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Mass incarceration in the u.s. essay
Mass incarceration in the u.s. essay
Mass incarceration in the u.s. essay
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Kevin Gannon states in the documentary 13th that “We are the product of history that our ancestors chose, if we’re white. If we are black, we are the products of the history that our ancestors most likely did not choose. Yet here we are all together, the products of that set of choices.” What Kevin is saying is that our ancestors paved the path that we would follow unless you are African American then your ancestors were likely slaves and their decisions were made for them. Many people assume that oppression of other races ended with the 13th amendment and the civil rights movement, yet it is still a major topic in today's world. The question rests in whether racism exists in a higher order or at an individual level. I think 13th is mistaken …show more content…
In the documentary 13th they shed some light on the history of racism in recent years. They say that the prison system is used to oppress the African American population, and they present the statistic that 1 in 3 African American males are expected to go to prison during their lifetime. One example they use is president Reagan’s War on Drugs. They say that it was actually a way to disguise putting massive amounts of African Americans in jail. How the Reagan administration did was by enforcing the law against the use of Crack, a drug popular in poor urban communities. These communities were where a large number of African Americans lived so the strict law tore apart a lot of colored families. Another example of the criminalization of black people came right after the civil war. With the lack of civil rights for African Americans it was easy for others to throw them in jails and use them as a type of slave labor while they were in …show more content…
One expert in the documentary believes that mass incarceration if the evolved modern form of slavery. They also bring up a famous case in which George Zimmerman shot a black teenager named Treyvon Martin and the ruling of the case in court was that the Zimmerman was not charged and walked free. The reason was the “Stand Your Ground” law in the state of Florida in which a person may use deadly force in self-defense if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm. This tragic event and many others leave many wanting some type of reform in the justice system. But in 13th they also target unfair lawmaking. They use ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, as one reason for unfair legislature. In ALEC business leaders of large corporations partner with US senators and representatives to create new laws. In the documentary they say that the businesses in ALEC use some of this influence to help their own
The documentary 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay, is centered around the argument that slavery did not end with the inclusion of the 13th Amendment in the United States Constitution. To enhance her argument, she includes interviews with well-educated authors, professors, activists, and politicians. She also tells the stories of African Americans who have been wrongfully prosecuted by the police and have not received the justice they deserve, including Trayvon Martin. This essay will analyze the Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman scene in the documentary and how DuVernay effectively uses ethos, pathos, and logos in the film. Duvernay includes the Trayvon Martin case to further her argument that slavery did not disappear with the 13th Amendment; it modernized into the American prison system.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States. Michelle Alexander (2010) argues that despite the old Jim Crow is death, does not necessarily means the end of racial caste (p.21). In her book “The New Jim Crow”, Alexander describes a set of practices and social discourses that serve to maintain African American people controlled by institutions. In this book her analyses is centered in examining the mass incarceration phenomenon in recent years. Comparing Jim Crow with mass incarceration she points out that mass incarceration is a network of laws, policies, customs and institutions that works together –almost invisible– to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined by race, African American (p. 178 -190).
It would be ignorant to say racism does not exist till today. There is almost a complete 100 year difference between the reconstruction period and the Civil Rights Movement for equal rights to the Black society. While slavery took time to vanish in the south in those hundreds of years, segregation was pushed harshly, laws we 're enacted to prevent Blacks from having certain privileges that whites had. Segregation almost seemed to kick the Blacks out of the society we live together in. The Jim Crow laws had made efficient work in separating the Blacks from the Whites in society, and it took the Civil Rights movement in 1964 to finally bring more equality to the African-American society. However, the Ku Klux Klan and still other organizations had existed and continue to exist despite efforts to bring equality. There is a strong social equality for the Black population in America today, but because of hate organizations and discrimination still existing today, black lives are being lost through murder, and even in forms of police brutality. Take for example the L.A riots in 1992 from the beating of Rodney King, or going back to 1967 the Detroit riots which tore apart these cities. Today Black Lives Matter movements exist to crush out racism in society so people no longer have to live in fear, and it is an existing movement that I think will actually fade as generations in the future work to build up society, and racism will become a thing of a past. There is however, always going to be something that causes prejudices and hate in society if not directed to one group of people. Even today if racism disappears between blacks and whites, prejudice occurs between cultural people here in America. These problems exist mainly in America, and it is socially slowing us down from advancing as a
Michelle Alexander wrote a book called "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." The original Jim Crow was a racial caste system that segregated whites from blacks, where whites were privileged and viewed as the chosen ones while blacks were taught to be minority and used as servants between 1877 and the 1960s. The Jim Crow system kept whites superior to blacks with laws created to keep whites favored. It was a legal way to prevent African Americans from getting an equal education, from voting; it was a system of "Separate but Equal". In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed to outlaw discrimination due to ones skin color. Although this act was passed we still continue to live in a society where discrimination is quite relevant but systemized. Through Michelle Alexander's book we can understand her argument that there is a new form of legal discrimination although laws state that discriminating an individual because of their race is illegal. Michelle explains that there is a current mass incarceration among black men in the United States. The use of, possession of, or selling drugs is illegal but it has been systematically created that laws make it impossible to. She claims that the criminal justice system uses the War on Drugs as a way to discriminate and repress the black man.
Many Americans pretend that the days of racism are far behind; however it is clear that institutional racism still exists in this country. One way of viewing this institutional racism is looking at our nation’s prison system and how the incarceration rates are skewed towards African American men. The reasons for the incarceration rate disparity are argued and different between races, but history points out and starts to show the reason of why the disparity began. Families and children of the incarcerated are adversely affected due to the discrimination as well as the discrimination against African American students and their likelihood of going to prison compared to the white student. African American women are also affected by the discrimination in the incarceration rate. Many white Americans don’t see how racism affects incarceration rates, and that African Americans are more likely to face discrimination from the police as well as being falsely arrested.
Let’s begin with racism, which dates back to as far as humans can remember. “It may be defined as the hatred of one person by another -- or the belief that another person is less than human -- because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes” One of the most known acts of racism was the enslavement of Africans in the new world. This racism was a result of the racist belief that black Africans were less human than white Europeans.
Blacks were not able to go into white neighborhoods and vice versa. This created a boundary for the African American youth to leave their neighborhoods and reach those goals that are supposed to be met by society's means. These blacks had a feeling of alienation and became culturally disorientated due to the harassment from the cops. They were unable to have a sense of identity and who they really were due to the fact that there was a segregated society being created. These African Americans began to see themselves as having no value and became self hated. Blacks were shown their life has no value and they were rejected. Blacks were being arrested for non-violent crimes and drug offences. People of color have been targeted. This punitive impulse to punish folks of color is linked to our discrimination history here in America according to Michelle Alexander. When being swept into the criminal justice system, it comes hard to live a normal life and have a job to succeed a specific standard of living.
From the study, Michelle Alexander’s argument is true and correct that the mass incarcerations are just a representation of Jim Crow. The Jim Crow has just been redesigned as the blacks have continued to be mistreated and denied some of the rights and privileges that their counterparts enjoy. There is discernment against the African Americans towards different privileges which are essential to their lives. This discrimination is political as leaders steer operations that are aimed at racially discriminating people from particular groups of race.
Racism (n): the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other race (Wordnet search, 1), a controversial topic in today’s society, a subject that many people try to sweep under the rug, but yet a detrimental problem that has been present in America since the colonial era. Will this dilemma come to a halt? Can all Americans see each other as equals despite their skin color and nationality; and what role has it played in past generations versus today’s generations and how will it affect our future? Has this on going way of thinking gotten better or worse? These are questions raised when many think about the subject; especially members of American ethnic groups and backgrounds, because most have dealt with racial discrimination in their life time.
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”(Lyndon Johnson). For generations in the United Stated, ethnic minorities have been discriminated against and denied fair opportunity and equal rights. In the beginning there was slavery, and thereafter came an era of racism which directly impacted millions of minorities lives. This period called Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system up in till mid 1960s. Jim Crow was more than just a series of severe anti-Black laws, it became a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were positioned to the status of second class citizens. What Jim Crow did is represented the anti-Black racism. Further on, In 1970’s the term “War on Drugs” was coined by President Richard Nixon . Later President Ronald Reagan officially declared the current drug war. In reality the war had little to do with drug crime and a lot to do with racial politics. The drug war was part of a strategy of used by the government. The President identified drug abuse as national threat. Therefore, they called for a national anti-drug policy, the policy began pushing for the involvement of the police force and military in drug prohibition efforts. The government did believe that blacks or minorities were a cause of the drug problem. They concentrated on inner city poor neighborhoods, drug related violence, they wanted to publicize the drug war which lead Congress to devote millions of dollars in additional funding to it. The war on drugs targeted and criminalized disproportionably urban minorities. There for, “War on Drugs” results in the incarceration of one million Americans ...
According to statistics since the early 1970’s there has been a 500% increase in the number of people being incarcerated with an average total of 2.2 million people behind bars. The increase in rate of people being incarcerated has also brought about an increasingly disproportionate racial composition. The jails and prisons have a high rate of African Americans incarcerated with an average of 900,000 out of the 2.2 million incarcerateed being African American. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics 1 in 6 African American males has been incarcerated at some point in time as of the year 2001.
The culture was highly influenced but it also influenced the american culture as a whole. The United states and the African American community has had a plentiful of conflicts in the past as well as the present. Historical accounts of slavery and segregation have caused a riff between a race and a country. From the justice system to the education system, african americans have always been given the short end of the stick. In terms of justice, the united states is seen as a prison country. According to naacp.org “Today, the US is 5% of the World population and has 25% of world prisoners.” the united states is no stranger to prisons. Yet, the overwhelming amount of african american youths and people in general is eye opening. “African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population”(naacp) and “Nationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile arrests, 44% of youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are judicially waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice). Socially, times have improved for the african american community. Yet, statistics draw attention to a bigger picture. The black power movement and the symbol of the black fist serve a purpose. The purpose is to never forget where a people has come from and how far is left to go. The first is an engine that never stops, it fuels the fire of many americans who have felt the weight of oppression and who still feel it in the 21st
In the United States, the rate of incarceration has increased shockingly over the past few years. In 2008, it was said that one in 100 U.S. adults were behind bars, meaning more than 2.3 million people. Even more surprising than this high rate is the fact that African Americans have been disproportionately incarcerated, especially low-income and lowly educated blacks. This is racialized mass incarceration. There are a few reasons why racialized mass incarceration occurs and how it negatively affects poor black communities.
The US prisons are filled with mostly African Americans and Latinos. This started because the large amount of African Americans in prison after the Civil War because of the Black Codes. The people of the US thought and still do think that just because more African Americans are in prison that something is wrong with them. I have heard many arguments from mental issues to genetics. Neither of them are the case, clearly African Americans are being targeted and it is not easy to end the cycle. I want to explain a fictional story about a boy named Jamal who is like many young Inter-City kid. Jamal an African American lives in a single parent home with two younger brothers in neighborhood full of gangs and circulation of drugs. Jamal is a drug free and not gang affiliated he also is a straight a student and is headed to high school the next year. He is ten times more likely to go to prison then a white a student who is a drug and gang affiliated with poor grades. Jamal and the white student can both have no father in their homes and even live in the same neighborhood but the probability of Jamal going to jail is just much higher. The prison system is made for the minorities in the society and until the racial attitudes in this country change the mass criminalization of minorities will never
This paper will use various books, journals, and videos to highlight its effect on society. In his book Death of a Negro, Delridge Hunter a professor at Medgar Evers College from 1977-present ,and past director of COSEP Cornell University 1970-1977, gives a view point of the African American that few people have explored. His book covers everything from music to movements. This book is relevant to my topic in that according to him Europe was the place that was chosen to “make the distinction between equals.” Whereby, they occupy the dominant, most favored position, or as in chess, the White position in which it explains how the dominant group that dominates the most valued position has controlled and manipulated various aspects of our society. Moving forward to Michelle’s Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow Laws, Michelle Alexander A longtime civil rights advocate and litigator, who now holds a joint appointment at the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, Alexander's main hypothesis, from which the book gets its name, is that "mass incarceration is, symbolically, the New Jim Crow." . This is relevant to my topic in that even though we minorities have made tremendous contributions to this world we are still looked down upon and still considered to be inferior. In Michelle Alexander’s book