Central Park five and Picking Cotton similarities

Priscilla Ortiz
English 102
March 4th 2016

   There are some things that are in common with Picking Cotton and The documentary Central Park Five.  Sadly its things that occur in daily lives of people and its unfair that someone or anyone in general would have to go through events of Rape and abuse by someone who is a horrible human being and innocent people pay for the horrible things someone else caused.  An example is that In the memoir two white women get raped by a Black African American.  The women's life changed because its a tragic event that  no one should ever live at any age.  In the After math they weren't marked and had dreams of the event and couldn't sleep etc.  Lives horribly marked and damaged by such event that could never be changed.  Such event happened to the women in the documentary the guys were seen as horrible people who people even wished the death penalty on them while they were just teenagers.  Another similarity is that the person who committed the rape in the book was African American and got sent to jail, in the documentary most of the five guys were black African Americans and it seemed as they were seen as bad people because of their race and color of their skin since Racism was high in the time of the late 80s.  Feeling racially targeted and picked on and accused of a crime is wrong, because just because a person is a certain race doesn't mean they are guilty.  Ronald Cotton felt the same way he felt racially targeted because he was a different color skin and the women he raped were white.  So did the central park five after they got released it was said they felt targeted because most of them were black and blacks didn't have a well rounded reputation in the 80s.  Both Ronald and these innocent men were wrongfully convicted.  Even if Ronald had a record of break ins many thought he was more of a dangerous person and wrongfully judged him.  Ronald was constantly pressured to be seen as a person who was bad but at least he went to straighten things out and no one believed him.  The guys of central park, no one believed them either and were wrongfully convicted and judged when no one else knew the truth.  All of them had one very important thing in common, Wrongfully convicted and paid time for something they did not do.  They all lost years of their lives they could never get back ever again and no Apology or sum of money can ever get what what these guys want back One, their lives to what they used to be and two, the time with their families and teenage years. Nothing can ever replace that.