As recent years have passed, Americans and myself have become more aware of the recent racial tensions between white Americans and African Americans.

With riots that end in tragedies like Charlottesville and NFL athletes taking a knee to protest police brutality, it makes me wonder how many steps backward have we taken? After reading an article entitled, “Equal Rights: Are We There Yet?” by Karen Kellacher of Scholastic News I came to realize a few similarities.  

Scholastic News discusses the concerns of equal rights in the United States, which includes a variety of topics in everyday society. Kellacher stated in her article, “African-Americans were freed from slavery in 1865. But they were still not treated fairly in many parts of our country.”

Of course, this did not last forever, and by the 1950s and 1960s African-Americans were tired of being treated unfairly. They wanted the same civil rights that others enjoyed, and thousands of African Americans as well as some whites joined together for respect of these rights. Soon, many laws were passed to give African Americans equal rights for jobs, home real estate, desegregation, etc.

For example, one law decreed that restaurants and other public places must serve people no matter their color.

There are a lot of crucial events still happening in todays’ society that justifies my question. For instance, the story of Oscar Grant, an African-American who was shot by a white policeman at the train station. Consequently, it was a video-recording of when the shooting was taken place with clear evidence that Grant was shot for no apparent reason.

Soon after, the transit agency fired the police officer in early 2010 after investigating the way he aggressively detained Grant at the Fruitvale Train Station in Oakland on New Year’s Day in 2009. Before a second officer shot Grant in the back while trying to arrest him; however, the police officer who aggressively shot Grant only spent three months prison. I feel as if the justice system is not made for African-Americans to feel equal in the United States.

Are African Americans in today’s society being treated as equally as whites after all those years of protesting and marching? I will say that past efforts have made it easier for blacks in some degree, for we all have the same opportunity to get the same education as others and the right to vote. However, I do not feel as if we are treated the same today, and I do not think that “one size fits all” in present day society. I feel like there is still a distance that we must travel in order to make a change.

Also, I do feel like African Americans are the main race who are being stereotyped and labeled the most because of our skin complexion and background. So, does one size fit all in todays’ society? No, and it never will until there is a change in the justice system!