Racism: Then and Now

                The Mexican Revolution happened because there were unequal rights between people of different races, and identities. A man named Miguel Hidalgo started a peasant uprising called the “Grito de Delores” to try to create equality among Mexicans.  Hidalgo was eventually captured, but Josѐ María Morelos continued to lead native and racially mixed revolutionaries against the Spanish and Royalists. The peasant uprisings led to a new government, which promised reforms to appease the Mexican revolutionaries, and Mexico became an independent constitutional monarchy. This revolution was started because of unequal rights between people of different races. Peninsulares in Mexico had more rights than the mestizos and Indians because their race was favored in the society. An uprising among the mestizos and Indians happened because they were not treated equal to peninsulares, just because they were a different race.

                Although our view on different races has greatly improved since the Mexican Revolution, racism still exists today. An article called “Alaskans need to pay attention to Ferguson, because racism is alive here” proves that racism still exists in America, even if it’s not easy to see. EJR David, the author of the article, presents a great point that racism exists even in Alaska, which is considered one of America’s least racist states. Many examples of racism are included in the article, one example stated “we see that four Native men can be convicted of murdering a white person with little or weak evidence, but four murder convictions cannot be done for the four white men who brutally murdered a Filipino man even though the entire murder was clearly caught on camera.” This proves that America is still affected by racism today, although it may be harder to see. Even our justice system has some racist ideas that effect Americans of different races. I agree with the ideas that were presented in the article, and I believe that although racism is not as severe as it used to be, there are still parts of our society that are racist and we must notice racism in our society today in order to stop it.

Citation: David, EJR. "Alaskans Need to Pay Attention to Ferguson, Because Racism Is Alive Here." Alaska Dispatch. 26 Nov. 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. .