Before addressing whether or not the United States is currently living up to the ideals presented in the Declaration of Independence, it is necessary to note that the United States at the time the Declaration of Independence was written was not living up to the ideals that it presented, either. At the same time that Jefferson and his committee wrote, “. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” they were supporting one of the worst institutions of human oppression in human history and the worst institution of human oppression in American history, chattel slavery. Jefferson and the other members of the Declaration committee were systematically and unremorsefully denying the human beings they “possessed” the rights that they said all people are born with. This proves that American history has long favored the white man, and that for most of its history it has been struggling to overcome the long-lasting racism against African Americans and sexism against women instituted in the society from which America was created. It was not until the 14th amendment, and later the 19th amendment, was passed that all Americans had the right to vote, despite the right to vote being essential to the ideals that catalyzed the American Revolution, and which furthermore was explicitly stated in the Declaration of Independence. However, even after all people were given the right to vote, state laws such as the Jim Crow laws enacted in 1877 prevented African Americans from being a part of the government that was supposedly “. . . instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Yet, despite the incredible number of advances the United States has made towards liberty and equality for all its citizens in the past 240 years, the ideal from the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” has not been completely upheld by the American government. Under the American government, race-based murders by police officers and the wage gap between men and women, among other things, still exist, which prove that the ideal of the protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by our government as promised by the Declaration of Independence has not been completely upheld. Racial inequality has been the most violent and rampant form of discrimination and oppression in America’s history. From the literal possession and dehumanization of American Americans as slaves, to the laws not allowing African Americans to vote or share schools or other public goods with white people until after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, to the commonplace lynching of African Americans by white people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to the recent violence against African Amerian people by policemen, America has struggled with granting people of color the same rights, liberties, and protections as white people for most of its history. John McWhorter, in an article for The Washington Post, summarized the general feeling of African Americans and African American supporters about the recent violence against their community by white policemen. He said, “The point, rather, is that police violence is not just one of many issues in black America’s take on racism: It is the central one. If it were no longer a regular occurrence for black men to be killed for no reason, that would furnish the grounds for the ‘get over it’ orientation that many wish black America would adopt. I highly suspect black America would foster the same, almost haughty, attitude toward racism that so many other groups do.” (The Washington Post, 2016) This exemplifies that, while America has succeeded in making voting and access to public goods equal for all people, it still struggles with truly protecting African Americans and their right to life, as the Declaration of Independence states that they are entitled to. A specific example of recent violence towards African Americans by policemen is the case of Terence Crutcher, an African American who was shot and killed by a white policewoman in Tulsa in September. Crutcher was pulled over and, when he was walking back to his car, was shot and killed by the policewoman. He had no weapon on him. And Crutcher is just one of “. . . 707 people — 164 of them black men — who have been fatally shot by police officers this year, according to a Washington Post database tracking police shootings.” (The Washington Post, 2016) This is a clear example of racial prejudice that still exists in one of America’s most important executive governing institutions. To clarify, I do not think that all policemen are racist, and I do not dismiss the heavy losses of African American lives due to black-on-black crime. But there is overwhelming evidence, especially in the last two years, of government workers (policemen) using their abilities to harm the black community, for no other reason than being black. Just because not all policemen have not or would not shoot an African American person because of his or her ethnicity does not mean that police-African American crime is not a problem, as exemplified by the number of black police shootings just this year. I also need to recognize the inherent racism among many white Americans towards people of South and Central American descent and Asian descent, but that is less of a government issue and more of a social and socioeconomic issue, and therefore will not be expanded on. Gender inequality also persists in America and is intimately connected with racial inequality. In every state, women employed full-time make 12.4 percent to 32.7 percent less money than men employed full-time do, according to a study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2016) The wage gap between men and women is exacerbated by race, with Hispanic women having the lowest median annual earnings among women. (The Huffington Post, 2015) In addition, women’s reproductive rights are currently threatended by the conservative agenda. The conservative goal is to make abortion, a readily available medical procedure, illegal, thereby denying women of an easily accessible medicine that technically breaks no laws. This denies women of the right to make their own decisions, as promised by the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” from the Declaration of Independence. Also, rapists and other sexual offenders (especially white ones), whose victims are primarily women, are receiving significantly reduced jail time even after being convicted. There is no better example of this than the Brock Turner case from earlier this year. Turner was a white freshman at Stanford, who was witnessed raping an unconscious woman and convicted of penetrating her vagina with foreign objects, which falls under the Justice Department’s definition of rape, although he was not explicitly convicted of rape. The standard/required prison time for a person convicted of rape is 6 to 14 years. Instead, Turner got 6 months of jail time and 3 years of probation. And he is not the first. (The Washington Post, 2016) This is a blatant example of the lack of women’s protection by the government, which directly conflicts the Declaratin of Independence’s statement that government is supposed to be the protector of the right to life and liberty. Racial inequality and gender inequality are still very present in the United States, and have to be ended if we as Americans will ever truly be able to say that we exemplify the natural, unalienable rights as put forth in the Declaration of Independence. However, it is impossible to talk about the rights established in the Declaration of Independence without addressing what America has preserved or created in terms of unalienable rights in the last 240 years. For example, every citizen that is over 18 and has registered can vote for public office, which is significant considering that less than 100 years ago that was not a possibility. Also, marriage equality has been accomplished, meaning non-straight people are no longer denied rights as legal partners. Furthermore, America is known by the world as an incarnation of freedom, in which we have almost unabridged power to choose what products and services we want to buy or sell. It is a great, free country, and while we still have a hard fight ahead of us, we have the ability and right to fight for it. SOURCES Paquette, Danielle. "What Makes the Stanford Sex Offender’s Six Month Jail Sentence so Unusual." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 6 June 2016. Web. 26 Oct. 2016. Holley, Peter, and Katie Zezima. "What Tulsa Officer Charged in Death of Unarmed Black Man, Freed on Bond." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 28 Sept. 2016. Web. 26 Oct. 2016. Status of Women in the States. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2015. Print. Smilowitz, Ariel. "For U.S. Women, Inequality Takes Many Forms." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Apr. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2016. McWhorter, John. "There’s a Reason Black Americans Say Racism Persists: The Cops." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 11 July 2016. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." By: Darlene You10/18/2016 The Declaration of Independence states that, "we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I believe that our country as a whole have not been living up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. The excerpt from the writing, "all men are created equal" is not true, it is a deceitful statement.
Gender roles are not equal. For example, there is pay gap between men and women. Women are still paid less than men in the work force. Women make about $0.80 every dollar men make. In 2015, statistics show that women were paid 80% less than men. The gap between the gender roles only begins there. Next month, there is going to be a newly elected president. The two popular candidates are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The next president could potentially be a woman. From watching a video of a reporter going to a "Trump Pence" to question people why Donald Trump is a better choice for this country rather than Hillary Clinton, one of the supporters said: "Women shouldn't be in office. They're too emotional and tempered. They can get a hot flash and easily start a war." Not only was that statement misogynistic and ignorant, it shows that we are living in a period where discrimination between the gender roles are apparent. Donald Trump has received numerous accusations towards his mistreatment to women, some are even taken to court. His demeaning statements about women and superiority he thinks he has over them has affected his campaign tremendously. There are news, videos, informercials, commercials, skits, parodies etc., of him and his infamous sexism. He is known for his derogatory statements towards women, one of the many examples include, “They said, ‘How are you going to change the pageant?’ I said ‘I’m going to get the bathing suits to be smaller and the heels to be higher then that would be better’ (The Telegraph UK). Not only has there been a discrimination between gender roles, but recently, there has been a BLM Movement (Black Lives Matter). The recent events over the couple years has led to this movement. The University of Vermont created a flag at the school that said "Black Lives Matter" on it. This generates controversy as it is placed right next to the American Flag. The last couple years there have been popular, angry, and problematic cases of "black people" being hunted down--even prisoned/jailed--by "white police officers." It is claimed that, "It is evident police officers are harsher than usual to colored people. People started recording clips of black people being beaten, yelled at for the most easily solved things. Instead, they are jailed, prison, and even found dead (The Washington Post). For example, people are still asking for justice for Sandra Bland. Sandra Bland was arrested for a minor traffic violation on July 10th 2015. The policemen said after he arrested her, an escalating conflict followed it, he said that she had "molested him" and it was "caught on his dash cam." Just 3 days later she was found in her cell room, dead, it was declared that she hung herself. This case sparked controversy everywhere. Questions were asked by her family and by people on social media. The story didn't add up. There had been thousands of hashtags in her name, including #JusticeForSandraBland, at least 12 protests for her by the jail she was in, and many more critical responses. Her case is one of the many that makes me question if we, as a country have been living up to the statement that, "all men are created equal...with certain unalienable Rights...Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, " Many, many similar cases and protests have happened just in this year alone for the justices of black people involved in police cases. Another example is that Donald Trump supporters believe the country "needs to be better again, just like old times." (Donald Trump Supporter on Daily Show). Considering Trump wants to build a wall and take out all the illegal immigrants in the US, we're speaking of old times such as (which is vague but includes), slavery, segregation, white superiority, conflicts between races, etc, makes me wonder if this country is going forward or backwards because of the evident inequality apparent in gender roles, the discrimination towards other races, and the movements made for colored people. As a whole is our country equal? Does everybody in our nation have the same equality? No, I believe that our country, as a whole, have not been living up to what the Declaration of Independence has stated. SOURCES: Reynolds, B. (2015, August 24). Behind BLM. Retrieved October 27, 2016. Noah, T. (2016, August 18). Putting Donald Trump Supporters Through an Ideology Test ...Retrieved October 27, 2016. Graham, D. A. (2015, July 21). Sandra Bland. Retrieved October 27, 2016. |
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