It seems counterintuitive intuitive that the “Land of the free” is not really free, especially for those who come to this country expecting a better life,but are instead berated, battered, and beaten just for being themselves. It is not always a physical beating, the most common form of abuse these new immigrants take is verbal racism, and in some cases actual hate crime. To understand why these immigrants face these heinous obstacles, research needs to be done into how and why racism is used and the abuse of the first amendment.

The first, and most famous, amendment is the right to free speech, which every American uses on a day to day basis without realizing. But in regards to racism against immigrants, and racism in general, people uses it as an argument advocating their right to be racist. On the surface, people do not really challenge the first amendment in this way, but it is a strange argument when examined thoroughly enough. Originally the first amendment was to protect an individual’s or mainly News outlets the right to produce articles of various opinions with no repercussions. The same for peoples actually opinions, but racism is a strange object where some people can claim it is an opinion and some can claim it is not. This is why when people claim the first amendment,in regards for racism, there is not really a way to decide if it is a solid argument. Most would claim not, rasicm is a terrible thing, but with no way to determine if racism is a learnt trait or an opinion the first amendment claim could very well be a solid argument.

really dig deep into just how and what the affects of racism do, looks at how Caucasian people used racism as a way to solidify their power within America as the dominant people but as time went on that grasp of power faded as time flowed into the twenty first century. Take sports as an example, “Related stories of Black male athletic dominance on the playing field of mainstream American sports such as football and basketball leading to the alleged marginalization of young White boys who are turning away en masse from these sports reverberate in new millennium American culture to assert that White (male) power and privilege in American society is eroding. This excerpt from White Power and Sport-Journal of Sport and Social Issues,By Richard C. King, depicts a strange phenomenon that white folks are creating, this invasion of activities by other people is taking away the spotlight from white people apperantly. And that is the mentality white supremacy created, that if these folk can come take our sports what else can they take, but this power thought has weakened, and if this power has weakened so much how come racism is still alive today? Old habits die hard really. Racism has been so ingrained in Americas history it is extraordinarily hard to shake it.  So why can’t people just shake this bad habit?

If studied hard enough, there are still  minute blips of racism in films and TV, and, when it piles up, it can form uneducated stereotypes. When watching shows, most scenes where crime or drugs are involved it always depicts an African American man or a Spanish male in some back alley with a gun hidden somewhere on said person. Why is that the scene that’s always depicted? It stems from those who struggle within the low class and poorer areas of town or city, or the ghetto as it’s commonly referred to as. A couple shows come to mind when picturing this type of scene, mainly it’s the family sitcom from the 90s and early 00s. For those watching this puts an image in the viewers head that these type of people exude the prescience of danger and should be thought lesser of. This is how modern racism gets indoctrinated in the minds of the new generation, these uneducated stereotypes.

Not only is this uneducated, it is presented as if it is the polar opposite of what life should look like. Scenes like that make is seem like they just do it for the money or something like that with no arterial motive, when in most cases that’s not it, it depicts a harmful stereotype for what life is like. Harmful stereotype are an easy way to indoctrinate racism into young minds. They first come about in middle school with things like “black people love water melon” or “Jews love pennies” which is distasteful now, but as kids no one knew any better. This issue with this is that it spreads, kids hear a jokes, make changes to it, and pass it along. It’s a cycle of childhood ignorance that some outgrow and others do not. And these stereotypes will grow and become objectively worse as those who orate them become older and more knowledgeable theses “jokes” need to be edgier to be more funny, and that’s why it is like an illness, these jokes can’t lose their edge, and will change until it becomes full blown racism.

It is not just the stereotypes that gets into the brains of the viewers, it is also the appeasement of white folk that can cement racism. When a person of color feels the need they have to appease a portion of white folk in order for their message, show, book, art, ect to be noticed, then something is wrong. when BET emerged back in the late 80s, there were some difficulties when producing shows. In A Racial Divide Widens on Network TV, by James Sterngold, this such thing happened “This has led to bitter feelings among many black producers, writers and actors, who say they are often asked to make their shows less overtly black in a largely vain effort to attract white viewers. These requests often take the form of demands to ”broaden the appeal” of the shows, code for adding more white characters. When creating a show or book dedicated to a specific race, but having it be diluted down so that white audiences will not be shocked is not really a form of freedom of speech.  That is why the argument can be seen as flimsy and not as a matter of opinion, and that is exactly what the grasp of racism has done to this country. It has made it unsafe for people of color to freely discuss their heritage, religion, and culture without the prying eye of white folk claiming that it is a danger to them for other races to express themselves, and this is why hate crimes spring up, from the mentality that these regular people living their lives is a direct attack on the lives of white people, so they begin to “defend” themselves.

Works Cited

• King, C. Richard. “White Power and SportJournal of Sport and Social Issues.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 10 Feb. 2007. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.
• Sterngold, James. “A Racial Divide Widens on Network TV.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Dec. 1998. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.