Despite ‘Strides’, Minorities Still Face Barriers, Obama Says

                Although our country has experienced tremendous growth since the March on Washington that occurred fifty years ago, I’m sure many people can agree that minorities are still not completely equal to the “majorities”.  This is true when concerning education, jobs, and many other things. Many of the problems we faced then are still occurring today just on a smaller and less obvious scale.

                The aftermath of slavery and Jim Crow has continued to affect us as a nation, leaving us with continuous discrimination.  The Thirteenth Amendment was adopted on December 6, 1865, almost 150 years ago, which abolished slavery in the United States of America. Although we no longer endure the cruel acts that once were before us and other things like separation of races at public facilities such as restaurants, minorities still face problems. They often live in poor housing, and are unable to afford a good education which hinders them from getting good jobs in the future, therefore leaving them unable to buy good housing. It’s like a constant cycle. Once minorities are discriminated against once, the effects can almost never leave them. It affects their lives.

                President Barack Obama proposes as a solution to begin promoting early childhood education and making college education more affordable through tactics such as decreasing the length how long it takes to obtain a degree in areas such as law. Removing a year from college will save families thousands of dollars, depending on what school their student is attending.

                Because of the Reconstruction Amendments passed in the late 1800’s, minorities have gained the same rights as other U.S. citizens. The 13^th Amendment abolished slavery. The 15^th Amendment granted voting rights to all citizens regardless of their race or color. And the 14^th Amendment granted equal protection under the law; however, this amendment is not always fully enforced. This can be proved by recent cases such as the Trayvon Martin versus George Zimmerman trial.  There is no reason a man should get away with killing a 17-year-old boy, no matter if he says he was “defending” himself or not. I’m sure if the races were switched the outcome of the trial would have been different.

                Justice is not always served when it comes to “minorities” versus “majorities”, but hopefully 50 years from now we can look back at today and see how far we have come.