White Privilege

I believe that white privilege will decline throughout the year in America, but it will take a while. Just take a look at the people that run our country. In the Senate 80% and the House of Representatives 79.8% of the people in power consist of the white race. Both of the House and Senate also consist of approximately 80% male. Even though the white race has become the minority in America, it will not necessarily completely defeat white privilege until congress has more of a balance between races and genders. The United States did not elect its first black president until 2008. That is 231 years strait only having white males as the commander in charge. If it is believed that America will not have white privilege in the next 20 to 30 years, white privilege will continue to be an ongoing factor until the power of America has a balance of both gender and race from top to bottom.

There has been talk of increased gun control for years but nothing has come about it. If the gun laws become too strict, people will revolt against the country and it could possibly be the coming of a second civil war. Our government does not want to see that happen, and if individuals of power think that the people of America will stand idly by as they have their guns stripped from their possession, they are wrong. The right to bear arms is given to the American people through the second amendment,  and organizations like the NRA will never allow the government to take away the people’s right to such an activity. The NRA will not lose influence in politics because it has such a large following and a large amount of members all across the country. Individuals that enjoy recreational activities such as hunting or trap shooting will all become members of the NRA if the government threatens increased gun control because that will make it much more challenging for government to pass a bill enforcing higher gun control.

Another argument that always goes around in times of talk of increased gun control or the possibility of guns being confiscated by the government is do guns kill people or do people kill people? Of course guns make it much simpler for a person to kill another individual, but that’s the key to the comment. People kill people. I know plenty of people just around this area that have more guns that you can count with both your hands. And to my knowledge none of which have ever killed another human being. When there is a murder that occurs, what is the first questioned asked; who shot the gun or what kind of gun was used for the violent act? Of course what individual committed the crime because it is simple, people kill people.

All people of all different cultures are taught several very important concepts through pop culture such as movies, television dramas, or songs. Most men in romance movies are white males that save the day and get the beautiful woman in the end. Movies of such nature can also help to create a false sense of entitlement in areas such as the work force, education, power, and women. No matter what people think, white people still have more privileges than black individuals. With a higher rate of being arrested white people are still the minority group in prisons. Problems that occur in our society include white males thinking that just based on their sex and race that they are entitled to more than any other person.

White privilege is reality, it will continue to be a reality until not just the United States population recognizes whites as a minority, but when congress and the judicial system realizes whites as a minority. If or when congress is predominately black, Mexican or Asian: there could possibly be a terms such as black privilege, Mexican privilege, or Asian privilege. White males are often thought to be most likely to be mass shooters because they have a false sense of entitlement. When these white males realized they cannot have every they feel they deserve, they will take down as many people they can with them. The NRA was created to protect the gun rights of outdoor enthusiast and hunters, just because there may be stricter gun control laws do not necessarily mean that they will take away fire arms completely. Even if guns were banned in the United States, the individuals that are going to be committing crimes or have bad intensions will still be able to get their hands on firearms. Guns are like drugs, just because they are illegal does not mean they will be off the streets completely and crimes involving these weapons will continue to occur. I believe that the future is not much different than the present and if history has taught us anything guns will continue to be a right of Americans.

White privilege will continue to be a factor for years and decades to come therefor gun rights will be around the prolonged future. When we as white people become the minority, the future is unknown and no one person can guarantee what will become of our nation or our world. All I know is that our country has been run by white males throughout every year that that we have prospered. There have been large numbers of other races in America for a long time and white males continue to be in powerful positions. I believe that white males have run our country forever, in the beginning there was white privilege and it will continue to live on for many years to come. All of those brilliant minds coming together to create the Constitution gave us as American the right to have guns and use them personal benefit as long as it did not hurt other individuals and that will continue to occur. Finally I believe that the NRA is way too large and powerful to ever lose their influence because they have such a large amount members that vote for people supporting gun rights.

Freddie Gray

I believe that society let Freddie Gray down. He was born into a difficult situation of poverty, low income, and high crime rates with poor sanitation everywhere. Already being born with a birth defect is challenging enough but having to do it under all of the other circumstances is asking someone to succeed is nearly impossible. While Gray was growing up he suffered from excessive amounts of lead in his body, and living in the home environment it continued to get worse until the amount of lead in his blood before he turned two was seven times the level that is thought to cause permanent brain damage.

To just make his life worse, Freddie was enrolled at a school where they had inexperienced teaching and most of those teachers would be gone from school 10+ days out of the year. The education in this community is very poor and therefore makes it even more difficult for anyone to get out of these bad communities. Freddie Gray was dealt a bad hand by society, but that is no excuse for his actions either. He used illegal drugs and was having run-ins with the law quite often. The suspicion that the police officers had when they arrested Gray were probably justifiable. If Gray was known by name for some of law enforcement, he was probably not completely innocent.

Freddie Gray’s story is saddening that he did not get the chance to live life to its fullest extent. He missed out on countless opportunities because of birth defects, mental capacity, and environment. Although he had all of these mental problems, that does not give him the right to break the law. This is a case of the media trying to spin things in order to get it to sound like our system has a flaw and the police officers were completely in the wrong arresting him. I feel bad for this particular individual but we cannot change the past and hopefully the neighborhoods that have bad lead problems. There is going to be dramatic changes eventually within our society in order to avoid cases like this in the future.

Deviance

Smoking is thought to lead to more deviant behavior, sure as sex or drugs. To some individuals smoking is a gateway drug leading towards the possibility of participating in even more deviant activities. Although some situation this might be true, but there are individuals all over the place as a release or a way to just relax. Cigarettes may also be a way for a deviant individual to express that they are trying to be a deviant or even a way to get attention from some people that otherwise would not even notice there existence. Smoking has been banned in countless public places that offered that freedom just 10 or 15 years ago. With actions like this people are going to see smoking as a deviant action and possible convince certain individuals to stop smoking and prevent future usage of the product.

                The way I see it is doing something stupid and foolish just because our society allows them to. Cigarettes are highly addictive and if used early and often in an individual’s life, it could affect them in way or behavior and definitely in financial circumstances. Just like eye color or hair color and style, I believe that deviant behavior can be passed down, or even learned from generation to generation. And with the current young generation, it is scary to think how many deviants there are, what will become of our once great country? Will it continue to deteriorate? Only time will tell the story and deviance is a major factor in the future of our country as a whole.