THE UNJUST LAWS OF GOVERNMENT INFLICTED ON SOCIETY’S
MINORITIES.
LIANA CHIKWEKWE
ENGLISH 102
PROFESSOR T. CHOCCOS
04/02/2013.
In many areas of the world, government has implemented unjust laws that have
affected societies particularly minority ones. These laws inflicted on the minority
are so bad that not only have they led to so many people languishing in poverty but
they have also led to a sense of insecurity to those affected.
Unjust laws are laws that either take away freedom or cause harm. According to
Martin Luther King in his letter from Birmingham jail, he described the laws as
those that degrade the personality of a human being. These laws make a person
affected lose their position in society because they do not feel a sense of belonging.
In the United States, unjust laws were inflicted firstly on the early settlers, the
Native Americans. These people were the first to occupy the American soil and had
their cultures and traditions until the genocide of The Removal Act in 1880 that led
more than half of the native population being wiped out by government. The reason
for eliminating the natives was so that the white settlers could have enough space to
start their lives in America. Villages were slaughtered and the death rate increased.
The Indians depended on the natural vegetation and animals around them for food
and so, government decided to destroy all of the sources of food so that they can get
rid of them quickly. The end result was serious starvation and social and cultural
destruction for many tribes. These unjust laws made it really tough for the
remaining Indians to carry on with their lives because the damage they inflicted
made them feel inferior in their own land. The people who first set foot on their own
ground were now feeling like aliens all because of the selfish acts of government.
This did not only occur to the Native Americans but also the African American
society. These people were brought to the United States all the way from Africa to
work as laborers on the plantations in the south, which was a highly segregated area
of the country. The blacks too were made inferior to the large white population
because of their race and they did no enjoy the sweet part of life. The unjust laws of
them not having rights, not having access to education and living in poverty made
them feel insecure. When government saw the black population increasing and their
ability to get educated, ‘Jim Crow’ laws were enacted that deprived blacks of many
rights such as no education, the inferiority complex the white majority imposed on
them making them a minority in the society. Children were growing up under these
laws and just the thought of a child growing to hate an opposite race for no reason
was bad. The laws affected the minority both in a mental and physical perspective in
a sense that they could not do anything but obey the unjust laws. Every human being
has feelings and emotions that run through them and when you degrade the
personality of an individual by taking away their rights, mainly by using violence,
the feel a sense of insecurity because they are scared to speak out or act against the
negative impositions. Can one say that government is promoting justice when it is
denying the civil rights of another race? No, we cannot. This is injustice on the
minority. Many intelligent people are made to languish in poverty because they are
not given a chance of education. One cannot say the country has a democracy when
a certain race has been shut out of the affairs of the country just to have their say.
The Jim Crow laws still continue to exist in the 1950s and another important
effect they had was on the young population, the children. Parents train their kids to
love one another because everybody is equal regardless of age race or standard of
living. In 1951, Oliver Brown was taking his daughter on her first day at elementary
school in the city of Topeka Kansas but his daughter could not learn in the school
due to the fact that she was colored hence, Brown and other community members
whose children were victims of segregation filed a suit at the Board Of Education in
Topeka, Kansas.
Children in elementary schools also went through segregation and while the
schools for the white were within a home radius, the colored children had to walk a
great distance. This sort of segregation on the children was unfair because the child
would grow up not feeling a sense of belonging. Their ability to learn is also affected
by the inferiority in a sense that since they cannot mix with other races, they may
grow up feeling like aliens and this lead to a hindrance to their full development in
life. It is not fair that children must go through the unjust laws because they are
innocent and they want to learn with other cultures of life. But placing them in the
dark will lead them to pose hatred to the opposite race when they are older because
of the way they are treated whilst still young. The selfishness of government to deny
children to learn in integrated schools is absurd. A child is always excited on their
first day of school and making them walk a long distance to a segregated school
were the friends they play with aren’t learning is unfair. The purpose of government
is to implement the just laws so that a society can be uplifted to become united and
equal. But in this case were children are also victims, how can we say government is
helping promote justice and equality? It is the opposite. Instead, it is taking away the
rights of the minority. When the Plessey Vs. Ferguson act was introduced that
stated that ‘schools must be separate but equal’, not everyone was in favor because
the segregation atmosphere was still a heavy burden especially on the minority
population because the separation of schools was still present. If government wants
to promote just and unity in a nation, it must first implement laws that will make a
society feel a sense of belong in that area and work together to promote justice. This
school segregation is what led to the rise of the civil rights movement by Martin
Luther King Junior. He was born in Atlanta, which too is in the south and was also
going through segregation during the time. When he moved to Birmingham
Alabama, he focused on gaining the civil rights of segregated African Americas and
his achievement led to him being a very influential figure in promoting human rights
and justice worldwide. In his quest to promote justice, he was arrested in
Birmingham jail were, he wrote his famous letter to the clergymen in response to
the accusations they made on him. King wanted to promote justice and he saw that
government was just creating an inferior complex among the blacks by denying
them rights. He wrote in his letter as follows,
“A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the
right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the
legislature of Alabama, which set up that state’s segregation laws, was
democratically elected?”
King shows some evidence about government that claims to be promoting
justice is implementing unjust laws on the minority. He was arrested for parading
without a permit and the government considered this act as part of an unjust law
when all he was trying to do was make his voice be heard on behalf of the
society going through segregation.
If a country must be declared democratic, it should promote justice and racial
equality among its citizens. Not hatred. Government must be in the forefront to
promote and uplift the rights and decisions of societies not make them feel
insecure or deprived of justice, rights and freedom.
Bibliography
http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/347/483