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  • Essay / Racism in “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption”

    The question is: after all the progress we have made as a society, why do we still allow racism to exist, particularly in our criminal justice system? The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes changes in sentencing policies and fights racially unjust practices, conducted a report in July 2009 and found that non-whites made up two-thirds of people sentenced to life in the United States (Quigley, “Fourteen Examples of Racism in the Criminal Justice System”). Our society is built on the idea that white people are superior to all other races, and because of this, we may never be able to completely eliminate racism. However, we can try. Despite what these and other critics say, I believe that all humans are equal in all aspects of life and that race cannot take away a person's right to live happily and healthily in this world. Although we have come a long way, we still have a long way to go. Our efforts will be worth it the day when prison sentences are based on the crime and not on the race of the citizen.