Prejudice And Racism Analysis

American culture is obsessed with patriotism. Most of this is completely innocent – images of the American flag, baseball, apple pie, and the iconic bald eagle. Yet these symbols of American pride are masking something more sinister. Our egocentrism blinds us to the fact that we are not the greatest country in the world, but rather one with many problems that need to be fixed.

For example, some Americans have yet to realize that our country is still extremely racist. Many seem to believe that when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, racism magically ended along with segregation – as if all that was needed to erase centuries of tension was a mere signature. But in 2015, racism is still prevalent in our society. The Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice cases clearly demonstrate that our law enforcement system is corrupt with not only brutality but prejudice. I have black friends who are petrified of wearing hoodies at night because they are afraid of being labeled thugs and being attacked by the police. A classmate told a story about how a police car would follow her father every morning while he jogged through his neighborhood.

Prejudice isn’t just confined to the police, however. One of my teachers once claimed that a rival school had better test scores because it had more white students. When

Gay men still face stigma when donating blood due to the “population’s high risk for AIDS.” Transgender teens are still denied the right to exist openly – an issue that gained national attention with the tragic suicide of Leelah Alcorn, a 17-year-old transgender teen from Ohio. Sex education still blatantly ignores gender, leaving teens who may not fit the traditional gender labels confused and