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America racism history
Racial inequality in america
Racial inequality in america
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More handpicked essays just for you.
America racism history
Racial inequality in america
Racial inequality in america
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Recommended: America racism history
In her article “The New Jim Crow,” Michelle Alexander powerfully argues that the American prison system has become a redesigned form of disenfranchisement of poor people of color and compares it to the racially motivated Jim Crow laws. She supports her assertions through her experiences as a civil rights lawyer, statistical facts about mass incarceration, and by comparing the continued existence of racial discrimination in America today to the segregation and discrimination during the Jim Crow laws. Alexander’s purpose is to reveal the similarities of the discriminatory and segregating Jim Crow laws to the massive influx of incarceration of poor people of color in order to expose that racism evolves to exist in disguised, yet acceptable forms
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.
Throughout history, the rate of incarceration among African American men has been significantly higher than that of other races. Since the 1970’s, it seems that serving time in jail is the rite of passage for an African American male. One of the contributing factors lies in the disparities of sentencing in the Criminal Justice System, especially during the drug war.
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 United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.
At the start of the 1970s, incarceration appeared to be “a practice in decline.” One of the largest problems facing the world today is the mass incarceration of African Americans, where many arrest African Americans as they claim they appear more threatening. The government has done us wrong; it can avoid these consequences without the imprisonment of these innocent people for such diminutive crimes. These harsh conditions affect many more than just the families, communities, and individuals, but also the economy as confinement has tremendous costs on society. The sad but true reality proves that any White person can do things far more extreme than a “black person.”
Only 75 percent of blacks have received post-high school education, compared to 85 percent of whites. Not surprisingly, blacks on average also make less money than whites” (Philip M. Deutsch). It’s unjust that people of color are treated as inferior to white people, and it is that kind of social issue that interferes with the liberties of all Americans of
A study conducted by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services undertaking claims of sentencing disparities studies the felony sentencing outcomes particularly in New York courts between the years 1990 and 1992. Astonishingly, the study concluded that approximately one-third of minorities sentenced to prison would have received a shorter sentence with the possibility of a non-incarcerative penalty if they had been treated similarly to their white counterparts. Consequently, other sentencing data is consistent with the results of this study’s findings. On a national scale, black males specifically, who were convicted of drug felonies in state courts 52 percent of the time, while white males typically receive prison sentencing approximately 34 percent of the time. In addition, these figures are not constrained to gender given the similar ratio among black and white women as well.
Racial inequality in the criminal justice system can be found on many different levels, from policies, to policing, down to the study of crime itself. This can be seen with the policies that are passes into law especially in regards to punitive measures. Non-Hispanic Whites are more likely to be in favor of punitive measures which will affect the overwhelmingly black prison population (Drakulich). The inequality within the polices becomes greater when one looks at the civil restrictions placed on ex-convicts, without the ability to vote on said polices the whites have a greater say in what will happen to the blacks that are imprisoned, exacerbating the racial inequality (Wheelock).
Solommon Yohannes October 5th, 2017 Sociology& 101 Mr. Woo Racial Inequality Viewed Through the Conflict Perspective Lens The racial inequality that we have in modern day blossomed from the historic oppression and comprehensive prejudice of minority groups. From the very beginning of “American” history, other groups of people who were not of European decent were discriminated against and treated inhumanely and without the smallest regard for their lives. Native American populations were decimated by diseases brought oversea by Europeans and forced from their ancestral lands by settlers to make room for their expanding populations.
“The more things change, the more they remain the same”. While many Americans feel like the years of enslavement in the United States are a thing of the past. Most do not realize the harsh reality that minorities are faced with on a daily due to the color of their skin. It isn’t that the American people are turning their cheeks to this injustice, but rather, they just aren’t aware that in some cities and towns minorities are racially profiled and subjected to harsher punishments than those of their white counterparts. According to an article posted on American Progress, one in every fifteen African American men and one in every thirty-six Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to one in every one hundred and six white men.
Racial Inequality and American History “I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history” (Morgan Freeman). It’s visible in every nation’s history that certain events affect how that nation changes and is influenced over the years. In America, racism played a large part, even from our nation’s inception, in how we functioned, and through the Scottsboro Trials, was finally addressed on a near worldwide scale; the Scottsboro Trials was one of the earliest times in American history that blacks and whites came together and addressed the issue of racism.
Along with African-American/Blacks, the Hispanic population is underrepresented at both the state and federal levels while the Caucasian/White population are underrepresented (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). This essay will discuss multiple different races and ethinicities to regard their population make up within the prison system. Although race and ethnicity relate to one another they are different. According to Walker et al. (2018), race is defined as the, “major biological divisions of mankind,” for
A generation that played by the rules and see progress, fall out the middle class. This shrinking middle class harms people of color more than whites. For example, “the unemployment rate among black Americans is roughly twice that the population, whites, and black people earn, on average, between twelve through twenty-two per cent less than Caucasian people with similar education and experience are on top of the racial hierarchy, while variously shaded African Americans are below caucasian (Siaiecki). Thus Caucasians in socioeconomic position (class) and prestige (status)” (Gans).
A problem I would like to solve is the prevalent racial inequality in the United States today. African Americans and Hispanics are the most underserved racial groups in American society. About 45% of African Americans and 46% of Hispanics live in episodic poverty (defined as poverty lasting less than three years). Over 15% of African Americans are unemployed, and they make up 40% of the prison population in America. This is a shocking statistic, as only 13% of the United States ' population is African American.