Officer Betty Shelby shot Terence Crutcher because she feared for her life. She, a trained, unarmed officer, feared an unarmed African American civilian. Shelby got away with it, Crutcher’s family has to live with it. These things happen everywhere, but not all of them are caught on video. When the injustice is seen throughout the nation, the court still pleaded Shelby not guilty.
According to medium.com, an estimated 200 African American civilians have died from the police. That is the ones whose crime scenes weren’t planted, who were found not guilty, who have not seen the true color of the court. As we look, we see all races being tormented. “It won’t change unless we all just understand one another.” said George Williams, a 75 year old Dearborn resident. “We see more black people struggling, no offense to my people, but it’s only going to get worse.”
One of the most recent events happening, the riot in North Carolina, is a memory of what people had to go through in the past. “People riot because they haven’t been heard.” says Toni Mitchell, who lived past the 1967 riot in Detroit. “But, they are destroying their own community.” Thankfully, no one died at the protest, but they easily could have, no matter the color of their skin. Although, we see more black people getting shot by white officers. One hundred percent of the people asked believe that a black officer can not get away with the murder of a white man. History repeats itself, it’s just a matter of when everything that people worked so hard for all tumbles down.
Racism is something most of us go through. We live with these titles given to us. We are portrayed as terrorists, rapists, or even violent. But, will it ever stop? “In a fantasy world, yes,” said April Kincaid, an educator in Unis Middle School, “but, unfortunately, we live in a real world. And it’ll go farther. As I watch people supporting Donald Trump, I’m reminded of how much racism is left in the United States.”
“We can’t be color blind on the racism around us.” said Zainab Alnajim, a student in Unis Middle School. It is the things that break us down, bring us closer. Can it ever stop? No. We can’t stop what others think. We can’t stop other people’s actions. But, we can’t let that define us. It is our characters content that define us. It is what we choose to do with the hatred thrown at us that define us. In the end, there is no black and white, but the differences in characters
Zeinab Alghanem
A Middle School Journalist