Jim Crow Laws: A Racial Caste System

Between 1877 and the mid to late 1960s, a racial caste system by the name of Jim Crow was put into action in the United States. Jim Crow was a series of extreme anti-black laws which were put into action in the hopes of segregating the whites and blacks in society. Although Jim Crow was present many decades previous, there still exists a form of racial caste system within the United States; this “new” Jim Crow is known as mass incarceration. Mass incarceration has led to a large number of black men to be incarcerated for crimes, such as drug crimes, that are more often than not ignored when committed by white individuals (Alexander, 2010). Today, more black men are imprisoned than at any other point in the history of the United States due to

Both of these racial caste systems where initially constructed and put into place for the benefit of the white elites. During the Jim Crow era, laws were deliberately put into place in order to systematically oppress and segregate the non-white population. These laws were put into play in order to exploit racial biases of the working class white citizens (Alexander, 2010). Although now there are no laws that attempt to segregate or oppress the minorities outright, there are some laws which do so in a more discrete manner. Today, the racial caste system attempts to appeal to racial biases and the vulnerability of lower class majority. For example, in the 1970s up until the 1980s, conservatives “sought to appeal to the racial biases and economic vulnerabilities of poor and working class whites through racially coded rhetoric on crime and welfare” (Alexander, 2010). This therefore shows that in both cases, the majority in society, in both cases the elite whites, benefit from these mentalities in one way or another. In other words, in both cases it seems to be the elite that use the vulnerability of the lower classes in order to progress in society. Additionally, the minority, which are in both cases the black, draw the short straw. Where the black individuals were discriminated against outright, they are now discriminated against in a more discrete manner. However, although this may be true,

During the Jim Crow era, discrimination was legal. This therefore means that it was legal to discriminate against an individual or a group of individuals if one pleased. More specifically, an individual could deny another a job or residency if they chose to for example. Although this is illegal now, there are still methods in which it is possible to discriminate against others. If an individual is labelled as a criminal, although it is not said outright, they are often “subject to legalized discrimination throughout their entire adult life” (Alexander, 2010). In both cases, the minorities are labelled, and seen in a different light than the whites. This can therefore lead to the conclusion that a consequence of this legalized discrimination is the racial caste system, in that the non-white individuals that are discriminated against are unable to integrate themselves into mainstream