Nowadays, globalization has changed the face of the
world. It is now completely different than it was just fifty years ago. Along
with development, people’s mentality has evolved tremendously, and racism is
now considered againt Humanity. Many Iconic man and women have fought against
discrimination for Peace and Equality for Humankind. However, people have different opinions, and
some still think that there are “races” of humans, which some of them are
superior or inferior to the other. One of the thirteen essays of “ Face to Face
with race” presents Michael Smith’s
opinion about Black people. Shockingly, Smith wrote those essays in 2014. While
Smith, public defender and writer, can be wrong about discriminating
blacked-skin people, he makes a good argument in terms of social experiments .
Michael
Smith is a person working for Justice, but he is also racist, and uses hard
arguments to convince his readers. First of all, the author is a public
defender. Isn’t he supposed to defend people? In this essay, he appears to
attack powerless people, even though Smith claims that he is professional about
his job. From another perspective, we can think he is hiding behind his title
to give an image of a good man, and still have thoughts againt a “race” of
humans. In fact, he specifies many times “in my experience”, to prove his
arguments “ blacks are different”,
which is not valid.
Smith is racist, and his perception on the world is
quite absurd to many. The author starts his essay with an opening, counting
people by race… Why not by social status for example ? He writes about how black people are
narrow-minded, and different. “They cannot reason that well. They cannot
communicate as well”. He also makes an over-genealizations. He almost lost his
credibility, because a skin color can’t define how smart you are or even how
you think. What about Nelson Mandela ? Frederick Douglas ? Nina Simine? And
more recently, the USA President? They are all admired world-wide for their
outstanding courage, achievements, kindness and talent. He also mentions that
they are uneducated and violent. Ironically, I would like to mention that most
of the top 10 criminals world-wide since 200, are white, such as Gavin Grant or
Luis Posada Carrile.
The writer also cited media, news and sources, about
informations such as “the media report that although
blacks are 12 percent of the population they are 40 percent of the prison
population”.
He uses one of the most powerful source and tool to influence people.
Mentionning the media is without a doubt the harshest, most disgraceful way to
prove his point. He misinterprets those informations, and has clearly a
mistaken belief of what it is to have a black skin color.
On another hand, Smith has strong arguments, beginning with
his statistics, and lifetime experience with people. “Black men are arrested and convicted over
and over. It is typical for a black man to have five felony convictions before
the age of 30. This kind of record is rare among whites and Hispanics, and
probably even rarer among Asians”. While
it could be true that more black people corrupt society, it doesn’t mean that
blacked-skin colored people are violent. Black people have been discriminated ,
and were slaves just 100 years ago; they had their own culture and beliefs, but
just like any other community. Black people are more considered uneducated than
white people, it is a fact; so is it a matter of race and skin-color, or social
status and culture?
Additionnaly,
Smith is a lawyer, public defender, and professional about his work as said
earlier. Which means he has lived experiences, that made him believe in
concepts. “At the early stages of a case,
I explain the process to my clients. I often do not yet have the information in
the police reports”. The situation is that he met families who were white
skin-colored or black, and compared the two behaviors. He has found common
facts about people’s behavior, and they happen to all be black. This is how we
understand his way of thinking. He may be right about that. At the end, he
writes “we have a problem” . It is a
challenge for him. “As for myself, I will continue do my
duty to protect the rights of all who need me”. He believes in
fulfilling his duties and protecting others, he thinks ‘for the better’.
However, what if the ‘problem’ is not black people, but whites who marginalize
blacks?
To conclude, Michael Smith has strong
arguments, and has a point through his proofs and experience, but nowadays, it
is totally unacceptable to still think of a physical characteristic,as an
obstacle to being equally human to anyone else. The real problem here is that
Smith is confusing an issue of social class with an issue of race, and that is
all there is to it.
moodle
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