Did Our Founding Fathers Fail to Foresee that their Land Will be Filled with Immigrants?
November, 11th, 2020. 12:06, Wednesday
Op-ed written by: Danny P.
“They're stealing and causing public disturbance!”
exclaimed my boss, who rebuked the protesters at the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. My initial reaction was disbelief, but I resorted to having a civilized conversation only to find out that he is a racist. He believed in “All Lives Matter'' and no matter how much I reiterated that all lives will matter when Black lives matter, he insisted that “they” are making such a huge deal about it, causing disturbances and rioting. This led us to have a conversation on why Black people are furious about the ongoing police brutality and I finally arrived at my own answer. I have been researching the health disparities among different races in the US for my internship at the Korean Resource Center. I came across studies that lists health disparities among people of color (POC) against their white counterparts. I connected the dots and had an epiphany on why people of color are at disproportionately higher risk of health complications and face police brutality. This was not a coincidence, but a result of imperialism.
White settlers in the early 1500s have massacred the indigenous people and took the land by force. Then, they brought Africans as slaves, used their free labor and treated them as property. The systematic racism begins here and has persisted to affect the people living on the same land 500 years later. So many of us were infuriated by the murder of George Floyd as we were sick and tired of innocent citizens getting killed for their skin color. America seems like a beautiful land of equality and opportunity, when inside, it’s tarnished with racism. It is no single person’s fault, but the failure of the government and its system. The government has failed so many times to promote equality, that systematic racism is so deeply rooted in our culture, that even after 500 years of protest and death of innocent people, we still face the same problem. If people aren’t being directly killed by the police, they are being neglected to death by the government.
Quality healthcare is only for the rich in America. Many Americans are able to get some healthcare under the Affordable Care Act, but the problem remains if we dissect it by race. African Americans have a higher number of diagnosis of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS). Latino children have the highest obesity rate from 2011 to 2014. Native Americans and Alaska Natives have 60% higher infant mortality rate compared to their white counterparts. The problem was created by the early settlers yet its casualties are paying the price under the current government. The victims are silently dying yet we all stay silent and put up with this uncomfortable truth. It is ironic that my black friend cannot drive with his hood on in fear of getting pulled over. No unwanted hysterectomies should be performed on women who are detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. There should not be a word “school to prison pipeline” which juxtapose an opportunity and imprisonment that targets POC.
The solution to health disparities might not be a simple answer, but any change requires money in the capitalistic society. As the government has failed multiple times to promote equality, big corporates have started to make the moves to boost the economy in the community of POC. Companies like Walmart and Apple pledged to donate 100 million dollars to BLM. Netflix is permanently moving 100 million dollars to financial institutions that serve Black communities. This may not serve as a solution to a 500 year long problem, but it is a step to the right direction.
It is hard for me to fathom the lives of those who have it more difficult than me even though I am a minority myself. I do not have to fear for my life when I get pulled over by the police on the freeway, yet I can sympathize with the pain of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor. I know how difficult and inaccessible America’s healthcare system is and I feel sorry for my friends who cannot go to the hospital in fear of an astronomical medical bill. We are the members of this country yet it seems that we are excluded from the promises written on the constitution by our founding fathers. The founding fathers were not the only men who created the foundation for this country. Let us not forget those who worked to death on the fields, got tortured fighting for freedom to create this abundant land that we now call the “Land of the Free”.