Injustice

This story can be easily dragged on for many pages, but giving someone a perspective of a social injustice may not always be an easy task. To begin my family history is very broad. My Grandfather was a German soldier “Nazi” during WW2 and he so happened to escape to Mexico before Nuremberg Trials. So he was able to live a life in Mexico and start anew with my Grandmother which so happened to be Chinese! She ended up in Mexico due to being collateral of war and finding haven in Mexico. So they both had my Father. My Father’s name is Jaime Luis Schwartz-Fong. His name shows a background from many places. Of course like many immigrants my family came to the Unites States in search of a better life and opportunity. My parent are un-documented and suffer everyday for not being able to be citizens of a country they consider home. This of course has caused a lot of problems for my parents over the years, and has been the organ of many social injustices they have faced. One memory that has been ingrained into my brain was when my Dad was pulled over by a police officer for no reason. Back then my Dad worked picking peaches and drove a red beat up van. Of course the cop’s reasoning for the stop was suscpicion and he quickly took advantage of the fact that my Dad spoke no English, therefore he couldn’t defend himself. My Dad was able to park outside our home as he was pulled over, but the police officer proceeded to harass him. Multiple officers were called in and my Das was detained and brutally out against his car and the cop kept him pushed down vigorously. My Mom and I attempted to explain the best we could that my Dad has heart failure and he can’t be pushed around like that. My dad posed no threat he was already tired from work and the officer continued to abuse his power. But why? You may think why this happened well, because my Dad was first of racially profiled as a Mexican gang member, but on top of that accused of identity theft. This had my whole family distraught my mother and sister were in tears while my Father exclaimed everything will be okay. The police officer actually has a ride along/trainee with him that checked my Dad’s record, and of course it was clean. Even after all the extra officers told the cop to leave my Dad alone he continued with his abuse. It took the officer to ask me a five year old boy, my full name and my Dad’s. After confirmation through me, my Dad was let go and we were able to come inside our home and feel safe once again. After this experience I never looked at a cop the same, instead of seeing them as superheroes, I saw them as individuals with scary amount of power and authority. My background and last name have always been a source of storytelling and awesome reactions. But everything has a con and mine was witnessing this injustice. This country has come a long way in accepting immigrants, but it’s nowhere near being what it should be. I should feel like my background should be hidden and unspoken about. This is why I took this class I wanted to dive in to ethics with other individuals who might share similar beliefs or stories and I was right. This class is full of diversity and I’m glad I was able to experience it!

Word count: 620