When White Just Don T Get It Summary

Racism has been a sensitive subject that sparks heated discussions amongst members of our society. Although laws have been passed to protect minorities, we are still struggling to provide equality to everybody. Last year, it was the Trayvon Martin debacle that garnered public attention, and now people are outraged by the Michael Brown case. According to the article, “When Whites Just Don’t Get It” by Nicholas Kristoff, many white Americans say they are fed up with the coverage of the shooting of Michael Brown. They think that this incident should not be gaining so much attention. In fact, a 2011 study done at Harvard and Tufts that indicated that whites, on average, believed that white anti-racism was a bigger problem than anti-black racism. Michael Brown’s case is just one of many racial problems this country faces.

The net worth of the average black household in the United States is 6,314 compared to the $110,500 for the average white household as shown by the 2011 census data.

A black boy born today in the U.S has a life expectancy five years shorter than that of a white boy. Black students are significantly less likely to attend schools offering advanced math and science courses than white students. There are three times as likely to be suspended and expelled, setting them up for educational failure. Black men in their 20s without a high school diploma are more likely to be incarcerated than employed. This list could go on, but the idea here is that African Americans are still struggling to be on equal footing with Caucasians. Because of the harsh treatment in the past and the injustice that is still occurring, many black people are still fearful of being stigmatized. The police force are there to protect everyone, but when police officers intentionally choose which groups they are going to protect, they become authority figures that we cannot

trust.
Inequality has been a battle that American has been fighting for years, and we wonder why there is still such a huge gap between blacks and whites. It is because the media still perpetuate black people as criminals who are a menace to our society, but they fail to highlight white-collar criminals that have long lasting effects on thousands of Americans. Generations after Generations have been enculturated into this belief that black people are inferior to white people, and we have overlearned this belief that it is embedded into our subconscious; we are not even aware at times that we are being racist towards each other. In the past, being born black meant you were dumb, unworthy, and a lesser human being and being born white meant the opposite. It is crazy to think that the skin color that we are born into carries a lot of meaning and in a way impacts our lifestyle, but it took many people to unlearn this belief to get to the stage we are in right now
Money equates to power in our society, and most of that power is in the hands of white Caucasian men who are not able to relate to the shortcomings of minorities. Although overt racism has diminished significantly, we still have institutionalized racism built into our system. Our symbol of justice is tilted, and we have to come together to balance it. We have made numerous progress to rectify the mistakes that were made, but it does not take a genius to figure that there are still more reparations. We need to fix our broken system, so we can move forward as a society.