In 2016, Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers quarterback, took a knee during the signing of the national anthem in San Diego and was booed at Qualcomm Stadium. His provocative action generated hot discussions in media since according to the civil norms of American society, people are supposed to stand for the national anthem, showing respect to the country and flag. Although Kaepernick’s action was perceived as disrespectful and offensive, he explained that this was a form of protest against police brutality and racial discrimination in the American justice system. Campus event “Political Psychology as a Discipline” that I attended last week focused on analyzing the problem of police brutality and racial discrimination from three scientific …show more content…
The map itself represents a collection of dots of different colors, each color is assigned to a race. According to the map, the Sacramento downtown is mostly populated by Asians; South-Sacramento is mostly populated by Hispanics; White live mostly in North-East. The green color which is used to represent African-American race is seen close to Folsom Lake area, considered one of the best area to live. At the first glance, it looks like African-Americans are the most privileged to live in such a great place. However, the reality about this place is shocking. In fact, all those African American people are inmates who are in Folsom State Prison. The question is: why in a society, which pretends do not have racial discrimination, the prison is full of African-Americans? Are the state police selectively incarcerating people of color? According to the data provided by Census.gov, it looks to be true. Unfortunately, racial discrimination persists in the American judicial system, and Kaepernick tried to aware other people of this …show more content…
Taking a knee is a symbol, and symbols could be interpreted differently by different groups of people. For some reasons, certain groups of people took Kaepernick’s action as offensive and disrespectful; however, Kaepernick’s intention was to influence public opinion regarding a specific problem: police brutality and racial discrimination in the judicial system. Moreover, sociology professor explained that categorization by race is relative and differs from one county to another. For instance, someone who is categorized as a white person in the U.S. could not be considered white in Norway, since that country may have a different racial categorization. Perhaps in Norway, where people have a very light skin color and blond hair, someone whose skin color is slightly different from Norwegians could not be considered white. Would that person be considered as a potential delinquent? Race should not influence people’s attitude and reaction, especially those who work in the judicial