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Amy Dersh
Professor Jackie H
English 115
8 December 2014
Will Change Come?
Racial discrimination has been prominent throughout the worlds history. One specific
race who seems to be looked down upon the most has been people of African decent. Even
today, in a world where people can put on a pair of glasses and tell the accessory to share their
experiences via social media, there is still prejudice and excessive hate that lives on. The United
States is a country that is so advanced in certain aspects, but not others. Without understanding
and absorbing the full affects that discrimination has on a person, one cannot understand how
detrimental these issues truly are. People from around the world have immigrated to America,
due to this fallacy called the American dream. The American dream was supposed to be an
idea that anyone could come to America and have an equal chance of becoming successful, but
unfortunately this is not reality. Although the government tries to mask it, racial inequality and
injustice are still relevant matters. Racism towards African-Americans is still very much alive in
todays society, as seen through the government and police brutality, which is covered by the
news, media and cell phone footage; until this issue is solved, the United States will never be the
great country that it tries to portray itself as with the slogan justice for all.
With devices that can quickly record and upload videos to the Internet, the media has
become an outlet for people to reveal the terrorism occurring today in America, by the countrys
own citizens and its government officials. Due to cell phone footage, it was documented that an
African-American man by the name of Eric Garner, was put in a chokehold by New York police

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officers in July of 2014, and due to the officers excessive force, it caused Garners death (Eric
Garner's Death Ruled a Homicide). It is shown in the footage that Garner was not resisting the
police. Less than one month later, another incident involving police brutality occurred. On
Saturday, August 9, 2014, a young, innocent, unarmed, African-American man, who was only
eighteen years old, by the name of Michael Brown was shot and killed by his local police of
Ferguson, Missouri (Today, USA, and St. Louis KSDK-TV). The numerous videos posted on the
Internet exploit the unjust justice system and its tremendous failures to American citizens and the
country as a whole. With the countless, unjustified murders that occur, there is little to benefit
from, when people who are hired to protect and serve are instead abusing their power and
harming innocent citizens. It is unfortunate how often police officers are not indicted for the
murders that they execute.
Every story comes with two sides: the victims and the perpetrators. While evidence can
prove the truth to most stories, many police officers whom are looked at by the public for being
in the wrong, end up having cases ruled out as the murder being justified (War on Error). It is
known that majority of shootings acted on by police are investigated by government law
enforcement personnel (Fisher), meaning any officer, agent, or employee of the state
("Bulletproof Vest Partnership: BVP FAQs). It is not a shock that in 2011, more than ninetyfive percent of all police involved shootings were ruled administratively and legally justified
(Fisher). These statistics are disturbing, but do not come as a surprise; if a person who took an
innocent life is a part of the same group of people that are undergoing the investigation, than
undoubtedly, that group (a.k.a. government officials) will rule most of the cases in their own
favor. Police officers are supposed to be trained to have the best sense of awareness and instincts,
therefore the misjudgments that have occurred in many situations should not be constantly

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happening. In the case of the 2009 fatal shooting of unarmed, African-American, Oscar Grant,
justice was moderately served when Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer, Officer
Mehserle, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, landing him in jail for almost one year.
Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed Grant, testified that he thought he was reaching for his
Taser, not his gun, when assaulting Grant (Fernandez, NBC Bay Area Staff, and Wire Services).
After watching the movie Fruitvale Station, which was based off of this tragedy that occurred in
Oakland, I asked an LAPD officer, whom I knew, if a Taser and a gun could be easily mistaken
for one another. The response he gave me was not surprising, being that he said a gun and a
Taser feel completely different, and as a police officer, he knew that Officer Mehserle was
completely aware of what he was reaching for (Smith). The amount of ignorance in the world,
especially in the United States, is something that should not be tolerated and must be reversed.
The day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, an elementary school teacher in
Iowa gave her students a taste of what it feels like to be discriminated against for no concrete
reason ("A Class Divided"). Jane Elliott, now one of the most influential teachers of all time, has
effectively been able to shape and change peoples ideas about society and racial inequality
forever. In her experiment, Elliot splits her classroom into a blue-eyed group and a brown-eyed
group. She then tells her students that the brown-eyed group of people are superior and much
more intelligent than the blue-eyed group. She explained that many aspects that make up a
human beings appearance, such as ones skin, eye, and hair color, are all caused by a chemical
called melanin. She dictated to her class that it was solely melanin that causes one to be
intelligent. Elliott imposed to her class that the more melanin, the darker the persons eyes-and
the smarter the person. Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so browneyed people are better than those with blue eyes (Bloom). She then went on to mandate how

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people with blue eyes are almost good for nothing because they do not listen properly to
directions, they are dirtier than others, and that they destroy whatever comes their way (Bloom).
The intensity in the classroom elevated as the blue-eyed group began to feel more and more
inadequate about themselves. Elliott noticed a change in behavior within the group of kids during
this time. At the end of the exercise, Elliotts ability to help her students seek out the bigger
picture of this experiment was beyond successful. Not only was she able to show her white
students the effects of discrimination, but also how corrupt it is to instill false views onto a group
of people based on any type of physical trait. Elliotts tactics, as to taking on the challenge to
change peoples views in order to reach equality, is unlike anything seen before. Having started
her eye opening experiment in 1968, Elliot now travels all around the country to different
universities and institutions and uses this same exercise to give people a deeper understanding of
what discrimination feels like to its core. There have been many cases where people are unable
to finish the experiment and run out of the room in tears. She explains how running away is
exercising a freedom that people of color do not have. People of color are not able to simply
escape from racial discrimination and prejudice whenever they feel so, therefore Elliott does not
tolerate that sort of freedom during her exercise ("She Played No). The only way to fully
grasp and benefit from this sort of teaching is to participate in it from beginning to end and
comprehend what information is really being offered. One must come from a place of deeper
understanding and remember that the exercise is not only about the people in that room, but more
so the world as a whole.
Intolerance and bias must be torn apart and abolished. With the help of people like Jane
Elliott, further change will occur. There is no room in this world for such immense hate against
one another. Americans must stand together for peace and justice. The time is now to step up and

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fight for what is right. By uniting together and continuously bringing to light the injustice with
police brutality, the United States can not only become more peaceful and open-minded within
its citizens, but the universe altogether. True equality for all must be reached in order to live in a
safer and more productive world.

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Works Cited
"A Class Divided." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.
Bloom, Stephen G. "Lesson of a Lifetime." Web log post. Smithsonian. Smithsonian Magazine,
Sept. 2005. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
"Bulletproof Vest Partnership: BVP FAQs." Bulletproof Vest Partnership: BVP FAQs. N.p., n.d.
Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Clarke, Rachel, and Christopher Lett. "What Happened When Michael Brown Met Officer
Darren Wilson." CNN. Cable News Network, 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
"Eric Garner's Death Ruled a Homicide." NBC New York. NBCUniversal Media,, 21 Aug. 2014.
Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
Fernandez, Lisa, NBC Bay Area Staff, and Wire Services. "BART Officer Johannes Mehserle
Testifies in Oscar Grant Civil Trial." NBC Bay Area. NBCUniversal Media, LLC, 11
June 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
Fisher, Jim. "Police Involved Shooting Statistics: A National One-Year Summary." Web log
post. Jim Fisher True Crime. N.p., 25 Dec. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Harris, Aisha. "How Accurate Is Fruitvale Station?" Web log post. Slate. The Slate Group, a
Graham Holdings Company, 12 July 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
"NAACP Denounces Verdict of Oscar Grant Case." NAACP. National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
"She Played No Games: Female Student Has A Breakdown During A Blue-Eye Vs Brown Eye
Experiment About About Racism & Discrimination!" WORLDSTARHIPHOP. N.p., 15
Nov. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.
Smith, Sean. Interview. 20 July 2013.

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Today, USA, and St. Louis KSDK-TV. "Timeline: Michael Brown Shooting in Ferguson, Mo."
USA Today. Gannett, 14 Nov. 2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
War on Error. "SHOOT THE INNOCENT "SUSPECT" Is Growing Police Trend: Chicago
Tribune Expose, Examples, Stats." Web log post. Daily Kos. Kos Media, LLC, 24 Mar.
2012. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.