Racial Discrimination Last August, an 18 year old African-American teenager was shot dead. He was shot by a policeman even though he was unarmed and posed no threat to the police man. The court found

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Jenny

Racial Discrimination Last August, an 18 year old African-American teenager was shot dead. He was shot by a policeman even though he was unarmed and posed no threat to the police man. The court found the police not guilty on the ground that he did not infringe upon civilian rights. About 8 months later, a similar case happened. An African-American teenager was found dead while he was confined in jail. He was badly injured in the middle of being arrested but the police left him untreated, and it eventually led him to die. In the United States, racial issues are often compared to the wounds being festered under the skin. While you think the wound is almost healed and don’t give it a proper look, it gets even worse before you know it. 152 years have already passed after the President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the freedom of African-American slaves. However, American society is still gripping with racial issues till now. The formal President Jimmy Carter also pointed out, “Every time when we are faced with theses racial discriminative issues and unfair treatments done by law enforcement to the black community, it only reminds us of the fact that we have a long way to go ahead of us to deliver full equality to the society. At this point, it is very important to look closely at ourselves as well. Are we civilized or self-conscious enough to care about the racial issues growing here in Korea? A couple of years ago, a survey about racial preference was conducted and it turned out Koreans have a high preference towards Caucasians. On the other hand, we have a relatively low preference towards Southeast Asian immigrants who are taking up manual jobs here in Korea. While they are working so hard to make their so-called ‘Korean Dreams’ into reality, we often give them discriminatory looks and use bad languages to them. Now that we have more and more expat communities here in Korea, it is critical to consider racial discriminative issues and related unfair treatments to foreigners as a problem of our own, not just to dismiss them as something of Americans’.

Corrections · 6

Well done, Jenny! and very interesting to read. You write English quite well. Best wishes for your studies, Susan

Racial Discrimination

Last August, an 18 year old African-American teenager was shot dead. He was shot by a policeman even though he was unarmed and posed no threat to the policeman. (policeman is one word) The court found the police not guilty on the grounds that he did not infringe upon civilian rights. About 8 months later, a similar case happened. An African-American teenager was found dead while he was confined in jail. He was badly injured in the middle of being arrested but the police left him untreated, and it eventually led him to die.

In the United States, racial issues are often compared to the wounds being festered festering under the skin. While you think the wound is almost healed and don’t give it a proper look, it gets even worse before you know it. 152 years have already passed after the since President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the freedom of African-American slaves. However, American society is still gripping coping with racial issues till now. The formal former President Jimmy Carter also pointed out, “Every time when we are faced with theses racial discrimination issues and unfair treatments done by law enforcement to the black community, it only reminds us of the fact that we have a long way to go ahead of us to deliver full equality to the society."

At this point, it is very important to look closely at ourselves as well. Are we civilized or self-conscious enough to care about the racial issues growing here in Korea? A couple of years ago, a survey about racial preference was conducted and it turned out Koreans have a high preference towards Caucasians. On the other hand, we have a relatively low preference towards Southeast Asian immigrants who are taking up manual jobs here in Korea. While they are working so hard to make their so-called ‘Korean Dreams’ into reality, we often give them discriminatory looks and use bad languages towards them. Now that we have more and more expat communities here in Korea, it is critical to consider racial discriminative discrimination issues and related unfair treatments to foreigners as a problem of our own, not just to dismiss them as something of Americans’.

Thank you for your kind reply, Jenny. I am sorry that I wrote so sternly. I should have written in a much calmer tone. //// I believe that the incident I wrote about had absolutely nothing to do with race. After exhaustive state and federal criminal investigations, no evidence whatsoever was found that indicated race was involve. The federal investigation was especially important, since the very purpose of the investigation was to discover whether the young man's civil rights were violated based on race. The entire event was merely an incident between a criminal who happened to be black, and a policeman who happened to be white. Racial incidents surely occur; however, the incident we have been discussing was not one of them.

Thank you so much for telling me all the details of the incident and I feel deeply sorry if my over-simplification of the story upsets you. I read some articles and edited them for praciting my English translation skill. This essay doesn't represent my perspective towards the incident. Hope you don't take this so seriously. BTW, do you personally believe that it had nothing to do with race at all, regardless what the media and judicial system say? Just curious.

Jenny, even though you acknowledge that the August, 2014 shooting of a teenager did not result in a criminal conviction of the officer, you strongly imply that the incident had to do with race. With all due respect, you do not know what you are talking about regarding that event. The "unarmed" 18-year-old weighed 131 kilos, and could have killed you, me, or the officer with his bare hands. The youth had just robbed a store and assaulted the storekeeper. When stopped by the policemen, the youth attacked the policeman, struck the policeman, and tried to seize the officer's gun. Many officers are killed each year when a criminal takes their gun away and uses it against the officer. The 131 kilo youth then repeatedly charged at the officer. The officer shot at the young man when the young man charged at him, and each time the youth stopped his charge, the policeman stopped firing. Unfortunately, the young man kept on charging. /// The matter was presented to a Grand Jury in the State of Missouri, and the Grand Jury, based on the evidence, refused to indict the officer. Thereafter, the United States Department of Justice, led by then Attorney General Erik Holder, an experienced prosecutor, and himself a black man, who was appointed by President Obama, investigated the matter, and found that the event had nothing to do with racial discrimination. /// Whenever there is a confrontation between people of different races, you should not automatically assume which person is right, and which is wrong. Instead, you should learn the facts before making accusations.

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