What is racism? Racism is when someone judges or assumes things about people that are not true. Another meaning for racism is not liking someone or treating someone unequally because of their skin color. Racism is one of the worst things about society. You can be a dark-skinned person who walks into a room, looking for a place to sit, and everyone around you is staring at you. Hoping that you don’t do anything violent as they move slowly away from you.

Are all african-americans lazy? I think not! There are people who think all blacks are lazy and say they don’t get jobs. Maybe those are the blacks that live in their area. How about the slaves that worked day and night in the plantation they were sold to? How about all of the famous musicans? What about the athletes that have practice everyday, authors who write and read so much, teachers who would do anything for the sake of their students’ education, etc? Are you starting to get the point I’m making? African-americans are clearly not lazy.

Black people aren’t always in gangs. Just because we’re a certain skin complexion than whites doesn’t mean we’re in a gang. I once saw a black guy wearing a blue shirt and blue shoes. As the person next to me says, “Stay away from him. He’s in a gang which means he’s a dangerous person.” But I knew the guy and he definitely wasn’t in a gang. His favorite color is blue and he was never interested in being in anything gang related. Then again, wearing a certain color doesn’t mean we’re in a gang.

There are people who think black people speak weird. Whether they have an accent or talk with bad grammar, aka, street talk. There’s nothing wrong with talking a certain way. One time when I was very little, my dad got into an argument with a white person. My dad angrily says, “Don’t mess with ma son! Ya’ll pick on ‘em foh his skin color? Da **** is wrong with ya’ll heads?”  And the other person laughs and says, “Hahaha! How hilarious! N*****s can never speak right.” He walks away and my dad gets in the car and drives off as he tries to keep his cool.

Racism is everywhere. No matter what place or environment you’re in someone is going to be racist. It is definitely not “cool” or “funny” to be racist to someone as a joke.