How Discriminatory Are We?

I see the suspicious eyes, the superior stances, and the line that makes us different. I never understood why I was intended to feel this way, why others had to live through it and cope just as I did. Minorities always seem to be living in an oppressed society; even assimilation fails, the imbalance continuing to be ever present between those of color and the white race. Racism has always been prominent in society and no matter how much we deny it, it continues to consume America. For some, this prejudiced society we live in is one’s worst nightmare, for others it means living through a different lifestyle, a different being. In The Invisible Man, the narrator struggles against a racist civilization that tries to envelop him and his quest to find his identity. They wish to mold him into what society wants, because he is a black man and not white, the dominant race.

Much like the narrator shedding away his roots and natural way of living, people today face the same dilemma in which they are forced to alter their customs to fit their dominant society. The narrator also gets taken advantage of; either by the doctors at the liberty paints hospital, the brotherhood, Bledsoe, or society in general. In our society people get taken advantage of or discriminated against every day. “In 2010, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that African Americans receive 10% longer sentences than whites through the federal system for the same crimes.” People of color struggle to find their identities, to impress the overriding community. The narrator in the article “What it’s like being a young black man in America?”  has to frame himself around the role society throws at him and has to adapt to his discriminatory environment. Even with him doing that, he is still seen as criminal, and seen through untrusting eyes even though he is innocent and just the same as any other boy, in this case a white boy, his age. I've had to deal with similar things, people looking down at me as if I’m ignorant and can’t even speak the language. I struggle everyday trying to find a balance between my identity and what society wishes for me to be in shedding away myself.

I don’t think it should be this way; people shouldn't have to struggle to maintain their identity. They shouldn't live in fear, or be discriminated against because of how they look, their race, disabilities, and so forth. Equality should be reinforced to allow everyone the same treatments and opportunities. The invisible man didn't get equal opportunities; he had to join in illegal gambling fights run by white men to gain an education. He was denied job opportunities because of the color of his skin, he joined the Brotherhood because of the racial inequality being so high. Why should people struggle in this way, live in fear, assimilate, loose identities?