian people, Caucasian people, all of a sudden it’s no longer a big deal.

People will make jokes especially about Latino people all the time and it is not seen as racist. If we want equality, jokes based on race are either acceptable or they’re not.

Another thing I’ve seen a lot of is the question of African American hairstyles. If a white celebrity sports a typically African American hairstyle, it becomes a big deal. The first time I saw this happen, I thought, “well, there’s probably some special cultural meaning behind it that this celebrity is ignoring.” I tried to find a meaning behind the hairstyle. There wasn’t one. The reason that hairstyle began was because it was stylish and practical. Reasons people used to explain why she shouldn’t be able to wear it were mainly, “She already has white privilege. Why does she have to steal an African hairstyle?” and  “When she wears it it’s fashion. When a Black person wears it it’s ‘ghetto’.” I think to truly overcome racism we need to share between our races. That doesn’t mean something that’s sacred to a culture needs to be shared, but simple things like hairstyles with no special meaning is a good example. It seems like the hairstyles that are “white” have become simply American, and if more of other race’s styles, etc, could be seen as something to share between cultures instead of cultural appropriation we wouldn’t have as much racism. In my opinion, the white person wearing that hairstyle wasn’t racist, but the view of Black people wearing it being “ghetto” is and it's something we should change.

Something people will call out as racist which I think aren’t are things like accomplishments for a race, for example, when people celebrated the first Polynesian Disney princess or the first African American female astronaut. These are real reasons for everybody to celebrate, and just because it’s distinguishing race doesn’t make it racist. It shows progress from a once racist nation.