They Never Protected Us But Rejected Us

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

Police Brutality against black people has been going on for years, since Africans were brought to America before there was even a police department. Yet, how come today in this day and age is there are still problems white policemen have with black citizens? This is mainly called racial profiling, where the white officer looks at a black man and instantly thinks he’s up to no good. Then, unfortunately the Officer “shoots to kill”, having another family broken in America.

According to…. Vocabulary.com “Racial profiling is the practice of targeting particular people because of their ethnic background or race. A profile is an outline of a face. Racial profiling is judging someone based only on an outline — the person’s race (Racial Profiling).” On July 6, 2016, while driving on the highway Philando Castile was pulled over then shot and killed by a white officer. He informed the officer he had a gun license and was going to show it to him. The officer got somewhat nervous. The police officer then drew his gun out and shot Castile 7 times, with his girlfriend and baby in the car (YouTube). The Officer thought that Castile matched the description of a suspect of a robbery 4 days prior to the shooting.

There has been many cases where black people were killed by the police, but it was somehow cover up. The police departments didn’t want to public to create a commotion, so they took it down from any main streams that show casted it. This has only angered the black community because they want their justice served and voices heard. Because of not getting their justice the people have started protests for their answer. Now the police departments and the justice system would have to answer back.

Due to the problems with the police and the upcoming protests, there was a hashtag created called Black Lives Matter. This hashtag was created to get the killings of the victims heard about on the a social media platform. If the police wasn’t going to listen and accept the fact that what the officer did was wrong and should be put in jail for it. Then, the communities took it to social media to gain more support to fight against it. When the incidents happened then the police should’ve owned up to it.

Since the beginning African Americans were brought to America, they have always been treated poorly. Because of this the white man has always looked down at the black man, thinking that he was superior. What was the reason for this? And why? No one really knows the answer to this. But we do know that the white man has always been afraid of that African American, colored person, black person, or that one n****r to be successful in life.

Works Cited

Chokshi, Niraj. “How #BlackLivesMatter Came to Define a Movement.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/us/how-blacklivesmatter-came-to-define-a-movement.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Police Brutality and Misconduct&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=search&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.

Myers, Vernā. “How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly toward Them.” Ted, Ted, www.ted.com/talks/verna_myers_how_to_overcome_our_biases_walk_boldly_toward_them?language=en.

“Protests against Police Violence Continue for 4th Night across U.S.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, www.cbsnews.com/news/protests-against-police-violence-persist-for-fourth-night-in-a-row/.

Vozick-Levinson, Simon, and Simon Vozick-Levinson. “Black Lives Matter: 11 Police Killings With No Justice.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018, www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/black-lives-matter-11-racist-police-killings-with-no-justice-served-40001/.

“Racial Profiling - Dictionary Definition.” Vocabulary.com, www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/racial profiling.