Always running free essay sample

It was written in the bible that God created this world in seven days and he also created the first human beings-Adam and Eva, but perhaps god didnt expect that the history in the development of human beings would involve dividing them into different races, and certainly God would never have expected the fact that race became a societal issue as to how minorities are being bullied. In the book â€Å"Always Running† wrote by a Mexican-American, Luis Rodriguez, he records his early life as one of the gang members in the City of Angel, Los Angeles. He attempts to use his story to show the racial oppression and violence of the gang members, and more significantly, he uses his story to demonstrate the hardship of being bullied by racists. In general, the books hub is surrounded the experience of how minority races are being bullied, and this helps creating a powerful ethnic experience. Also, Rodriguez didnt leave out any details of censorship but he chose to reveal some of the ugliest morality presented by the Americans in the book, which readers would finally understand a true American story. Nonetheless, Rodriguez presented his ideas of how people should stand against racial oppression and society should try their best to help people who are suffering from racial discrimination. First of all, as mentioned above, Rodriguez uses a lot of details of how minorities are being bullied throughout the story to help setting up the story. At the beginning of the story, Rodriguez describes his first day of school and he uses detailed description to explain how he was practically being discriminated because of his language barrier. He describes what a crime it was because he doesn’t speak English. He said that â€Å"in those days there was no way to integrate the non-English speaking children. So they just made it a crime to speak anything but English. If a Spanish word sneaked out in the playground, kids were often sent to the office to get swatted or to get detention. Teachers complained that maybe the children were saying bad things about them. An assumption of guilt was enough to get one punished†(27). Rodriguez uses a lot of strong words to emphasize on the hardship of not being able to speak English, and he didn’t have the choice because he never went to a proper kindergarten. By using such technique, the readers can follow his trace of thoughts which helps the readers to easily feel his pain as being  Ã¢â‚¬Å"different† from the others. Readers can easily picture the scenarios of how they are being bullied and how desperate they are when they are being put into awkward situations with no one to cry for help. Readers can put themselves into their shoes and the words used by Rodriguez can easily convey the feelings of hopelessness and sympathy. He also describes one of his awkward moments at school, where he went home without notifying the teachers because he thought the other students all went home, but the fact is they all lined up in the playground for the fire drill. Again, Rodriguez uses an incident from his past to portray himself as an alienated foreigner who seemed to be unfit from the American Society. American readers might never have the chance to experience what once destroyed Rodriguez, but the memories from Rodriguez certainly acts as a catalyst to help creating an imaginary scene where readers can have a first-hand experience of how Rodriguez felt when he was being left out. Some publishers are really cautious about the inappropriate contents that they will do whatever they can to put censorship onto the books. On the other hand, Rodriguez didnt leave out a single detail as to how he describes his experiences in dealing with discriminative Americans. He surely understands that this might be offensive to Americans but he must feel that the importance of spreading his idea is not to be undermined. In the story, Rodriguez describes the outburst between his friends and the police when they were simply trying to go to their high school’s Homecoming football game. He said that â€Å" the police didn’t want to hear it. Before long an officer struck Carlitos with a baton on his knee. We turned around but the other officer pulled his gun out on us. Two more cops arrived. One of them put a choke hold on Cartilos as the other struck his legs†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Cartilos looked like he lost his breath. His face turned blue as the officer behind him put pressure on his neck†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦things soon exploded. More cops came but they too were pelted. A major confrontation erupted just above where the two high schools were playing their game, oblivious to what was going on†(96). While polices are often portrayed as righteous knights and the symbol of justice, it doesnt seem that way when Rodriguez describes them, but rather the polices beat up Cartilos just because he was different from the others. Rodriguez carefully uses such incidents to convey a true American story as  he only tells the truth. Even though the truth might not be what we usually expect, the stories certainly set us thinking, and ruminating on how society treats racial minorities. Stories such as the one mentioned above would definitely provoke the sympathetic heart that exists in every reader, which in turns, these stories help sharing the most authentic American experience. Rodriguez tries to inspire people with this story to tell people that they need to stay strong and fight back even if they are facing the worst of their life. In the epilogue, Rodriguez specifically specifies that this part of his book is written to his son, but I also believe this part of the book is written to send a message. He says that â€Å"Ive talked to enough gang members and low-level dope dealers to know they would quit today if they had a productive, livable-wage job. Youll find people who dont care about who they hurt, but nobody I know wants to sell death to their children, their neighbors and friends. If there was a variable alternative, they would stop. If we all had a choiceStop running†(251). Rodriguez makes use of this epilogue to express his final thoughts on Race and Inequality. Indeed, race has been one of the most sensitive factors of how people judge one another, and often we could still hear the problem of racial discrimination coming from the media. People who suffer from racial oppression really dont have a choice to move on, just like what Rodriguez said. However, Rodriguez believes that this choice has to be earned, thats why he said â€Å"stop running†(251), to remind everyone of us that we have to confront society who still judges people by race, but overlook that those people are also human beings. We are born equal, and thus we must be treated equally. In fact, Rodriguez himself is already a living example to show people that they should not be ashamed of their race, but they should be proud of it. Rodriguez mentions that his success in the preface where he says that â€Å"I have addressed thousands of teachers, law-enforcement personnel, social workers, community organizers, journalists, government officials, graduate students, writers and others in countless workshops, peace summits and forums(xii). Rodriguez sees himself as an inspiration, because he shows people even with his race and identity, and even with his past as a notorious gang member, he could still change and become a better person. He tells us that we should never be afraid of where we belong and we should never give up because things will get better. All in all, Rodriguez uses his story to raise the public awareness of gangsters and how they are pressured under racial oppression. There is no doubt that every actions comes with an alternative choice, so one can argue that gangsters simply chose the wrong path and they could have chosen to become something else. However, we have seen in Rodriguez’s story, that not all of us are granted the liberty to make a choice in the first place, but rather, they are forced into becoming a gangster unwillingly, because no one gave them a choice. There is definitely a lesson here, which tells us that people who have the priviledge to make choices should never take things for granted, for there are people in this world who were born with no choice at all. And people who do not have the chance to make a choice, should also remember that it is up to you to fight back. Although it is not guaranteed that if you fight back, you would get things you want, but certainly you have created a hope for yourself.