One of the primary contributors to this gross disproportion of incarceration of blacks is the result of “the war on drugs” and “tough on crime” initiatives that were established in the 80’s. The aggressive law enforcement strategies of The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, disproportionately arrested, convicted, and incarcerated millions of blacks for relatively minor nonviolent drug offenses as compared to white offenders. The dramatic escalation of incarceration for drug offenses was accompanied by profound racial disparities. Blacks were incarcerated at a grossly disproportionate rate to white Americans and blacks received much harsher and longer sentences, 14.5% longer, creating racial disparity within the criminal justice system (Alexander, 2010; Austin, et al.; Georges-Abeyie, 2006; González & Chang, 2011; Lynch & William, 1997; Mauer, 2007; Mauer & King, 2007; Spohn, 2000 (Alexander, 2010, Associated Press, 2007, Mauer M. 2009; Mauer M., 2008; Spohn, 2000)…
At the turn of the last century, WEB Dubois wrote, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line, --the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. Every study has come to the same conclusion that biologically, there are no 'races', yet the social construction of race as a category is alive and well today. The classification system, which radicalized different groups - typifying them according to their skin color and/or other defining features has a long history. With the advent of colonialism, racism underpinned the different and negative valuations attached to skin color. The racism of today is much more subtle and is no longer the blatant discrimination based on the color or your skin. It exists within the institutions of our society. It is the combination of government, corporate and media institutional racism that is largely responsible for the inequities of today. Unfortunately, these divisions impact the way in which we live our life and how we advance socially. Race has always been a complicated subject and is inevitable. Although we have made tremendous strides to dismantle the foundations of racism, it is clear and evident that racism still persists within the institutions of our society.…
In the book “The new Jim Crow” author Michelle Alexander goes in great about a race-related social, political, and legal phenomena, which is mass incarceration. Mass incarceration is the new form of Jim Crow laws because of its effects are not only similar but in its new form more effective. Mass Incarceration causes racial segregation, racial discrimination, and hinders the advancement of a people through “a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.” In the following paragraphs you will learn of the origins of these inhibitory laws as well as how these laws affect African Americans socially, politically, and economically.…
Alexander illustrates that the racial caste system is a “social control (14), developing, “politically, socially, legally, context overtime (15).” Our Criminal Justice System follows the method of mass incarceration constructed upon the conflict of drugs abuse was an embodiment of racism to cage African Americans socially and economically very much like the Old Jim Crow during the nineteenth-twentieth centuries. Alexander uses intellectual facts to rationalize the idea that greater amounts of African Americans are known to be imprisoned, than enslaved in the nineteen-fifties. The claim of Michelle Alexander of War on Drugs was devised to justify for mass imprisonment upon African Americans in a sense forcing them into the racial caste system, “a stigmatized racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom (12).” Colored people are in “undercaste–a lower caste of individuals who are permanently barred by law…” As Alexander states, she uses the term undercaste, and permanently to exemplify the concept that are coordinated as the second class by…
Elements of differential treatment can be seen in conflict theory. Conflict theory states that crime is defined by those in power within a community: when people with little power do something those in power do not like, then that particular action is seen as deviant/criminal (E3, Set 4 Slide 4-8). This ties into differential treatment, whether a person is arrested or convicted of a crime depends not on the action the individual committed—it depend on the type of person the individual is. For example, Beckett et al. found that in Seattle minorities were more likely to be arrested for drug charges than their non-Hispanic white counterparts; even though there were non-Hispanic whites in possession of more harmful drugs (such as heroine) than the drugs minorities were caught with (cocaine) (R25). In this instance, law enforcement officers are treating minorities more harshly than non-Hispanic whites, which leads to an increase in DMC. This is also an indicator of racial threat hypothesis.…
‘’Hazardous waste landfills were disproportion located in minority and low-income communities’’. This shows that waste sites that were out of proportion was only placed in poor communities with low-income. ‘’Asthma prevalence in the u.s is significantly higher in minority and low-income populations than in the general population’’. That mean that in low-income and poor communities had asthma more than other communities. ‘’Heat waves and drought are increasingly in rhythm in every major continent including our own’’. We are being affected by even more things other than the racism that goes around.…
The stability of racism in the United States has changed over centuries of its existence. Instead, racism shifts and molds into often unrecognizable ways that fit seamlessly into the fabric of the American consciousness to make it utterly invisible to the majority of white Americans. In the current era of political thinking, colorblindness, or society’s unwillingness to discuss or even recognize race in any way, seems to be the dominant perspective. Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness shatters this dominantly held ideology.…
Is Racism a Permanent feature of American Society? Derrick Bell argues in this issue that the prospects for achieving racial equality in the United States are “illusory for Blacks. Bell reminds us despite the fact of the progress of blacks in United States; the legacy of slavery has left a portion of the race “with life-long poverty and soul devastating despair”. Bell believes that race consciousness is so imbedded in whites that it is virtually impossible to rise above it. He also argues that “few whites are able to identify with blacks as a group” and tend to view blacks through “comforting racial stereotypes”. Bell feels strongly that critical and proper examination of the history of black-white relations supports his conclusion that racism is a permanent feature of American Society. Bell makes some good point about racism in the American society today. The fact that the psychical part of racism is gone does not mean that racism as permanently left American Society. The fact that racism still “exist” is does not reflect on blacks’ success any longer. Majority of whites had a head start because their generation of success goes so many years back, were as for blacks success was not allowed at a point in time. Blacks have come a long ways over the years but there is still racial discrimination that “affects” the black population.…
In the book “The New Jim Crow” author Michelle Alexander talks about numerous issues of racial inequality in our criminal justice system. Alexander’s book is something every person who even has an interest in the criminal justice field should read, as it really looks beyond the color of a person’s skin. Alexander points out the vast majority of the problems our criminal justice system faces in racial inequality and discrimination. These problems have really formed our country to what it is to this day. Most people feel that society as a whole is past discrimination and that it is no longer a problem anymore. In reality, it is still a major problem in many aspects of our criminal justice system as well as the everyday lives of Americans. In all honesty I was one of them, but “The New Jim Crow” really opened my eyes on the discrimination that occurs within minorities in the United States. Reflecting back on this issue I had realized that I have witnessed this first hand with one of my close friends who is an African American male. I will get into more detail about this later on in my paper, but for now I am going to address some of the issues of racial inequality in the criminal justice system that Alexander mentioned.…
Although each author has their own perspective about discrimination and prejudice they shared similar opinions about modern racism, this new technique used to oppress the African American community. Modern racism has become very popular in today's society that has created individuals not to realize that discrimination is still taking place. On Essay three Hughey states three arguments on how African Americans are being discriminated. African American are being target through housing segregation, inequality and the mass media. On essay six the author states the unequal distribution of wealth between the dominant group and minority groups. Those who have wealth are more likely to disempower other individuals, and are more likely to remain in charge. On essay twelve the author talks about the imbalance of gender ratio within the African American he mentions that Black men have the highest rate of incarceration. One reason why theirs more Black men in prison is because law enforcement agents are using racial profiling to target people of color. Today more law enforcement agents are using this discriminatory practice to target individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity and physical appearance. Unfortunately modern racism occurs every day across the country even though it's illegal and goes against an…
In the United States, racism is a problem that is rooted in a struggle for power amongst people groups, and as the struggle has progressed, it has permeated almost every aspect of the American life. In the early years of the nation, the presence of slavery made it easy to point out the evils of racism, and even in after emancipation, Jim Crow and segregation laws made it evident that the issue continued to pervade society. However, following the Civil Rights era, inherent acts of racism began to dwindle. Today, racism has been institutionalized and can be seen in issues like mass incarceration, which targets African American populations. Sociologist Max Weber would have believed the issue of racism and mass incarceration to be directly related to the efforts that white Americans took to maintain the power they possessed through their class, status, and parties.…
America today is many things: advanced, modern, influential - but is it racist? Since the birth of this great nation, racism existed and has continued to live through different mediums. Latent racism seeks to establish racial prejudice and discrimination through subtle forms, even at a subconscious level. Although latent racism is hard to prove, many people have made it their duty to showcase and expose forms of racism that one would not normally jump to. For example, in the article Occupy the Dream: The Mathematics of Racism, the author exposes the true nature of the American prison system, and how the “war on drugs” is just a benign term coined for contemporary racism. By using statistics to back up his claims, the author provides a logical…
Over the last two centuries, our society has grappled with the perpetual strife of perceived racial discrimination. Inalienable Rights and founding principles of our nation have been tarnished by the belief that these are mere privileges, reserved for a select few fortunate enough to indulge in such luxuries. However, the last few decades have ushered into existence a transformed nation, where Supreme Court cases and social revolutions have seemingly eroded the dichotomous barriers of race. On one end of the spectrum, open wounds of our nation’s tumultuous past have been stung by the racial inequities of household income and a maliciously disproportionate incarceration system. On the other end of the spectrum, patriotism and unity swell to heights of exuberance at the sight of the increasingly diverse entertainment industry and…
Statistics show that African Americans commit only fifteen percent of drug offenses, yet they comprise up to 90% of incarcerations for drug offenses in communities throughout the country. Besides that, although the majority of illegal drug users and dealers are white, three-fourths of all people incarcerated for drug offenses have either been black or Latino. There is clearly something wrong with this picture. The big question is: why is it mostly the minority that is suffering? Looking at it in a Marxists point of view, the answer is pretty simple. It is easier for the officers of the law to exploit those of no authority, e.g. poor blacks, than those who can easily buy their way out, e.g. affluent whites. Although the majority of illegal drug users and dealers are white, three-fourths of all people incarcerated for drug offenses have either been black or Latino. “African Americans––particularly in the poorest neighborhoods––are subject to tactics and practices that would result in public outrage and scandal if committed in middle-class white neighborhoods.”(Alexander 96) What Alexander is trying to convey is that poor African Americans who receive this kind of treatment have no choice but to accept it since they have no resources to take legal action. As one former prosecutor voiced out, “It’s a lot easier to go out to the ‘hood, so to speak, and pick somebody than to put your resources in an undercover [operation in a] community where…
The shameful history of the United States is a burden that is currently affecting everything from education to legal policy. Racial segregation has taken a toll on society and the lives of many minorities. The American judicial system lacks the understanding of human potential by targeting low income minorities and subjugating them for petty misdemeanors. Due to racial discrimination, false allegations towards minorities have resulted in wrongfully incarcerated people for petty crimes; more than likely, they will serve longer sentences for these offenses than a Caucasian person would. Without the necessary resources provided, lack of social capital can inflict damage to their reputation and the overall racial perception society has on minorities.…