Social issues affecting the African American race and the policies that will help.

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The African American race has been a situation that has had ups and downs for way too long, and an issue that cannot be ignored. It is really sad to put one aside just because of his race, yet this particular person has the ability and potential to make change, act and transform. When you put one aside because of his race, quite a number of them will demean themselves, they will lack the courage to try once more, given that they know the prior history of what transpires with their particular race. Some of those social issues that affect the African American race are;

High abortion rates. As much as abortion in some countries is illegal, quite a significant number of women have to undertake an abortion. It can even be more than one abortion. Simply because they know the that the child that she is to bring forth to the world, will face a lot of rejection and backlash because of his race. Therefore, this particular woman, instead of watching her child go through suffering and pain in the name of pain yet he is innocent, she decides to terminal the foetus. A process which is also risky to her health as she can also lose her life. However, the experience of abortion can lead to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and problems with interpersonal relations, (Zareba, K, La Rosa et al., 2020). A life lost in the name of race is such a sad scenario, and maybe, it could be a life that would come to transform the world in a major way.

Victim mindset. Most of us could have been through this phase. A phase where one undergoes rejection because of a given situation like being disabled, or being body shamed. The same happens to an African American person. This particular individual knows that his race is given less priority. His race cannot influence anything big in the society. His race cannot achieve anything great. Yet all these, is just but a misconception. Therefore, this person becomes a victim of backlash. This ,further, leads to loss of self esteem. Hence you notice, someone who was vibrant and full of life, slowly slipping into depression. He doesn't want to associate with others, if it's in a workplace, he doesn't want to give a suggest or opinion, because he knows his opinion shall be ignored. Sometimes even in the work place, this particular individual is never given any appraisal or promote despite his seen efforts. Why then wouldn't this person not reject himself also? Being a victim of a negative situation because a lot of harm to oneself and we could gradually lose that person in all aspects: financially, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Police brutality. This is not a new case. We have had major cases of police brutality to people of the African American race. One that spoke the voices of all is that of George Floyd that happened in New York on the 25th of May 2020. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, (Barrie, C. 2020). Simply because a store was not sure if he had done a clean payment, was not an enough reason for the police to end his life. The law was and has always been there. There would have sued him, if they suspected him of a crime, and let him prove his innocence. However, the police could not wait for that to happen, they gave an ear to only one side of the story (which is that of the American) and they saw that the best and quickest way to solve it was to end his life. That creates a perfect picture of how this particular race is viewed. That it is always on the wrong, it cheats, it steals it is filthy, something which is not true, but it has already stuck in the minds of the oppressors and hence they find the reason to always oppress the African American race without following the legal procedure.

Discrimination. This happens to be the mother of it all. Discriminating, simply putting one aside because of his race is just absurd. Discrimination in the society, in the workplace, at school (involving as well the young children), discrimination at entertainment joints, at conferences and concerts and more. Increasing evidence indicates that racial discrimination is an emerging risk factor for disease and a contributor to racial disparities in health. Attention is needed to strengthen research gaps and to advance our understanding of the optimal interventions that can reduce the negative effects of discrimination, (Williams, D. R,, Lawrence J. A. et al.,2019). The African American race tends to get less that what they are supposed to get, or less than what the other oppressing race is getting despite them paying for the full and required amount. This seems to be a very menace problem because even a young child can discriminate an African American child or even an adult, simply because they see their elders and parents doing so.

Incomplete family unit. The normal nuclear family, usually consisting of the father, mother and children, at most times is usually not complete. The father here, is the one who articulates to the highest percent of absentia. Once the man discovers that the child will be of an African American origin, he distances himself from the woman completely. Therefore this woman had to raise this child/children single handedly. This adds salt to injury for the mother. One because she is already dealing with the negative issues of the African American race, and two, she now has to raise the children as a single parent. All the duties and responsibilities are on her solely. This clearly explains how the negative effect of an African American person can extend to. It bores more harm that could have been avoided if we solved the former problem.

Poverty. All points above will clearly lead to poverty. When discrimination, lack of both parents, being a victim mindset among other issues befalls an individual, poverty is most likely to invade the victim's life. This is because this particular person has no fair access to his needs even though he has the right to have them. This person cannot feel secure to do his daily errands because the law can falsely accuse him and he can either land in prison or have his life terminated. With all these factors surrounding one person, it becomes difficult for them to achieve anything major in life and they will either be stagnant or gradually start having a downward trend in their life.

As much as the African American people can be subjected to alot of negative social issues, I believe there are policies that can be used to reduce and eventually solve such predicaments. We need not to look afar, the solutions evolve around us and they include;

Refer to mental health services and support. Being an individual who has faced one or more issues that negatively affect the African American race, it is wise enough to seek professional help of counselling services. The counselor will take step by step in regards to your concern and help you overcome what you are feeling or going through. In regards to the degree to which you are affected, the counselor will advice the victim how many more sessions he should check. This will help the victim to fully recover from what he is going through, to overcome all obstacles and to have a voice regardless of his race.

Advocate for African American race to increases access to community and national resources. In this era of the present world, it is high time we raise a voice for the African American people. Not just a voice, but a voice that will be vibrant and run across the affected areas, to advocate for this particular race. Something good that always happen when something is advocated for, is that there is always progress. This is because those oppressing the victims will have the fear of facing the law and having the name tarnished and they therefore decide to give respect where it's due.The African American people will also feel more secure when they have a regulated body fighting for their rights and we'll being. They will, therefore, have the courage and confidence to achieve what belongs to them without fear or favour, getting what they deserve without being deducted anything.

The ideology of "Speak up". Even though racial discrimination is present, we do not lack quite a number of people who have the courage to speak up whenever the African American race is disrespected. Understanding the influencing factors can help to improve speaking-up behaviour and team communication, (Okuyama, A., Wagner, C., et al., 2014). We need to have more people who are courageous to do so. Someone who speaks up when a victim is treated unjustly, someone who can speak for those victims that get less other than what they truly deserve. When we have more people speaking up, it will reduce the number of oppressors because they will have the fear of being exposed of their actions. No one wants to be on the screen for the wrong reasons and therefore they would rather transform their actions that lose their respect.

Racial education in schools. It is essential to introduce a topic that address racial discrimination to young children. In addition to, it should be practical so that it can create a more effective impact to the children. Whatever most adults practice in the lives, is usually as a reflection of how they were raised and how they saw the elderly act. Therefore, if they are taught from a young age to treat all races equally, they will grow with that knowledge and the world will transform gradually. Eventually, we shall have a generation and an era where African American race is treated in a fair and just way.

Starting a social media campaign. In a world where social media technology has been embraced by a significant percentage of people, it can play a vital role by doing a campaign in all social media platforms be it Facebook, Linked In ,Instagram and other platforms. Millions of social media users are exposed every day to popular memes—some generated organically by grassroots activity, others sustained by advertising, information campaigns or more or less transparent coordinated efforts, (Ferrara, K., La Rosa et al., 2016). The social media platforms will raise the awareness of the African American race at a very high rate. With this, the African American race cannot be ignored of it's predicaments and those in a position to make change for the better will do so. A good example being that if George Floyd, we had a campaign going on across all the social media platforms saying "Black Lives Matter". A campaign that went wild to fight for the rights of the African American race, which helped a lot. The tragic murder of Mr. George Floyd brought to a head long-standing issues of racial justice and equity, (Segura-Totten & Dewsbury et al., 2021).

In conclusion, we cannot ignore the fact that the African American race is to date still being served unjustly. There are victims who live indoors because of what they have been subjected to, and all this will lead to more harm. It is therefore essential that we eliminate racial discrimination and live in unity and love. Just because someone is of a difference race, does not mean his capabilities are lesser. We just need to embrace each other regardless of our differences to achieve our goals.

References

Barrie, C. (2020). Searching racism after George Floyd. Socius, 6, 2378023120971507.

Ferrara, E., Varol, O., Menczer, F., & Flammini, A. (2016). Detection of promoted social media campaigns. In Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 563-566).

Okuyama, A., Wagner, C., & Bijnen, B. (2014). Speaking up for patient safety by hospital-based health care professionals: a literature review. BMC health services research, 14(1), 1-8.

Segura-Totten, M., Dewsbury, B., Lo, S. M., Bailey, E. G., Beaster-Jones, L., Bills, R. J., ... & Raut, S. A. (2021, December). Chronicling the journey of the Society for the Advancement in Biology Education Research (SABER) in its effort to become antiracist: from acknowledgement to action. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 6, p. 780401). Frontiers.

Williams, D. R., Lawrence, J. A., Davis, B. A., & Vu, C. (2019). Understanding how discrimination can affect health. Health services research, 54, 1374-1388.

Zareba, K., La Rosa, V. L., Ciebiera, M., Makara-Studzińska, M., Commodari, E., & Gierus, J. (2020). Psychological effects of abortion. An updated narrative review. Eastern Journal of Medicine, 25(3), 477-483.