Motherhood. The journey of motherhood can mark a new chapter in a woman’s life. Whether you’re a mother of two or a soon to be mother, motherhood is a path that can affect every woman differently. Being a mother isn’t easy. There are days where it can be stressful, emotional or exhausting. As a mother you maybe thinking about having to change dirty diapers or cleaning up the messes that your child makes. A concern that a mother should never have is whether she’s going to be brutalized by a police officer. Motherhood is wielded as a weapon of policing and punishing Black mothers and mothers of color. In my paper I will discuss the police brutality, policing and criminalization of Black mothers and mothers of color.
Police brutality against
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The violence that Black mothers and mothers of color face is not only gender-specific but also race-based. West The violence that Black mothers and mothers of color face is happening at an overwhelming rate day by day with no national coverage of the stories. The violence inflicted upon the mothers happen by police officers using taser, physical force and denying the mothers access to medical attention. Tasers are supposed to be used as a “go to” weapon but when they are employed by police officers they are used inappropriately on people especially pregnant women. One example of inaproppiate taser use happened with Malika Brooks who refused to sign a speeding ticket that an officer gave her. The officer then tased Malika’s pregnant body and dragged her to the police car. Since 38% of the 36 of the 50 biggest police departments don’t have any regulations on using tasers against pregnant women its no wonder why they are used so often. Not only do police officers tase pregnant women at an alarming rate they also resort to physical violence against pregnant women. From the stories of Kwamesha …show more content…
The movement for the war on drugs started in the 1970s by President Richard Nixon. The government’s purpose for starting the war on drugs was to prohibit the illegal drug use and illegal drug distribution. The war on drugs had support from some but others felt that the motive behind the war on drugs was racist and further incarcerated Black people and people of color. The war on drugs have been said to mostly effect Black and Latino men but people also forget that Black mothers and mothers of color were criminalized because of the war on drugs. The war on drugs caused law enforcement to target mostly low-income Black mothers and mothers of color. According to the study Susan Miller conducted most women that were locked up for drug charges were mothers and on welfare prior to their arrest (117). In Charleston, South Carolina a Black mother was hauled away by police officers in handcuffs and shackles after giving birth to her baby. When the officers found traces of drugs in the mother’s umbilical cord blood, the police officers charged her with delivering drugs to a minor (her baby) and was separated from her newborn until she went to trial. With Black women being animalistic and indulgent their pregnancy was “degeneracy”. According to Carolyn West oppressive images can be damaging if there are no positive actions to negate the images (288). This justified the reasoning for singling out Black mothers to get
The final chapter of The New Jim Crow reviews the manner in which the Black community might respond to the racism that exists today. Some research implies that we in America have reached a point of attrition as to incarceration and the positive effects outweighing the negative effects of marginalization and collateral damage to the community. By some research, the "War on Drugs" procreates poverty, joblessness, family breakdown, and crime.
“Just Say No!” A statement that takes us deep into yet another decade in the history of the United States which was excited by controversies, social issues, and drug abuse. The topic of this statement is fueled by the growing abuse of cocaine in the mid 1980s. I shall discuss the effects of the crack cocaine epidemic of the mid 1980s from a cultural and social stand point because on that decade this country moved to the rhythms and the pace of this uncanny drug. Cocaine took its told on American society by in the 1980s; it ravaged with every social group, race, class, etc. It reigned over the United States without any prejudices. Crack cocaine was the way into urban society, because of its affordability in contrast to the powdered form. In society the minorities were the ones most affected by the growing excess of crime and drug abuse, especially African Americans; so the question was “Why was nearly everybody convicted in California federal court of crack cocaine trafficking black?” (Webb: Day 3). The growing hysteria brought forth many questions which might seem to have concrete answers, but the fact of the matter is they are all but conspiracy in the end, even though it does not take away the ambiguity and doubt. I will take on only a few topics from the vast array of events and effects this period in time had tended to. Where and who this epidemic seemed to affect more notably, and perhaps how the drugs came about such territories and people. What actions this countries authority took to restore moral sanity, and how it affected people gender wise.
“Crack-babies” a media induced phenomena brought about by the climax of public outcry from the results of the 1980’s war on drugs. This term laid the foundation for biased prosecutions which sparked a political crusade during climate of the time. Thus exploiting the public’s fear of children born to substance addicted mother and creating a firestorm of litigation to prosecute pregnant drug addicts. According to Flavin, Paltrow (2010), current evidence points to public stigmas and prejudice as posing a greater danger to both maternal and fetal health than use of the drug itself. Leaving the question as to why addicted women are still publicly reviled for the outcomes of their circumstances. From this abhorrence stems the likelihood that these women would be deterred from seeking prenatal care than to seek help for their addiction; expelling an even greater issue as the concern of health care is then added to the mix. The complex social issues then must be taken into consideration to underscore the need for policymakers to allow for the legal and medical systems to better create programs for these women and allot for rehabilitation instead of punitive solutions.
This quote shows what a study found in Seattle, that the population in Seattle is seventy percent but most of the people in jail are blacks. Seattle has a problem where cocaine and crack are the main drugs being abused and sold, but the people who sell it the most are whites, but the majority who end up in jail for cocaine or crack charges are African Americans. Well this happens because black people do drugs but also white people, but the ones who are the victims of incarceration are blacks, this mainly due to the way the law enforcements act towards the poor colored communities. The issue arose from people that are non white abusing certain drugs, the drugs got outlawed every time a certain race abused it.
Now in a more politically correct society, if law makers wanted to pass legislature that adversely affected a specific racial group they would have to do so incognito. The War on Drugs might not say in plain text that blacks are affected differently than whites but they are, similarly to the Jim Crow laws. This unequal treatment has always been inevitable to happen because white people have always had more influence in the government. After the Jim Crow laws were abolished there was a period where equality wasn’t something impossible to think about. After the War on Drugs started it took all of that hope away. The drug war is not fought equally throughout the United States, instead it is fought in the inner cities where mostly black people reside. An excerpt from Alexanders book describes how blacks were targeted by the media which fed from the Regan
Cohen supports this argument when he writes that “At the root of the drug-prohibition movement in the United States is race, the driving force behind the first laws criminalizing drug use” (p 56). Cohen explains how Southern Progressives’ used image and narration to target African Americans as criminal public menaces. White employers in 1880’s New Orleans provided cocaine as a stimulant to African American dock laborers in order to help them endure the extreme exertion and long hours of loading and unloading ships (p. 70). Cocaine spread through the South to the agricultural working class, and the use of the drug grew steadily as African Americans discovered that they could work longer hours and make more money (Cohen, p. 70). Ultimately, African Americans began using cocaine recreationally, which fueled Reformers and white supremacists’ manufacture of “pornographic nightmares of black men raping white women …medical journals reported on the ‘Negro cocaine menace’…newspapers ran exposés on the use of cocaine ‘by the lowest, most criminal and depraved portion of any city’s population’”…medical doctor Edward Huntington Williams’ warned that cocaine “renders the user immune to shock”…policemen stated, “the cocaine nigger is sure hard to kill,” to perpetuate “the myth that the primary function of the system is to keep our streets safe and our homes secure by rooting out dangerous criminals and punishing them” (Cohen, pp. 72-3;
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
The War on Drugs is believed to help with many problems in today’s society such as realizing the rise of crime rates and the uprooting of violent offenders and drug kingpin. Michelle Alexander explains that the War on Drugs is a new way to control society much like how Jim Crow did after the Civil War. There are many misconceptions about the War on Drugs; commonly people believe that it’s helping society with getting rid of those who are dangerous to the general public. The War on Drugs is similar to Jim Crow by hiding the real intention behind Mass Incarceration of people of color. The War on Drugs is used to take away rights of those who get incarcerated. When they plead guilty, they will lose their right to vote and have to check application
The New Jim Crow is the direct consequences of War on Drug. That aimed at reducing, preventing and eradicate drug usage in America through punitive means. The effect of the war on drug policies returned de jure discrimination, denied African Americans justice and undermined the rule of law by altering the criminal justice system in ways that deprive African Americans civil rights and citizenship. In the “New Jim Crow” Alexandra argues that the effects of the drug war policies are not unattended consequences but coordinated by designed to deny African Americans opportunity to gain wealth, excluded from gaining employment and exercise civil right through mass incarceration and felony conviction.
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
These stories were riddled with stereotypes and bias and because of these stories there has been a government lead war on drugs that is racially fueled towards Black Americans. In 1971 President Nixon declared War on Drugs in the United States of America. With the War on Drugs cam e hefty prison sentences and a racial bias towards the Black American public. Black Americans were coming off the tail end of the Civil Rights movements, only to be segregated again in the statistics that were coming out about drugs and the fallacy of highest population of
The general idea that Loseke is trying to get across with this article is how the social problem of mothers having babies while on drugs perpetuates inequality. It paints black mothers to be the neglectful parents lacking responsibility over themselves in addition to a child. The children in these social problems play the role of the victim. As mentioned in Chapter 8 of Loseke’s Thinking About Social Problems, objectively, poor people are usually the victims of social problems. In addition to racial inequality, Loseke also mentions how social class inequality is a consequence of this social problem. These children are born into a life of being poor and living on welfare, it is simply a reproduction of poverty. It also plays into how it may make the audience fearful of “crack babies” and the imagery painted around them and the medical conditions they have presumably occurred. The term “crack babies” was also examined in this article which helps us to categorize these conditions.
When it comes to the topic of war on drugs,most of us will readily agree that the war on drugs is not about the drugs But about the people. Many Politicians and law enforcement will argue that the war on drugs is about our nation's wealth and safety.however they don't see the destruction the war on drugs has caused; The war on drugs has recreated this new system of discrimination among the minority community, individuals and communities are being profiled,their rights as citizen are being seized ,individuals being stripped away from their families. They’re being locked up with no hope to live the American dream in their our country.
Protests around the world have taken place to fight for justice in the black community. The immense number of deaths of unarmed black men and women is a clear sign that they are more likely to be killed by police than white people. Physical violence and excessive use of force by the U.S. police towards African Americans are seen in the news regularly. “People, including police officers, hold strong implicit associations between blacks, and probably Hispanics, and weapons, crime and aggression," said Jack Glaser. Police brutality statistics show that African Americans are three times more likely to be murdered by cops than any other race. Racial disparity in the United States is a coherent reason for the increase of criminal injustice in the United
Crime is everywhere and it takes a special group or team of people to stop it, or make crime less tempting to do. The main job of police and security officers is to maintain justice, order and peace. In order to keep peace police officers must go through an academy that will prepare them for most situations that they will have to face later on in their career. Some situations require a more intense way to solve a problem such as using force or putting the perpetrator in fear so they will give in to what the police are asking. In some cases the peretrator(s) are too volatile or risky for the basic trained police officer, so the swat team must be used. The swat team unit or “special weapons and tactics” is a higher trained police force. It is a select group of officers that have been through more training and more experience than the average cop. Without the police or security civilians may not feel as safe as they do now when they are walking in the streets or going to a public event. For the people who want to be part of such a unit and are willing to put people before themselves will need to know what it takes to be a police officer.