Most Oregonians may agree that there are certain advantages and disadvantages to being a specific race. Whether that be the way you’re talked to, the likelihood of you being arrested, or many other inequalities. However, a problem arises when people don’t agree on where these injustices come from. People from many races and communities can’t seem to find a definitive answer as to why certain people are treated differently.

Black and hispanic individuals occupy 59% of the prison population, but have a mere 29% of the overall population in the United States. Christopher Barnes, a Clackamas High School student, says that “Because of things like rap that trivialize gang violence within the black community, it makes it seem okay for this kinda stuff, which will get you arrested.” An interesting point, which is backed up by the the FBI, who say, out of 5,718 murders in 2013, 2,245 were committed by Black or African American individuals. This information can be found on the Expanded Homicide Data Table 6, located on ucr.fbi.gov.

Of course, not everyone sees the issue the same way. Yannis Tropets, a Russian student at Clackamas High School, thinks that the reason for this unbalanced prison population is “Because the cops are white.” This point holds a lot of merit, because according to governing.com, 52.2% of policemen are white. Because of this, they could hold certain biases against black, hispanic, or just non-white people in general.

To many, protesting is an effective form of solving issues, as it’s sort of a “defiance” towards the government and its practices. However, Makenzie Pool, a student at Rex Putnam High School says that, “I don’t think protests help anything. I think they make the situation worse. It gives those certain people a bad wrap, and makes it harder to get the ‘respect’ they want/need.” If it’s true that protests are causing people to have less respect for protesters, protests may certainly not be the way to create equality for minorities.

Overall, it seems that regardless of race, people can’t seem to agree on a way to gain more respect and equality for minorities. Before we can fix these issues, it’s much more important to agree on a way to even start. If we can all come together in agreement on this issue, then perhaps the problem is already solved. Meanwhile, while you are reading this article, one Black or African American person committed suicide, twenty-four African Americans were arrested, and there was a 20% chance of an African American being sexually assaulted.