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13th Essay

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Although race is a social construct that categorizes people based on physical traits, sociologists argue that it is a social idea rather than a biological one. Social construction of race refers to the process through which society creates and maintains racial categories, meanings, and hierarchies. Sociologists investigate how race influences people's experiences, opportunities, and life chances, and they fight to end racial injustice and promote social justice. Understanding race is important in the criminal justice system because it exposes structural imbalances and injustices that disproportionately affect marginalized populations. "The criminal justice system, in targeting black men through the war on drugs and other policies, has created …show more content…

It highlights the system's persistent racial biases and systemic inadequacies, suggesting that racial superiority was maintained by discriminatory laws and practices even after slavery was legally abolished. Mass incarceration is shown in the movie as a modern form of racialized social control that promotes poverty, disenfranchisement, and institutional racism. Through interviews, it analyzes the catastrophic impact on individuals and communities, challenging viewers to critically evaluate the relationship between race, politics, and criminal justice, and arguing for serious reform and a reevaluation of cultural …show more content…

Advocating for diverse media representation, promoting education and awareness to challenge biases, enacting and enforcing anti-discrimination legislation, fostering inclusivity in all sectors, addressing implicit biases through training, engaging communities, supporting allyship and advocacy, implementing systemic reforms, empowering marginalized communities, and encouraging ongoing self-reflection are all part of the process. By combining these approaches, society can advance toward a more inclusive and equitable future for all. If you have a position of privilege and/or power, admit it and respect the feelings of others. Avoid racial color blindness, which reduces people of color's experiences. "In the age of colorblindness, using race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt is no longer socially acceptable." (DuVernay, 2016) As a result, we do not. Rather than relying on race, we use our criminal justice system to identify individuals of color as 'criminals,' and then engage in all the practices we abandoned. Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow," expresses this striking quote. The remark emphasizes the concept of colorblind racism, in which open racial discrimination is substituted by laws and practices that appear to be race neutral. It focuses on how the criminal justice system has been used to disproportionately target and control people of color,

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956 Words | 4 Pages

Racism and racial discrimination has been a major issue in the U.S. since the colonial periods, where people have been treated differently only based upon their race. Although the civil rights movement opposed racial discrimination, the act of stereotyping individuals still continues till this day. Racial profiling by law enforcement is commonly defined as a practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race, religion or national origin. A recent case, involving a young black man named Michael Brown is an example of how a police officer may act differently when facing an African American. “Ferguson Grand Jury Evidence Reveals Mistakes, Holes In Investigation” is an article written by Jason Cherkis’s and published on November

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973 Words | 4 Pages

It also highlights the connection of racial injustice to the war on drugs and the Jim Crow eras and their manifestation within the social justice system. The analogies and analysis provided throughout these chapters really gave me insight into the function of racial injustice and systems of oppression in the criminal justice

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1645 Words | 7 Pages

The main theme that is known throughout the book is that mass incarceration of blacks is essentially the “New Jim Crow” because it works to capture mostly African Americans and because of its similarity to the old caste systems of race. It’s also evident that once you do time in a correctional facilities an African American, all of the old discriminations like housing discrimination, employment discrimination, denial to further your education, and exclusion of jury service are suddenly legal again. When joined with the actuality that whites are more likely to commit drug related crimes than blacks, the issue shows a clear message from Alexander. The main targets of race can be spotted mainly by race. This eventually leads Alexander to be convinced that mass incarceration is "a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow.”

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776 Words | 4 Pages

The film 13th is a documentary that explains how the prison systems are another form of slavery and is built to effect colored individuals and colored communities. The film identifies and explained a loop hole in the 13th amendment, which banned slavery. The loop in the amendment is that slavery and involuntary servitude is illegal unless a person is convicted of a crime. This clause in the amendment led to the first prison boom in America and mass incarceration. This film opened my eyes to underlying aspects of things that I have had previous knowledge about.

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1085 Words | 5 Pages

The criminal justice system is utilized as a means to maintain oppression of Black people even after slavery was abolished. Through minor offenses and possession of even small amounts of drugs, Black people are often subjected to long periods of incarceration. This serves as a way to enforce labor without slavery. The documentary aims to highlight the fact that the legacy of slavery and racial oppression continues to exist in the United States through the criminal justice system. According to Owusu-Bempah and Wortley's "Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice in Canada," “Aboriginal and black Canadians, are grossly overrepresented in Canada’s correctional institutions.

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924 Words | 4 Pages

The fourth chapter explores how the system of mass incarceration affects African American communities both during incarceration and after being released with the title of being a felon. The fifth chapter is where the author explains the title of the book, being the idea of how the “Age of Colorblindness” has created a world where the discrimination is harder to witness from the outside since it is under the disguise of the criminal justice system. This chapter also compares the potential for harm in the modern system to the harm that came from the Jim Crow laws. The sixth and final chapter explores the ideas of how the status quo in society makes it harder to dismantle the system of mass

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1077 Words | 5 Pages

After the Civil War, people of color were arrested in mass numbers, as the words, “except as a punishment for crime” allowed them to be enslaved and used for free labor to rebuild the economy (13th, 3:50). The documentary explains how several presidential campaigns, the war on drugs, the 1994 crime bill, the portraying of black people as “super predators” in the media, and the impact of ALEC and its partnership with the CCA have largely affected the rates of people of color being incarcerated on the terms of injustice and the racist system that history has

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692 Words | 3 Pages

While the novel focuses on the struggle of inner city inhabitants to afford their basic necessities, namely housing, the impact the criminal justice system plays in this struggle must also be examined to understand more completely the depth of their strife. By creating a criminal justice system that disproportionately targets people of color by way of mass incarceration, a cycle of poverty in communities of color is enforced. Because being incarcerated makes gaining employment and being an effective member of society significantly more challenging, it becomes exceedingly difficult for people to escape the cycle of poverty. While the effects of the criminal justice system are not solely responsible for the inescapable nature of poverty, it surely plays an important role. Furthermore, by targeting minority communities, an increase distrust between law enforcement and these communities is fostered and community members look elsewhere for

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983 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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652 Words | 3 Pages

Jim Crow, slavery and the mass incarceration are system of laws, and policies to maintain power inferiority among people of color. Alexander asserts that colorblindness cause Jim Crow to “continue” to exist. Specifically, the U.S Supreme court is not interested in how severe the racism is and its impacts. Therefore, racial injustice continues to exist, and that mass incarceration is like the Jim

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1343 Words | 6 Pages

Her central thesis is that mass incarceration is “The New Jim Crow,” or the new system of control used by the government to uphold racial class in the U.S. This book will be helpful to my research because it directly discusses the topic of race and the criminal justice system. Amnesty International. (2003). United States of America: Death by discrimination

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718 Words | 3 Pages

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

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1721 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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509 Words | 3 Pages

The mass incarceration of black men serves to define the meaning and significance of race in America today. Previously, race (black) was defined as slaves; today, race (black) is defined as criminals. Thus, mass incarceration perpetuates and deepens a pre-existing pattern of racial segregation and isolation. African Americans are being sold to private prisons and are warehoused in prisons for long time and once they get out of prison, they are labeled and destined to carry a stigma that extends to the family members, friends and even to their

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629 Words | 3 Pages

The media depicts African American males, in particular, as dangerous and the ones who commit really serious crimes such as rape or murder. African Americans are shown as criminals on television more than they really are, which has an influence on the public of being scared of African Americans who have been referred to as super predators in the past. Some African Americans cannot help but agree with the notion that they are criminals because it is what they have been told and seen which makes them terrified of themselves. All of this goes back to what was touched on in class on how incarceration is an important social justice issue that impacts the individual, family, and children which usually results in negative outcomes overall. Last but not least, an issue raised in the film was that state institutions have legally produced criminalization, particularly targeting minority communities.

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