Three social issues that interest me is the issues with abortion, bullying, and racism/discrimination. Racism and discrimination is the social issue that is most important to me because as an African American male, I face the possibility of being discriminated every time I leave the house. The history of racism and discrimination in the African American community dates back before the 1800s and it continues to happen to this day. According to the article, The Black Lives Matter Movement, Crime and Police Brutality: Comparative study of New York Post and New York Daily New states, “Even though the era of Jim Crow is gone, once an African American is branded a felon, it becomes difficult to get a job because of having a criminal record. The sheer numbers of African Americans now languishing in prison across the country are a clear sign that not much has changed.” Racism and discrimination is not just an African American issue as it spans across the world. Every ethnic group faces a form of discriminations. The Hispanic group face citizenship discrimination, the Muslim group faces terroristic discrimination, and those are just a few examples to name. Citizenship education and the challenge of racism, discrimination and disadvantage is an article that states, “The idea behind citizenship education is that it will help both to integrate the demands of justice, equality and community and to prevent the increasing apathy towards politics and government, which may damage the health and stability of a modern liberal democracy.” Which is a valid point because instead of being united the way the United States is preached to be, we focus on our own individual ethnic group while we treat others as being beneath us.

Abortion makes the top two of social issues that are important to me because the way the situation is being handled.  Being pro-life or pro-choice should not be a one or the other issue. Women should have the right to choose what they want to do. What I feel like makes this an issue is the reason  women have when they go to get an abortion. Some women seek out abortions because of a one night stand or because they accidently got pregnant because they were not safe and protected when they have sex. Other women seek abortions because they were raped and do not feel comfortable raising after an incident like that. This may seem like a breach of women rights because it is their body that is at risk. WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND SOCIAL EQUALITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, is an article that talks about how women reproductive rights are being analyzed. The article states, “Current literature offers two types of models in terms of the impact of human development and social equality on women’s reproductive rights. The first model proposes that social and political equality guaranteed to women regardless of the levels of development is positively related to the levels of reproductive fights (Dixon-Mueller, 1993; Correa, 1994). The second model suggests that reproductive fights are likely to emerge at high levels of socioeconomic development (Li, 1993).” Solutions to abortions seem no where in sight which makes it an important topic to me because the issue has a versatile approach.

Last but not least, bullying is the third on my list of top social issues. Bullying is third on my list because bullying prevention has gotten nowhere in our society. Bullying has led to so many issues in our world today and the biggest one is suicides. Lots of teens has chosen suicide as a solution to being bullied because they feel like they have no one to turn to when being bullied. They feel alone and isolated when facing bullying and bullying comes in many forms, cyber-bullying, verbal bullying, and physical bullying. Bullying and Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis, is an article that identifies how bullying has transcended over the years and provides an analysis of bullying to suicide rates. The article states, “We searched multiple online databases and reviewed reference sections of articles derived from searches to identify cross-sectional studies published through July 2013. Using search terms associated with bullying, suicide, and youth, 47 studies (38.3% from the United States, 61.7% in non-US samples) met inclusion criteria. Seven observers independently coded studies and met in pairs to reach consensus.” That article does not include reasons for people being bullied. People are constantly bullied because they are different from what society deems to be normal and this causes rejection among the population, which is why bullying makes my top three list of social issues.

Chama, Brian. 2019. “The Black Lives Matter Movement, Crime and Police Brutality:

Comparative Study of New York Post and New York Daily News.” European Journal of 

    American Culture 38 (3): 201–16. doi:10.1386/ejac_00002_1.

Holt, Melissa K., Alana M. Vivolo-Kantor, Joshua R. Polanin, Kristin M. Holland, Sarah DeGue, Jennifer L. Matjasko, Misty Wolfe, and Gerald Reid. 2015. “Bullying and Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis.” Pediatrics 135 (2): e496–509. doi:10.1542/peds.2014-1864.

Singh, Basil R. 2001. “Citizenship Education and the Challenge of Racism, Discrimination and Disadvantage.” Contemporary Politics 7 (4): 299–318. doi:10.1080/13569770120106444.

Pillai, Vijayan K., and Guang-zhen Wang. 1999. “Women’s Reproductive Rights and Social Equality in Developing Countries.” Social Science Journal 36 (3): 459. doi:10.1016/S0362-3319(99)00017-8.