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Melissa Ortega
Diana Watkins
Comp I
TR 9:00am
4 November 2015
The Great Wall of Inequality
What are you afraid of? Everyone is afraid of something, some fears are more talked about than
others. What I am truly afraid of is continued discrimination for all races and genders. So many
people in my life get defensive when we talk about these topics, but I am not here to argue. I am
here to speak for the silent. What is discrimination and how does it affect me? Discrimination is
the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the
grounds of race, age, or sex. Unjust treatment affects my ability to achieve and pursue the
American dream, although it is my legal right. I have been treated like a second class citizen. I
have be asked if where I am from countless times and theres nothing wrong with that unless
there is an emphasis on the part that refers to me as if I dont belong.
It became the social norm to discriminate in 1732. America began discriminating with
religion: a ban of Catholicism. Then in 1844 Mormons were attacked and Joseph Smith was
murdered in Illinois in prison by a lynch mob. His followers migrated to Utah for survival and
trying reach their American dream. This historical fact showed that practicing your desired
religion was not allowed in some states and may have put your life at risk. Many Americans may
feel pressured to conform to the law and what the crowd says is the right way to treat someone.

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Believing and practicing your religion can be discriminated against in an extreme way.
Discrimination comes in many ways and not only affects things like our ability to pursue the
American dram but also our safety. I believe that discrimination first began when Americans met
diverse people and cultures and chose to look at them like aliens instead of humans. I think that
we will truly never understand how to treat anyone different from ourselves until we ask them
about their likes and dislikes; although must everyone just asks for respect. Discrimination
begins when people start believing that people fit the stereotypes that we have attached to their
ethnicity/gender/age etc. decades ago. What is the benefit of keeping a stereotype alive? Nothing.
It is destructive of human rights and american dreams.
My rights are infringed not only by being and looking Mexican, but also by being a
female. What might discrimination mean to an African American? It may mean their safety is put
aside, for the law to be obeyed, as you might have seen on the news in many cases. African
Americans are not the only race that is regularly discriminated against. Being pulled over
without an infraction is also a common consequence of crime that anyone can go through. The
Bureau of justice statistics states An estimated 17.7 million persons age 16 or older indicated
that their most recent contact with the police in 2008 was as a driver pulled over in a traffic stop.
These drivers represented 8.4% of the nations 209 million drivers. A greater percentage of male
drivers (9.9%) than female drivers (7.0%) were stopped by police during 2008. White (8.4%),
black (8.8%), and Hispanic (9.1%) drivers were stopped by police at similar rates in 2008. The
Bureau of justice statistics also found that 12.3% of black drivers were three times as likely as
white drivers and two times as likely as Hispanic drivers to be searched during a traffic stop in
2008.

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The low expectations of Mexican American women has brought me to tears on many
occasion. In some instances people that I expect to support me on my journey through college
are the ones that remind me that my efforts to get through college could be pointless and just a
waste of money because we see so little of diverse women and races in charge of important
companies and organizations. I have recently seen and read about powerful women who do not
get enough recognition for what they do. Forbes magazine shows that Angela Markel, the EU of
Germany for three terms, fought off national recession during an economic crisis. Racial and
gender inequality dates back to the 1700s.
Most of the people in charge of making it known that women, and different races have
made a difference in the world are the same ones that have had power for decades; affluent white
males. Discrimination can put my American dream on pause when I walk into a library full of
high class white students, who give me a look like I dont belong simply because of the color of
my skin and the stereotype of my kind. Assimilation theorists dispute that while Mexican
Americans may be slightly darker, slightly more stigmatized and slightly more disadvantaged
than these prior European groups, these factors will only delay their integration into U.S.
society. These assimilation theorists realize that there are slight disadvantages, yet do nothing
to control or eliminate. These get to control what Mexican Americans suffer and go through.
Apparently Mexican lives are not valued enough to have zero disadvantages. These scholars
recognize some of the disadvantages faced by the Mexican origin population but they do not
consider these disadvantages sufficiently severe to affect long-term integration. It is no surprise
that the wars overcome by the minorities are well hidden under the trends and fads of 2015 and
earlier years, as you may notice when reading The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions.

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Discrimination and inequality is enough to drive a person into depression and/or other
disorders. Justice is not always shown immediately like in the case of Neiya Kenny, the black
teenage girl who was aggressively dragged out of her seat at her high school in Spring Valley for
disturbing schools. Justice was not in Neiya Kennys classroom at all. She was dragged out of
her seat by her neck and was flipped on her side with the desk on her all while the teacher and
students watched. In fact, in many cases the victim is not always the one who benefits from the
law. In Neiya Kennys case, the police officer was released from work with a paid leave until her
case is resolved in court. I think that the news will inform about case like these t their advantage
but often forget that the victim has much more grieving to go through than can be viewed though
a camera lens.
Racial inequality in the news affects us more than we think. More and more people talk
about the news without taking into consideration that those people have something to sell just
like your local food market. They want to stretch and exaggerate things as far as they can just for
views; not for justice sake. More subscriptions and viewers to news channels, blogs, magazines
and newspapers simply means more money for that company. The news also affects how we feel
about discrimination and other things that are just topics in the media, not heartfelt problems to
be resolved. News stations can be biased according to the sponsors and companies or
corporations that donate the most money to that news channel. The media does not forbid
racism or discrimination from appearing in sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Social
media simply has a report option, but nothing is constantly monitored to ensure that these
websites remain discrimination free Stereotypes and prejudice did not pop out of the blue, the
media has helped stereotypes be known and recognized and indirectly affecting who gets pulled
over, who gets accepted to which college and who deserves which job and with how much pay

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according to the gender of the future employee.. The news can easily affect my ability to achieve
my American dream because of the strong power it has over voting, petition-signing and entitled
citizens. Minorities will keep suffering until justice is made on the discrimination issue for all
genders and races in America.

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Works Cited

Abbott, Kate. "A Brief History of Intolerance in America." Time. Time Inc., n.d. Web. 02 Nov.
2015. http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2011978,00.html

Erb, Kelly Phillips. "The Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d.
Web. 09 Nov. 2015. http://www.forbes.com/profile/angela-merkel/?list=power-women
Gardner, Marci. "Inequality Data & Statistics." Inequalityorg. Creative Commons, n.d. Web. 02
Nov. 2015. http://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/PNG-Racial-WealthGap.png?9aeac0
National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Np. "Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) - Traffic Stops." Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Traffic Stops. Np, 10 Feb. 2015. Web. 4 Nov. 2015. http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?
ty=tp&tid=702

Ortiz, Vilma, and Edward Telles. "Racial Identity and Racial Treatment of Mexican Americans."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846170/Race and Social Problems. U.S.