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Modern society with racial profiling
Racial profiling on african americans
Institutional racism and its effects
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In the book, The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander, readers are given a look at the long and extensive history of racism towards African-Americans. From there, the reader is shown how racism towards African-Americans has not gone away and is still very much common in modern society. Throughout the novel, Alexander argues and discusses how African-Americans are being discriminated against in the form of mass incarceration. “Mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the larger web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and out of prison” (Alexander 14). The War On Drugs can largely be put to blame for the increase in incarcerations.
Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Criminal Justice Stevenson through his book has provided various examples that show that people of color and low-income individuals are more likely to be presumed fully prior to presenting their cases. The author has stated that executions are a good example of how norms and policies are used for the purposes of punishing and controlling the people of color For instance, he argues that one in three black people are expected to be sent to jail in their lifetime. Further on, eighty percent of people on death row are black while 65 percent of homicide victims are black.
Since, the majority of African-Americans live in areas of drug involvement, they are more likely to be racially profiled and investigated. This has created an uneven ethnic ratio in prisons and produced stereotypes that affect children that prevent them from becoming abiding citizens.
It also needs to be recognized how it may impact a person or groups day to day lives and decision making in these situations. In keeping with time-tested American traditions, black defendants were 38 percent more likely to be sentenced to die than others who committed similar crimes, according to a study by University of Iowa Law School researchers David Baldus and George Woodworth. Their research team analyzed 667 murders that occurred in Philadelphia from 1983 to 1993. Of the 520 cases involving black defendants, 95 were sentenced to die, while 19 of the 147 non-black defendants received the death penalty. (Clarence, Chicago Tribune,1998).
America’s criminal justice system is racially biased and influenced due to the fact that the punishment a person gets is not related to the crime that 's done, funds that help African
“This might be due to prejudice by police officers causes them to arrest African Americans more frequently thus over criminalizing African Americans” (Macionis, pg. 258). It was sad to see African Americans on every search page, but at the same time it is great to see the majority of them being exonerated. Even though, people of color make up 71% of the exonerees, approximately 60 percent of the victims in these cases were white. Furthermore, “whites accounted for 69.2 % of all arrests in 2011”, but a majority of the people who are incarcerated are people of color” (Macionis, pg. 257). Only .005% of the exonerees are of Asian descent and about 7% are of Latin descent.
Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.
It leaves those in marginalized groups to be more inclined to receive not only a prosecution or arrest but severe punishments such as the death penalty for the same crimes. Prejudice and racial bias “have created a system that is defined by error, a system in which thousands of innocent people now suffer in prison”(Stevenson,16). The unjust impact of the justice system is not limited to prison. Black defendants are four times more likely to receive the death penalty than a non-Black person whose situation is similar (“NACDL - Race and the Death Penalty”). The influence of racial biases in our justice system makes it increasingly hard or even impossible to truly make an impartial decision on an irreversible punishment.
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.
The color of the skin of the victim or defendant is a significant and unacceptable factor in determining who gets the death penalty in America. We have no knowledge of how a person may think, and giving a judge and jury the power to decide on someone's life can result in unfair judgments. “Today, there is growing evidence that racial bias continues in society, particularly within the criminal justice system. The existence of implicit racial bias among some law enforcement officers, witnesses, jurors, and others allows harsher punishment of minorities, even without legal sanction or intention. Although these prejudices are hard to uproot, the unfair application of the death penalty could be halted by eliminating that sentencing option altogether”(Dunham).
The Huffington Post says, “The U.S. incarcerates nearly seven times as many people, measured as a share of population, as Canada does. People of color are disproportionately represented in the American prison population and are typically punished more severely than white peers for the same crimes” (Daniel Marans). Racism against people of color has caused them to be represented poorly in society as potential criminals, especially black. MIT informs its viewers that “according to the United States census Bureau, blacks are twice as likely to be poor compared to other races, and eight times as likely to be imprisoned. Blacks are also three times more likely to be convicted of drug violations than whites.
Do you think America is institutionally racist? Who is at a disadvantage? Institutional racism means that there is a systematic way for certain groups of people to be put at a lower level or advantage than another group of people. There was definitely institutional racism in America about fifty years ago, and I know that because I can name specific institutions who were racist to the black minority. But in order for anyone to fight modern day institutional racism, you have to tell me what company is being racist, tell me why, and we can fight that together.
Systemic Racism in the United States Many individuals today have different point of views on how the United States of America became what it is today. For instance, point of views such as how society learned to function the way it does, the law and order in place, and ultimately, how circumstances have developed throughout history. Unfortunately, institutional/institutionalized racism, also known as systemic racism is also a concept that has settled and is grown to be quite predominant in the United States all through times past. Systemic racism continues to take place in settings such as banks, courts of law, government organizations, school systems, and the like.
For years now there has been a lot of controversy involving the looming question: Is the criminal justice system racist? Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one 's own race is superior. Ever since the Trayvon Martin case of 2012, the justice system has been in a complete downfall including all of the police brutality cases since then also. According to sources, 1 of every 4 African American males born this decade are expected to go to prison in their lifetime. Census Bureau reports that the U.S. is 13 percent percent black, 61 percent white, and 17 percent latino.
Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. said that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” In today’s criminal justice system, it can be said that justice is not always served and that criminals are not always given a fair chance. Injustice to a criminal is still an injustice and often times these injustices occur because of differences. One of the biggest differences in Martin Luther King Jr.’s time and in today’s justice system is the treatment based on race. Race affects in many ways the treatment of people facing capital punishment, all the small things add up to a bigger issue; race.
