An enduring issue many people would rather turn their other cheek to, racism against African Americans. Many people think this is something that ended hundreds of years ago. Many people also think that racism ended once African Americans couldn’t be kept as slaves anymore and finally got the right to vote. These events happened in the late 1800’s, but even 100 years later, racism wasn’t solved. Just 50 years ago the Fair Housing Act was passed, preventing housing discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, and religion. This should have finally stopped racism, right? While that seems like a good, happy end to racism, unfortunately that was not the case. 

African Americans are wrongfully convicted of murder seven times more then Caucasians are, spend an average of 3 years longer in jail for murder then Caucasians, are 3.5 times more likely to be innocent in a sexual assault case then Caucasians, are 12 times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of drug possession then Caucasians, and on average, spend a longer time in jail then Caucasians. These are just a few examples as to why racism still exists against African Americans. African Americans are also affected during this global pandemic. COVID-19 seems to be affecting African Americans more then Caucasians. The reason for this may be because of something called environmental racism. It seems made up, right? How can the environment be racist? Studies have shown that, due to wage gap and discrimination in the workplace, law force, etc, African Americans tend to live in lower income neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods are being affected dramatically by COVID-19, as access to healthcare is limited due to the heavy cost of being treatment provision for Coronavirus sufferers. Many African Americans also have larger families in smaller homes, which causes the disease to spread faster. A recent study showed that 40% of the COVID-19 deaths in Michigan are African Americans, while Caucasians make up 28% of the deaths. This is absolutely absurd considering African Americans make up only 13% of the U.S. population. All of these facts prove that the fight against racism isn’t over in America, and our generation needs to be the. All of these facts prove that the fight against racism isn’t over in America, and our generation needs to be the generation to put an end to all discrimination.