Everyone has heard that word before, Racism, but does everybody actually know the true meaning of racism? Many believe that racism is something of the past, something that we learn about in a history class. Movies are created about racism, songs target the racism world, jokes are made that everyone laughs at. Making it seem as if everything about racism is known except this: racism is very much alive nowadays, however people don't hear the word "racism" anymore. Instead, it is being masked by the news as "hate crimes" and "discrimination." Nevertheless, both labels have the same meaning in the end it is pure racism and it still exists today as it did back in the 50's.
Many believe that racism is being cruel to Blacks, however today being racist does not mean only to be cruel to Blacks, it also includes being unfriendly to Hispanics, Asians and even White people today feel discrimination from others. Then can we truly say that everyone knows what if feels like to be discriminated because of the way they look? To be looked down upon and be treated unfairly because of the color of your skin or the language you speak? It's true, it is not legal to own any slaves as to how it was back in the day when Whites were allowed to own Black slaves, but the psychological trauma is still the same. How can one see if racism still exists? Turn on the news, read the newspapers. In the Gang Crisis article by William Triplett, it mentioned stories about how many gangs are trying to kill each other off, not only in California and New York but in several other states, and how the number of gangs has increased each year (Triplett). Gangs are not the only examples of modern day racism, most people don't have to look further than their own households to see examples of hate based on people's appearance. .
Since the beginning of the United States of America, there have been problems with who is better than the rest.