RACISM
Why Black People Are Often Judged By Skin Color, Not Their Character
They’re rarely given an opportunity to show who they are
Want to be judged by the "content" of your character? You're not alone. Most people don't want people to make assumptions about them and would rather someone give them the opportunity to show you who they are. This is something that people across the political spectrum agree about. Case in point, conservatives love whipping out Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote, expressing his dream that his children would "one day live in a nation where they will be not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Ironically, they fail to see that racism deprives Black people of that opportunity.
We see this in the way critics demeaned Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man killed in a New York subway, to justify his slaying. Suddenly his criminal record and mental health history took center stage in the conversation about his death. The problem is Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old Marine White veteran who allegedly killed Neely, knew nothing of Neely's record when he decided to place him in a chokehold. Therefore, it would be impossible for Penny to judge Neely on his character, which was alien to him. In that fatal moment, racism overshadowed Neely's personhood.
