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The impact of racial stereotypes
Racial Stereotypes and their Effects
The impact of racial stereotypes
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The impact of racial stereotypes
Racial Stereotypes and their Effects
The impact of racial stereotypes
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The impact of racial stereotypes
This is a topic that seems to come up in the African American community quite often. Statistics shows that 5 out of 10 persons wrongly accused of a crime are African American. (George) Harrison was released and exonerated of the crime that had him imprisoned for 17.5 years. As a blessing, Harrison dated a woman that stayed by his side the entire time of his incarceration. Being that he had someone to fall back on; he was able to settle into life much better than newly freed person from prison after having served numerous years.
On the subject of comparing today’s events of African Americans standing up for justice and before the 60’s when they were fighting for justice, I am going to talk about the Trayvon Martin story. Trayvon Martin was an African American teenager who was in a lot of trouble in school having been suspended three times and even was caught with drugs in his book bag by the principal of his school. After he had came from the store buying skittles and an Arizona iced tea according to George Zimmerman (the man who shot Trayvon) he had said that, "This guy looks like he 's up to no good, or he 's on drugs or something. It 's raining, and he 's just walking around. " After he had told this to the dispatcher, he ended up following Trayvon with the intent
I remember stumbling on a social media experiment video on youTube a few weeks ago where some African Americans wanted to see how the police will react when they see a white or a black guy with a gun on the street. To my greatest surprise, the white youth with the gun was only asked why he was in possession of a gun in broad daylight, but on the contrary, the African American was prosecuted for being in possession of a gun. This made me believe that there is the need for African Americans to fight for their humanity, and that this can only be done if they could understand or recognize that oppression does not exist within a closed world from which there is no exit (Darder, 2017, pp. 54). Therefore, they should take a bold step in waging the struggle to restore their humanity. I believe that, the fact that students or youth of color still live in the past (seeing themselves as slaves), which is one of the reasons why many of them engage in different violent acts, the United States justice system has not been fair enough to them.
Over the last couple of years at Dominican University, I have taken numerous courses in sociology and criminal justice. I have learned a great amount about the criminal justice system. Michelle Alexander, who is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar, speaks on the assault against on poor and vulnerable people in American society. In the book, The New Jim Crow, Alexander’s work takes on the systemic breakdown of black and poor communities overwhelmed by a huge quantity of unemployment, social disregard, and forceful police surveillance (Alexander, 2010). Alexander’s “subtle analysis shifts our attention from the racial symbol of America’s achievement to the actual substance of America’s shame: the massive use of
“The Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a letter to eight white clergymen who responded towards King’s acts of protests of segregation. Segregation in the 1960’s was alive and well in the U.S but mainly in Birmingham, Alabama. King went to the city of Birmingham because of the injustice that was happening to fellow black Americans, blacks were limited to their rights, black Americans had a hard time to vote, had to give up their seats on buses, had to use different restrooms, and many other daily issues. King went into Birmingham to protest segregation, which is the separation of groups because of their racial differences, and King wanted an immediate stop to it. “The Letter from Birmingham Jail” is an effective letter.
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s truly sad how ignorance is the main thing driving this inequality that blacks have to face. In one of your most famous speeches, “I Have a Dream” I realized that you addressed many important issues. One being that people still look at African Americans as lost causes.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, introduces the topic of mass incarceration by referring to Barack Obama's speech regarding black men being “better fathers” on Father’s Day. Although several black celebrities, like Bill Cosby and Louis Farrakhan, who “summoned one million black men for a day of “atonement” and recommit to their families and communities” (p. 179) already mentioned the absences of black fathers, media treated the event as memorable. Despite the fact that Obama is aiming to bring families and communities together, media and politicians refuse to acknowledge why there are missing fathers in several families. Though these important individuals want to speak about these family problems, they are afraid to mention that the
We should not always conclude that any crime was committed by a black person, but they are doing it to themselves by backing up the stereotype. In the event of murders and assault cases in the U.S. 40% of them were committed by a black individual. This does give some reason to the stereotypes, but it does not give us the right to judge them all this way. In conclusion, African Americans have been affected by the opportunities they could get and what they could achieve because of how they have been perceived and the stereotypes that have been set on
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.
A big part of our history is the challenges different races had to face when fighting for their rights. There are groups in today’s society that are still battling oppression, even though they were granted rights by our government. It seems like when one door opens, another closes right in their face. One race that had to deal with oppression, and is still dealing with it today, is African Americans. Africans Americans were brought over to the United States to be slaves for Caucasian people.
United States being the most cosmopolitan country in the world is also the country with most incarcerated citizens in the world, being African American, Hispanics or whites. United States also represents about 5 percent of the world population, it’s also houses about 25 percent of the whole world population. Not so obvious that the percentage of black Americans in jail accounts for the same percentage of any race in United States in jail, now. The number increases every week according to the percent increase of high school and college drop outs per city, the same percentage after dropping from school do not engage in any relevant job, but illegal activities and vandalism leading to their incarceration at a tender age.” United states in the
I have chosen to document and research African-American Hate Crimes during the eras of 2007 until 2015. With recent cases of Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and the crimes of San Jose University, I believe this research is more than needed. By researching several forms of accurate and up-to-date literature and research findings I will promote and compile the most accurate and efficient research of these factors as possible with the prevalent information found from over 20 different sources, direct and indirect. Subjects will include and will be limited to African Americans between the ages of 15 and 35, Law Enforcement Officials within Southern States v. Northern States, and Parental Figures of those who have lives lost. With approval
Black children, especially males, are not afforded the same privilege of going through the period of making mistakes and growing that their white
I’m talking about this one, who had been a part of my life as long as I could remember, until one day he wasn’t. On October 1 of 2013, my Uncle Mike was taken to jail for an encounter with police over 10 years prior for the possession of drugs. So, yes, he did commit a crime, but that isn’t the whole story. I 'm not telling you this in some vain attempt to excuse his actions or portray him solely as a victim, because he did, in fact, always have a choice, but I hope by hearing this all of you will understand the direct impact that the marginalization, mass incarceration, and criminalization of African American men have not only on society, but on all African Americans on a very personal level. When my uncle was sent to jail, he left behind his wife, who would then have to essentially take care of two "kids," one being their 5 year old daughter, the other being my uncle.
“I don’t think we should go in there,” Brad said cautiously. “C’mon Brad, would you rather drink the nectar from the flowers in the same boring field like always, or here in this massive garden with a huge variety of flowers that we’ve never even tried?” Bruce asked. The two best friends were resting at the entrance of the marvelous flower garden while the other bees from the hive went to the same field like they always did.