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Racial Injustice

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The first reading “From Slavery to Mass Incarceration” by Loïc Waquant analyzes how racial injustice has been continually perpetuated from 1618 to modern times, through the use of four racial institutions: Slavery, Jim Crow laws, Ghetto, Hyperghettos and Prisons. As we have discussed in class the differentiation between black and white was used to justify slavery and reducing slaves to live property instead of people. In doing so they were deprived from basic human rights and status. As slavery, it was officially abolished, its basis was still intact in the form of sharecropping, which indebted the workers to the land owner. Racial fear still escalated, which lead to the creation of Jim Crow laws to once again separate the two races, by dehumanizing …show more content…

As we have learned in previous readings, people relate crime to the typical criminal which is characterized as black, poor, urban and male. This racial typification has led to greater social control, which currently aims at reducing crime and deviance, as stated in our previous reading. We also know that media, specifically the news plays a big role in perpetuated these racial stereotypes and fear through the selection of the violent crimes and criminals they portray. This perpetuated fear affects mainly whites, which leads to their support in harsher punishments and policies that are directed towards blacks because whites support the idea that crime is racial as evidenced through their exaggeration of black involvement in violent crime and burglary. Of course, other variables like education, religious beliefs, and racial prejudice impact this view that crime is a racial activity, but even after controlling for these mainly whites still use racially typification to substantially support harsh punishments and polices. Especially whites who were categorized as less concerned about crime, perceived it to be less violent and were less racially prejudiced but are politically conservative. These harsher punishments and policies intend to act as

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