Dear Future President…

This topic has been bubbling inside me for quite some time. I’m here to talk to you about racism. Not just against African Americans, but also Muslim Americans, and what we can do to fix it.

This country has never been known for being completely racist-free, but recently the counts of racism have gone up. Everyday on the news you’ll see something happening because people are causing injustice here in the United States. I thought this country was supposed to be the land of the free? Obviously we haven’t quite gotten to that place yet no matter what the constitution might say.

All around the country there have been rallies for the black lives matter movement which is basically an explosion from all of the bad that has happened beforehand. It would never have come to that if we had settled things, but sadly many of us are cowards who choose not to take a stand to make this country a better place.

According to many news sources there have been encounters where the police have pulled over 37% African Americans while only 15% percent of others that were white. So, not only has the rest of the world turned on a single race, just for the color of their skin, but also the nation’s protectors, the police, as well.

In 2006 there was a study that took the median of different races’ salaries. Asian Americans earned the most at $64,238. White Americans had $52,423. Hispanics had $37,781. And coming in at lowest, African Americans received $31,969. If we are all so “equal” there definitely would not be that big of a gap in salaries.

Now I would like to speak with you about what’s happening to Muslim Americans. Yes, some Muslim Americans have caused harm to our country before, but so have White Americans, every race has. It does not give people the right to treat a whole race differently just because of the hurta few of of that race has caused.

All around the world we hear stories that a Muslim was not let onto a plane just because of the way they look. Their race has been stereotyped as these horrible people who want to bomb America, when for all we know they could just be people looking for a better life here. It’s just plain wrong. You don’t know these people. You don’t know what they’ve gone through because of everything Americans have stereotyped them as. All of us have done horrible things. Every single one of us. Yet all we do is forgive and forget. Who shot Abraham Lincoln? A WHITE MAN. Abraham Lincoln, a man who has done so much good for this country. And he was assassinated. I bet half of us wouldn’t care about that, but when it’s another race who caused a tragedy everybody is so quick to stay away from people of that race completely.

The moral of this letter is that, if you want to take the responsibility to fix these first-world problems, then show me. Prove to me that you deserve the role you have taken on. I leave you with this, if it’s this bad now, imagine what it could be years from now. Don’t be a coward. You have the power to fix this.

Sincerely,

Mia M.