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Ayrika Simmons

Professor Sally Olivas

4 April 2017

Injustice Lives

Discrimination has always been highly controversial, and not much of a relatively new

topic either. The short story American History by Judith Ortiz Cofer, as prejudice dominates

most of the story. This took place in 1963, when the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

stunned and distressed an entire nation. President Kennedy had visions for peace; as he wanted to

end racism and discrimination, and change was on the way when he had passed. Thats what

caused people to feel like their hopes and dreams died when Kennedy did. Its obvious that

discrimination was bad as it was many decades ago, and it sure has not made changes in todays

society. My viewpoint lies in the middle ground as I believe discrimination is still the same

today, as it was back in the 1970s.

In the story, Elenas mother already holds an own label against her daughter as Elena was

getting ready to leave to her crush, Eugenes house and her mother says, You are forgetting who

you are, Nia. I have seen you staring down atthat boys house. You are heading for humiliation

and pain. (Cofer). She was implying that they live in El Building (Cofer) which is a

lower-class home, and that she has no business visiting a home that belonged to a social class she

wasnt in. Due to the passing of President Kennedy, her mother felt scared and doubtful that

discrimination was never going to pass, but this caused her to believe that Elena has reached an

age where she must confront such brutal facts by herself. She wants Elena to understand that her
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ethnicity will cause others to treat her differently.

In fact, some people today can relate to the way the people in the story were feeling, the

day Kennedy died. One example of that would be, once people had heard Trump won the

election, people were distraught and felt like their world had ended. People knew that Trumps

intentions for running werent very promising for all types of demographics. Immigrants from

certain countries, can especially relate to this when Trump signed an executive order to ban

travelers from certain countries and this crumpled immigrants. It crushed immigrants hope and

dreams of them coming to America for any opportunities. A lot of people feel attacked.

According to The Jerusalem Post one immigrant says, I havent committed any wrongdoing in

this country and I consider myself more law-abiding than most US citizens. Its really sad to see

how this executive order is like a blanket ban on everybody. Another immigrant says, In

Kurdistan we always had a beautiful image of the United States, he explained. In 1991 it was

the United States basically who came to our help when we had been gassed by Saddam Hussein

and subjected to genocide. It was the US, with the Western world, that provided a no-fly zone

and safe-haven for us. (The Jerusalem Post). I understand that Trump is trying to protect

citizens from any terrorists entry, but a lot of these immigrants are actually harmless and

genuine. While other harmless immigrants feel like prisoners in their own home country. This

incident relates to my argument of discrimination staying stagnant, because these people now

feel hopeless, as if their hopes and dreams are now limited or slim to none, due to their religion

and culture, not their personality or attributes.

One counter argument from NCBI claims that Persistent racial inequality in

employment, housing, and a wide range of other social domains has renewed interest in the
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possible role of discrimination. And yet, unlike in the precivil rights era, when racial prejudice

and discrimination were overt and widespread, today discrimination is less readily identifiable,

posing problems for social scientific conceptualization and measurement. Although, these are

valid arguments, to pretend there is no discrimination still going around today, is to deny

everything about the reality of the world around you. Everywhere we look, we see differences in

wealth, power, and status. Some groups have higher status and greater privilege than others.

Simply look at the representative percentages of white v. black at 'high-performance' and

government jobs (e.g., doctors, lawyers; senates). Additionally, check out the incarceration rates

of whites v. blacks. African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million

incarcerated population. (NAACP). Although, these higher status individuals dont come out

and verbally say they discriminate towards a certain race, my point is, the numbers exist and they

are clearly significant!

As a result, I believe todays world has not gotten better in terms of discrimination, it is

equivalent to how it was back in the day. In the 1970s, peoples hopes and dreams died when

Kennedy died. People today are experiencing feelings much similar to that, when Trump got

elected President. Most convincingly, if our social worlds were more integrated, perhaps we

would see it trickle down to the way we govern and the way we distribute justice. I believe all

humans should be treated equal, regardless of race, gender, social status, religion, or ethnicity.

No one is born with discrimination in their hearts, but we are taught it overtime by society. WE,

as a society need to do better at teaching children not to discriminate people by their outside

appearance.
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Works Cited
Cofer, J. O. (1993). A Study Guide for Judith Ortiz Cofer's "American History". Gale, Cengage

Learning.

NAACP. Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. Nov. 2017. Web.

NCBI, Shepherd, Devah Pager and Hana. The Sociology of Discrimination: Racial

Discrimination in Employment, Housing, Credit, and Consumer Markets. 1 January

2008. Web.

Ziri, Danielle. The Jerusalem Post. 27 January 2017. Web.