White supremacy is real and exists in a country that claims freedom and equality as their mantra. The term is defined as proposing natural superiority of ‘lighter-skinned’, or white human races over others.

White supremacy is seen in everyday life – black history books are being banned in schools, police brutality and hate crimes against people of color are all examples.

In schools children are taught good aspects of history like our U.S. Presidents and how white folk were the ones who made history, and black children and children of color are taught how to mind their business around white folks to avoid being a nuisance to society.

On Feb. 23, the three white men that murdered 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery were finally found guilty of committing a hate crime.

The former high school football star was jogging around his neighborhood when Gregory McMichael, 66; his son, Travis McMichael, 36; and their neighbor, William Bryan, 52, chased Arbery and shot him down.

A heavy amount of evidence was being called in to prove the crime was racially motivated- 21 witnesses were called to testify racist slurs and rants aimed towards black people, specifically, by the three men.

Many of the witnesses had either left the stand in tears or were called to receive counseling.

Messages of white supremacy and superiority or black inferiority- often play out in cases like Arbery’s reinforcing the anti-Black belief that will only worsen as officials continue to pass bills restricting schools from teaching Black history.

In efforts of gaslighting youth into believing we live in a colorblind society, we must also remember that we live in a world that would allow three white men to live as they please without charge after collectively murdering a black man.

We must also remember that our white police officers would run to put weight on a person of color on the ground and allow a white man to sit on the side and watch.

In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement emerged when a video went viral of Minneapolis police officers arresting a black man and murdering him in the process of ‘awaiting back-up’.

46-year-old George Floyd was murdered on the floor by a knee to his neck after repeatedly telling the officer he couldn’t breathe.

Floyd’s case served as the big wake-up call to many, realizing that white supremacy exists and is still instilled in many Americans.

Many people of color shared their fears of being targeted in 2020, during the pandemic, when videos and cases went viral i regards to police brutality against the black community.

One of the three men who murdered Arbery believed a video they took would prove their innocence. The video footage only revealed the innocent, unarmed man [Arbery] trying to protect himself from the three strangers chasing him down.

What could possibly justify killing an innocent man who was only jogging?

The words of the three in the courtroom and their actions prior only serve to show how real white supremacy is. They truly believed they could get away with murdering an innocent man of color.

The main idea of white supremacy in the U.S. is that a world without black people, would be ‘better’- and the video from Arbery’s case demonstrates that this is what they believe to be true.

In order to end this belief that one race or group of people is more superior than the other we need to start identifying and prosecuting hate crimes – and giving equal sentences to people of color and caucasians for the same crime.

Allowing white men to walk away from committing violent acts of hate towards another race instills ideas of white supremacy and further proves the fact that a white person can walk away from a situation that someone of color would not.