Accountable Essay - Impact of Rasicm

Accountable by Dashka Slater is a non- fiction book based on real life events. This issue occurred in 2017 to a group of young teenagers in Albany High School. Racism and hate crime were the main topics and issues of the book because of how much racism occurred in Albany High. Social media was also the biggest problem that ended up spreading all the bullying throughout the school and becoming nationwide. The teenagers that were affected by it were targeted on social media platforms like instagram and snapchat based on their appearance at school. The bullying got so out of hand that protests and lawsuits were made to those who created the social media accounts for some type of justice. But that of course ended up creating an even bigger issue among the students. But the main issue in the book was that only Black students were targeted on social media. This shows how systemic racism contributed at Albany High School since only one type of race group was targeted by another racial group. As well, implicit bias plays a big role to students who were targeted because the ones who were involved claimed that they didn't think it was wrong to post pictures of other students knowing they didn't approve.

At Albany High there's over a thousand students and it's one of the top schools in California which makes it a competitive school for families who just want to send their kids to a school where high education is provided. But this also means that the majority of the students at Albany are White, which has always been this way for many schools where White students are most of the race at schools. This has an impact on students who aren't white because that means there's always a higher chance of being targeted and being affected by another group. The girls at Albany that were targeted is an example of implicit bias because of how they were treated by the opposite gender. Charles, who created the racist account, felt ¨his friends felt that the Black girls in their circle were inferior because their hair was too nappy¨(Slater 29). Charles and his friends feel as if they are better than then because of their skin color and hair type. They think because the girls have a different hair type means they are lesser than them physically. Which implies how biased they felt towards the girl and the reason they chose to target them on the instagram account. Another thing was that many of the White students at Albany thought it was ok to ¨joke¨ around like that because to them ¨One of the things that made the situation confusing was that people made Asian jokes all the time¨(46). They all never saw how wrong it was to joke about someone's race and they assumed it never affected them because they've never been targeted like that. Being privileged or part of the higher race at school makes you think you are better than those who aren't in your place and think it's ok to say racist jokes to them. That's why implicit bias plays a huge role to this issue because the White kids who created that never saw anything wrongfully with the comments they made.Making it seen like the girls were going to be okay and when in fact they weren't.

Many students at Albany were very angry at the boys who made the comments and many setted up protests to get justice. They wanted a real change at school so many students participated in the protest and attacked the boys because in their eyes, they knew justice wasn't going to be served. When cops were involved it definitely scared the boys but what parents were angry about was how the boys aren't going to be charged with what they did. Many explained ¨No one was talking about making arrests, or charging people with hate crimes¨(Slater 78). The Albany community were angry about that statement because they've never had justice served and by the issue going nationwide it still didn't change much. No one was getting charged and the students were able to continue with their lives as it was, which was another reason many were angry because they didn't want to see that. Knowing the girls who were affected are never going to be the same was already upsetting itself. Andrea, someone who was targeted felt confident and even struggled at home she said ¨I can't really hide my Blackness, shove it away, hide it under the couch¨(281). This shows how most of the girls felt even in their own home, they will always have those thoughts with them and it's never going to change since justice was never served to them.

In conclusion, Accountable discusses topics that happen world wide, even at my school. Racism is still an ongoing problem and it seems like it's never going away. Systemic racism and implicit bias has a huge role on students especially in High school. It's something I hear mostly everyday from students who are the same race as me who say the N-word a lot. Which is upsetting because the only reason they say it is because they think they're better than other people at school. Which is exactly what happened at Albany high school.