I’m writing to address the issue of the racial divide in the United States. According to the News Tribune, people thought that with the election of Obama as president, our country had taken a step toward a post-racial America. Currently, we are six years into Obama’s term of presidency. As of now, after the killings of two black men by white cops, relationships between the races are, arguably, worse than when Obama began his term.

All across America, black people are rioting, saying that the police are more brutal toward black men than white men. When the grand juries did not punish the officers, the rioting only got worse.

Obama’s election as the first African American president of the United States really did symbolize a step forward, away from our largely racist past. If we continue down that road, we can eventually, step by step, create a society that does not segregate or judge by race, but by one’s character. Once we achieve this, we will not only have made a great achievement, but moved even closer to a truly free nation.

Kaelyn Walls
Seventh grade student at Cedar River Middle School