African Americans are presented with poor conditions that are due to their mistreatment through exploitation and discrimination. They are segregated in impoverished communities called ghettos or slums. In these impoverished areas, they are convicted of crimes, denied jobs, and stigmatized. Because of this mistreatment, many poor conditions and disadvantages are created in the African American culture.

African Americans are often convicted of crimes due to discrimination. Many people tend to associate the criminal stereotype with African Americans in an unconscious manner. For example, during an online psychology test given by the University of Chicago, participants were presented with a screenshot of different African American makes and different White males. They were asked to virtually shoot the person that was holding a gun. In the results, people were more likely to shoot the African Americans although the African Americans were less likely to have the guns. When the Whites were shot, they were shot at a much slower rate than the African Americans (Santoso). This may explain why some law enforcers tend to steadily enforce punishment on African Americans more likely than whites. In the United States, 13 percent of African American youth engage in drug activity.

The same percentage applies to White Youth; however, 65 percent of the convictions are of African Americans as well. Because of this, there is a huge difference in the statistics of crime between racial groups. This causes African Americans to become identified as criminal, drastically affecting them for the rest of their lives.

Due to the criminal stereotype, most Black people are denied jobs. For people with felonies, this causes difficulty in finding a job.

Many people may argue that there are places which hire felons which is true. However, this argument lacks merit because many companies may hire a sufficient amount of felons in order to increase their reputations as companies who do not discriminate. This is a contradiction because these companies are hiring for selfish and cosmetic reasons and are not doing it for the benefit of those felons. Also, the hiring of a few felons is no justification for the rejection of the majority. Blacks without felonies still have the appearance of a so-called criminal as seen in the experiment given by the University of Chicago. These disadvantages create a sense of insecurity amongst African Americans.

The collective Black culture is stigmatized due to the discrimination and rejection of the race. Because of this, many African Americans have a lack of pride for their culture. This may be the reasoning as to why many Black females perm their hair or wear hair extensions that look nothing like the natural hair of an African American. Many Black folks also ostracize a person for having darker skin although they are of African descent. This stigmatization causes a lack of closeness in the African American community which enables exploitation to take place.

In conclusion, discrimination is a major problem in the African American culture. Because African Americans are heavily discriminated against, they are more likely to be arrested, less likely to be hired, and have more reason to feel insecurity towards their culture. These disadvantages affect Americans economically, politically, socially, spiritually, and morally.

I will get into detail with all of these in future posts. Stay tuned to Urban Intellectuals for a better understanding.