Racism in the Criminal Justice System Essay Example

African Americans suffer from economic, psychological, political and social exploitation at the hands of powerful Whites in this country. As a result of this exploitation, Black people usually are put into situations where the commission of a criminal act is often seen as the most effective resolution to their problems. Most Caucasians, however, will probably never understand the predicament in which most Black find themselves. Stolen from our homeland and then forced to work under the most miserable conditions imaginable. African American not paid any money and kept in slavery of different forms and fashions up to this very day. Black people have been under the constant control of whites since coming into this country. Today, white America’s most effective means of keeping that control is through the criminal justice system. When the civil disobedience occurred in Los Angeles after the first Rodney King verdict, whites started to look a little closer at the injustices perpetrated against Blacks because they didn’t want civil disturbances in other cities across the country. This is when whites began to realize that there might be some racism in society and in the legal system. It is actually odd that after the first Rodney King verdict, so many Whites talked about how we all should honor the legal system even though we did not like the court’s decision. However, after the O.J. verdict came out, Whites across this nation started questioning the legal system. This type of hypocrisy is what leads to more racial prejudice. It is not until African Americans people begin to make noise in this country that we get the attention we have been screaming about for years. Black people have not asked for more than our fair share, but yet Whites have historically deprived of us even a chance to get that fair share.
The unequal treatment of minorities in the criminal justice system begins at the first stage of that system: the investigation of some form of alleged criminal