How Equal Are People In America Today?

  The people who live in America are not as equal as the Founding Fathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence claims they are. Minorities, immigrants, and women are all, even today, at a lesser stature than their fellow white male counterparts. In the movie "Gran Torino", a family of Hmong immigrants reside in an old, run-down, decrepit neighborhood overrun by gangs of different racial backgrounds. The violence and poor living conditions of this neighborhood of immigrants displays the inequality still faced by many Americans today, because for many immigrants, impoverished neighborhoods are the only places accessible to them to settle down and try to make a living. On the other hand, the social aspect of the immigrants portrayed in "Gran Torino" also proves the claims that all men are created equal in America wrong. Walt, the only white man living in the neighborhood, starts out by treating his Hmong neighbors like the dirt beneath his feet, because of the time he spent serving in the Korean War. He refers to them with a plethora of racial slurs, demonstrating that those of different races and those in the minority in America are still considered to be "less-than" Caucasian Americans by some people. This means that there are still instances of inequality in this country, even in present day. The economic and social statuses of immigrants and minorities in present-day America, as displayed in the 2008 movie "Gran Torino", prove that not all Americans are truly equal like this country claims that they are.