Closing thoughts

From doing this project I have learned so much about how people are affected by labels of being criminal. I learned about Native American Indians and their relationship with the criminal justice system. It is hard to think of other marginalized groups when the media gives their issues no importance. When a history has been practically erased and the culture appropriated, it is no surprise that people are uninterested with what is going on in their communities.

It has astonished me the number of African Americans that have been killed as a result of police brutality. Compiling the list of African American individuals that were killed in 2015 and realizing that those numbers can’t even compare to the total amount of people killed from a variety of ethnicity, races, religion and gender killed was mind blowing. I thought about how the media has decided to depict some of these killings and thought about what individuals have posted on Facebook and other social media outlets. Sometimes there are two complete different stories being told. Sometimes it feels like people believe the one that that corresponds with their views on the victim’s race. For example, if they believe that African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Native Americans etc. are criminal and dangerous then they are going to believe that they deserved what happened. With a popular sentiment being, “they should stop doing illegal things and maybe they won’t get stopped”.

I found how inspiring music, videos, and art could be to help people voice their issues. How important it is to them to have a voice and tell their stories. These forms of expression bring mass attention to the main issues. As far as the music that I decided to include, I had previously heard some of them. Other ones came up as I searched YouTube. It was not hard to find a song that spoke to the issue of mass incarceration, and police brutality in the U.S. This is something that I have mixed feelings about. If it was so easy to find a song that spoke to the issues of minorities and their relationship to the law, then that means that it is an obvious and harmful problem in our society. Yet, it seemed to be ignored and brushed under the rug as a dialogue of disgruntled people that make “bad” choices and don’t want to be reprimanded.

Finally, sometimes it is easier to talk about a difficult topic if there is comedy involved. I found that some videos, although meant to be funny, are there to bring light to issues that might be hard to talk about. It opens up the opportunity to talk about the problems and what is really going on. These once again are forms of expression and a way to voice what is happening.  Moving forward I have a more diverse perspective to think about when I speak about racial profiling and discrimination.