Joseph Brown,
Lake Elsinore, CA.

Being a black male in America is complex. Not only do we have to fight systemic racism, we also have to overcome various obstacles that present themselves in our in communities. One example of systemic racism is what we’ve recently been witnessing from police officers murdering people of color and getting away with it. All of these cases are deemed justified because the victim was a so-called “thug” or labeled as an “aggressive man-child”. It is sickening how the media portrays the African American male as aggressive and violent. Another example of systemic racism that you have to face while being black in America is seen in the current prison system. In her book The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander describes how the current justice system is almost identical to that of the Jim Crow System.

Outside of these external forces, as a black male, you have to navigate the negative poison of your own community. These negative influences include opposition from a large influx of gangs and drugs that infest most black neighborhoods.

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