For as long as any of us can remember the problem of racism has surrounded each and every person that is person with a minority heritage or background. Some places now have become more inclusive and equal but there are still places that aren’t as inclusive and are more segregational. 

The city of Detroit is the most segregated city in the US. An occurrence of racial segregation from the 30s was the building of the Birwood Wall. The Birwood Wall was built around a neighborhood populated primarily by black citizens. On the outside of the wall though, were communities of white citizens. This wall still stands today but to some, today stands as a memorial of the hardships the people went through but still separates the communities. This is just one example of segregation still in existence.

Another example of racism recently was the alleged racial hate crimes by a man in Portland, Oregon who vandalized black-owned restaurants and vandalized and set fire to Muslim and Jewish buildings and sanctuaries. This is an example of acts that have happened across the country for years.

Although these actions continue to happen, it is not to say that the government is not taking action. The government has taken action with punishments like prison time or fines but evidently, it is not enough. Many of you may come from minority backgrounds and may at one point experienced some sort of discrimination at many levels. Racial hate crimes have varied from slurs and comments, to harming or killing others, or in this case vandalism and destruction.

I believe that the ideas of legalism would work best with these problems because they would provide structure and punishments for the problems and crimes that are being done. Although yes today we do have the structure of committing these problems and gaining punishments for our actions, I believe there are ways we can limit and reduce crime or use better efforts to lessen segregation and racism. First of all, there will always be people who do not comply with the idea of inclusion and feel that they are above those of other races. But to refer to the wall, we could protest actions like the building of the wall or anything that causes harm to the relationships between all people. We could also limit the ways people could buy things that could cause damage by registering them or logging what has been sold to who. As for the law, we could make harsher punishments for smaller things so people are afraid of doing the small things that today could just get them a small fine. 

In addition I believe that the ideals of confucianism could be used so that the people could strive to better themselves. As people begin to better themselves the rates of which these things happen would lessen or be erased by people becoming a greater moral person.

These actions occur all over the country, to strangers and to people you know. Discrimination is a serious problem in our country and although many great strides have been made to stop discrimination, racism, segregation, and hate crimes, they happen and now the people should stand up and try to not only change others but change the way we ourselves think about things as well.

“Most to Least Segregated Cities.” Othering & Belonging Institute, 3 May 2021, belonging.berkeley.edu/most-least-segregated-cities

‌Einhorn, Erin, and Olivia Lewis. “Built to Keep Black from White.” NBC News, 19 July 2021, www.nbcnews.com/specials/detroit-segregation-wall/.

“Portland Man, Former Journalist, Charged with Federal Hate Crimes.” Opb, www.opb.org/article/2023/01/17/portland-man-michael-bivins-jewish-synagogues-federal-hate-crime-charges/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.