At the start of the 1970s, incarceration appeared to be “a practice in decline.” One of the largest problems facing the world today is the mass incarceration of African Americans, where many arrest African Americans as they claim they appear more threatening. The government has done us wrong; it can avoid these consequences without the imprisonment of these innocent people for such diminutive crimes. These harsh conditions affect many more than just the families, communities, and individuals, but also the economy as confinement has tremendous costs on society. The sad but true reality proves that any White person can do things far more extreme than a “black person.” A person’s skin color should not affect what society thinks of someone; this …show more content…
In his article, “The Mass Incarceration of African-American Males: A Return to Institutionalized Slavery, Oppression, and Disenfranchisement of Constitutional Rights,” Floyd D. Weatherspoon uses a different intake to express the discrimination occurring in the world. He explains, “African-American men in America continue to seek freedom and justice through an American justice system unsympathetic to the plight of African-American males. Similar to James Somerset, African-American males in the United States have faced a long and treacherous journey for justice and equality,” which proves the realization is present, but no individual on this world has stepped far enough to defend these blameless people. The journey is strenuous, African-Americans are executed for an act that had no effect on any individual around them. It’s know that in the English colonies, discrimination occurs most. Once again, the authors state, “Interestingly, black males in England face similar racial disparity in a common law justice system that also results in mass incarceration of black males. Indeed, the United States and England/Wales are among the industrial nations with the highest rate of individuals incarcerated in the world.” This comparison supports the point that the English people are the enemies. Although many notice the merciless acts, they still seem to be the largest threat. African-Americans who can't afford the burden of the treacherous journey to freedom are stuck with their enemies who hurt them only because of their skin
“The black family in the age of mass incarceration,” author Ta-Nehisi Coates toss back on the attempt of “The Negros family”, report by the American politician and sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s have benefactor to reduce America’s mass detainment, bringing about a country with the world’s biggest jail populace and the largest rate of detainment. In this article, he explained about the difficulties of black families about the racism that have continually arisen in times gone by to present day. Moynihan, who was brought up from a broken home and pathological family, had polite intrusion when he wrote the article “The Negros family.” His article argued that the government has disparaged the damage caused to the black family from past few centuries.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.
We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way
Is it fair that an African American man is sentenced up to life in prison for possession of drugs when Brock Turner is sentenced to only 14 years, later to be reduced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious women. The judiciary system are believed to have a high african american incarceration rate as a result of discrimination. At a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama said that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences… for the same crime.” Hillary Clinton said the “disgrace of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates so many more african americans proportionately than whites.”
In her book, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander who was a civil rights lawyer and legal scholar, reveals many of America’s harsh truths regarding race within the criminal justice system. Though the Jim Crow laws have long been abolished, a new form has surfaced, a contemporary system of racial control through mass incarceration. In this book, mass incarceration not only refers to the criminal justice system, but also a bigger picture, which controls criminals both in and out of prison through laws, rules, policies and customs. The New Jim Crow that Alexander speaks of has redesigned the racial caste system, by putting millions of mainly blacks, as well as Hispanics and some whites, behind bars
In the history books, one can see that even though slaves were granted freedom, they still were not entirely free. America’s government and industries found a way to keep Blacks from progressing, doing the work of a slave, and providing themselves and society economic advancements. They developed laws and a prison system that would keep Blacks under their control. Consequently, due to this development people have wondered how this issue can be resolve.
Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.
Score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free.” ( King, para.
“African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population.” The majority group of this statistic are people who come from african american backgrounds. The fact that black people are to make up nearly half of the prison population alone, really conveys the rate at which they are being arrested. Black men are often victims of racial profiling by police. They are targeted by police officers, and security guards, and are accused of crimes unrelated to them, simply on the basis of their skin color.
"The treatment of African Americans toward American powers mirrored the separation they endured at home," is something my great grandparents would tell me about America as before. In my generation, we really don 't go by much. As my parents grew up, they constantly had to listen to the horrific stories about war and what has went on within the world even if they didn 't want to listen to it. My parents would say
Although there may have been mild attempts to cease racism directed towards certain groups, these same efforts are absent within racial groups based on group members’ various ranges of skin tones, which Jill Viglione and other authors discuss in their article “The Impact of Light Skin on Prison Time for Black Female Offenders” (250). As numerous studies show, black women in particular make up a large proportion of women arrested and put in prisons within the country. Women with lighter skin tones receive lighter sentences than darker women, along with those who possess other attributional European features, such as straight hair and narrow noses. These individuals tend to also be more included in mainstream society, “thus afforded greater opportunities and privileges” and “more likely to be members of higher social class and achieve a higher occupational and educational level than their darker skinned counterparts” (251). These European features are seen as more attractive, as women with “blacker” features like curly hair and dark skin are stereotyped as lazy and “welfare queens,’ which are ultimately determinants of prison sentences and
Will society ever view African-Americans as people and not as less than? In “Chokehold” Paul Butler will discuss this very idea depth. Butler provides history on why and how society sees African-American men as violent thugs. Butler goes on to explain in detail how the chokehold plays a part in oppressing African-American men and how to avoid the ramifications of the Chokehold, if possible.
Over the decades, mass incarceration has become an important topic that people want to discuss due to the increasing number of mass incarceration. However, most of the people who are incarceration are people of color. This eventually leads to scholars concluding that there is a relationship between mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery. The reason is that people of color are the individuals who are overrepresented in prison compared to whites. If you think about it, slavery is over and African Americans are no longer mistreated; however, that is not the case as African Americans continue to face oppression from the government and police force.
His sympathetic persona along with his analogies actively connect the reader to his story, while the strong diction and depressing tone make a strong emotional impact. Unlike most essays, the anti discrimination message can be applied to multiple minority groups and other social issues. As a whole, Brent Staples essay succeeds on all levels as it makes an impactful argument describing how society's view on African Americans as being dangerous violent criminals is truly
In her other book chapter 5 “Are Prisons Obsolete?” Angela Davis conveys the ideology of imposers using racism’s and prison labor for profit in advantage to the elites. She expresses her claim by including the data of black males