Racial Tension in Amerikkka Still Divides The Country

Lynching is the practice whereby a mob–usually several dozen or several hundred persons–takes the law into its own hands in order to injure and kill a person accused of some wrongdoing. The alleged offense can range from a serious crime like theft or murder to a mere violation of local customs or from false accusations. So how can a company such as Joe’s Crab Shack publicly display such a heinous act in 2016? The answer… blatant racism and disrespect for African Americans. The U.S. is still divided on race, what a shame.

Blatant racism, racist imagery and racially charged incidents are running rampart in America. Being that it is the 21st century it sure seems like the United States of America is moving backwards when it comes to race relations.

America is a cultural melting pot where people from all walks of life should have an equal opportunity to good education, healthcare, living conditions and financial resources but that is only a dream for people of African descent who were born in the United States which is an unfortunate circumstance for the country and is the MAIN down fall of America. Celebrating and/or promoting the cruel death of a person by lynching because of the color of their skin is an inhumane and animalistic behavior that mentally sick human beings participate in.

Racial profiling example: Studies show that police are more likely to pull over and frisk blacks or Latinos than whites. In New York City, 80% of the stops made were blacks and Latinos, and 85% of those people were frisked, compared to a mere 8% of white people stopped (1). The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded that an African American male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of going to jail in his lifetime, while a Latino male has a 17% chance, and a white male only has a 6% chance (2).

In Roseville Minneapolis a historical photo of a black man getting lynched was used as decoration on a table at Joe’s Crab Shack. After an offended patron posted it on social media, the restaurant released an apology.

Tyrone Williams of Minneapolis stated, “We just felt sick and confused, it was just sickening. It was disgusting.” Mr. Williams and his friend Chauntyll Allen saw the photo embedded under laminate in their table. It seemed to capture an image of a public hanging of Richard Burleson in Texas. The sentence at the bottom of the photograph reads, “Hanging at Groesbeck, Texas on April 12th, 1895”. The photo below was taken by Tyrone Williams.

The City of Roseville issued a statement saying, “The City of Roseville was shocked and saddened to learn of the racist imagery being openly displayed at the Roseville location of national restaurant chain Joe’s Crab Shack. The city condemns this type of display in the strongest possible terms and calls on Joe’s Crab Shack to remove any and all racist imagery not only from its Roseville location, but all of its restaurants nationwide.