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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration

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Racism has been around for a long time and it still exists today. It has been embedded to a degree that it reproduces itself. It is in the culture of the future generation. What is seen and taught to us in our environment is how we learn our behavior and actions towards others. Because of this, whether we realize it or not, racist behavior is taught and passed on. Dismantling this requires dialogue, reflection on ourselves (and others), and relearning our behaviors. In some cases, racism is subtle and in others, it is obvious. Since the Civil Rights Movement, progress has emerged but ignorance and denial of the past and recurrence of history still exist among many. This is covered in the reading, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the …show more content…

It explains how four hundred years of history still affect society to this day. It talks about uncomfortable truths or the truths society ignores and draws from history. Before and during the Civil Rights Movement, many were denied basic rights and were poorly treated. Racial conflict, the suppression of people of color, and white supremacy are shown. When a group is oppressed and dehumanized, it is easier to not care or think about it. It is also easier to deny the reality when one is fixated on a popular myth that unequal treatments and racism ended. The so-called freedom society talks of in America does not apply to everyone. With the stereotypes formed, portrayed, and passed down, oppression continues in obvious and subtle ways. This film showed the affects the stereotypes have on people. Even with an understanding of history, the audience might find themselves rethinking American history and modern …show more content…

I had never heard of James Baldwin before and this film was a great way to learn about him. The strengths of the film were its powerful message and perspective. Despite the time change, America is still living in the 1960s. Meaning that to this day, we are still not treated equally and the race relations get worse day by day. This film captured what has happened in the past and shows the similarities to now. Not only did it show the highs of the Civil Rights Movement, it showed the lows. Police brutality, the faces of those who unfortunately lost their lives, and the horrifying behaviors of ignorant whites were shown. The film was so powerful that there seemed to be no

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The teacher asks whether or not black students still care about racial justice and the boy responds by saying, “In the fifties we still had something to prove so we had a reason to fight”. The teacher asks, “you don’t think black students are competing now?”. His response: “No.” Maybe the filmmakers took this exchange out of context or maybe the student was trying to say something else, but it saddened me to think that there might be children who already feel a sense of defeat. The recent media campaigns surrounding police violence against black individuals, something that has been going on for decades just without media coverage, is showing the public that there is far more that needs to be done in order to make America equal for all races.

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Another part of the film that I found interesting was the sit-in movement. The sit-in movement was started by four black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Let Freedom Ring) This group of black college students refuse to leave the whites-only lunch counter that denied them service. Jim Crow Laws made it impossible for African Americans to be equals in the South.

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I still have the image of Emmet Uncle’s scared eyes when he was testifying at court. He was afraid that he could become a victim of blindness and revenge, just like his cousin did. I cannot forget the eyes of a proud black woman who finally got to sit on the front row of a bus. It’s amazing that such small things can make people happy. I believe that this movie’s goal is not only to educate us on the history of United States, but also to urge us to think progressively, and to believe that hard work is always rewarded, as long as you have a dream and your intentions are

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Racism is still present in society today in a new form dubbed institutional racism. By definition, to institutionalize something is to establish in practice or custom. According to Wikipedia, Institutionalized discrimination refers to the unjust and discriminatory mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals by society and its institutions as a whole, through unequal selection or bias, intentional or unintentional; as opposed to individuals making a conscious choice to discriminate. Institutional racism is an issue

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It shows the what kids during that time went though and what they saw just playing outside. They saw the hate of blacks and whites. The kids saw how badly the black people we thought of and they could not do anything about it. They saw how people could blame anything on a black person and a white person would

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The film focuses on this theme to display how racism still exists in America. Even though it has been over one-hundred years since the end of the civil war, African-Americans are still discriminated against by some people. The filmmaker’s show this by interviewing students in Charleston. Students say that racism is commonplace in their society and that the older generation is the problem. That is another thing that shows me the filmmaker’s attitude towards the subject.

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This movie does a great job reinforcing stereotypes found in the social world. Time seems to repeat itself. Maybe it is just human nature, or maybe something more, but based on my experience watching this movie, I hope people can learn to accept each other no matter what. Whether rich or poor, black or white, we are all on the same side and should treat each other as

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