Systemic Racism: 1955 vs Today

His Story

Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy from Born in Chicago Illinois. In the summer of 1955 he went to visit family in Mississippi. At the time, Chicago and Mississippi were very different places. There was much more racism in Mississippi. If you were African American you couldn’t even look at a white woman on the street without getting in big trouble. Growing up in Chicago Emmett didn’t understand how different Mississippi would be, even after his mom warned him. Emmett was working in the hot sun and decided to go get a treat from the grocery store with some of his family. The store was owned by Roy Byrant and the majority of its business was from African Americans. Emmett was the last of his family to go into the store and he had an interaction with Roy’s wife who was working alone. Although what really happened in the store will never be known, Roy’s wife said that Emmett wolf whistled at her, which was completely unacceptable at the time. Not long after this Emmett was taken from his home in the middle of the night and was brutally murdered by Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam. The case was taken to court where the brothers were acquitted of the crime because the all white jury “couldn’t identify the body as Emmett”. A few years after this, the brothers fully admitted to the crime and sold the story of what they did. The government refused to re-open the case and Bryant and Milam never got any punishment. This is one example of the lack of equality the law has for different races.

Thunder Bay

Indigenous People of Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay, Ontario is the home to many indigenous people. In fact, Thunder Bay has highest proportion of Aboriginal people in Canada. In Canada, everyone is supposed to be treated equally and with respect. Right now, if you look up online, Indigenous people Thunder Bay, you will find many articles about the racism within the police force towards indigenous people. This has been a problem happening for many years, and it should not be a problem today. One example of this is in early December 2018, a video was released of a police officer striking a young First Nations teen on a stretcher in the face. This was completely unnecessary and seems to be provoked by the systematic racism in the police force. Another example is how the Police deal with cases of murder of indigenous people. There have been many cases where the police have made assumptions or haven’t done much investigation just because the victim was an indigenous person. Police investigations into the deaths of nine Indigenous people in Thunder Bay were so problematic – in part because of systemic racism – that many people are recommending that they be re-opened and re-investigated. These cases have set back Thunder Bay many years and even everyone knows about the systemic racism in the police force, very little is being done about it.

Comparison

Both the murder of Emmett Till, and the mistreatment of indigenous people by the police, are examples of how the law doesn’t treat everyone equally. The fact that systemic racism exists in a place that has so much power is very disturbing. These events are over 63 years apart and this is still happening. Emmett Till started a movement that made everyone question this system and fight for change. That is very similar to what the indigenous people in Thunder Bay are doing now. The Emmett Till case was re-opened in July of 2018, almost 63 years after it happened. Thankfully, we have come along way since 1955 and people are fighting to have the cases of indigenous people opened today. Hopefully we have learned from the past and it won’t take 63 years for these cases to be re-opened and for the indigenous people to get the equality they deserve.

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