Historical Conversation Project - Essay Example

Historical Conversation Project Id: of the Pre Writing The topic that is chosen for the following essay is the criminalization of black people. The penal system in the United State of America is unprecedented in the world History. It is a system of mass incarcerations. It is found that millions of people are locked up in the prisons in the United States. It is surprising to note that most of these people are people of poor origin and people of color. The people are locked up in what can be called as cages and are treated in a way that is worst than how animals are treated. When these people are finally released they are stripped of their basic rights as citizens. These were the right that were won in the civil rights movement and includes the right to vote, right to serve on jury and the right to be free from legal discrimination in different aspects. These forms of discriminations are the one which were supposedly left behind and abolished by the Jim Crow rulings. These same things that were abolished are suddenly made legal once a person is branded as a criminal. Thus according to the words of Michelle Alexander the racial cast system in America has not ended but has been redesigned. The situation has come to a level that the criminal justice system in America functions in a way as a racial and social control than as a system for crime prevention and control. Millions of children in the United States grow up believing that they too will one day go to jail. The young people are often targeted at young ages often before they are old enough to vote and then these children are stopped frisked searched and interrogated. When these children are arrested they are typically arrested for a relatively minor non violent offence. The offence they are acquitted for are mostly drug related offence. However the startling fact to note over here is that when the same crimes are committed by middle class children of white communities, it gets largely ignored. The blacks are arrested, swept in and are branded as criminals and felons and are ushered into a permanent second class status from which these people will never be able to escape. In the Jim Crow era poll taxes and literacy tests were used to keep the black people away from voting right. Today the same things are accomplished albeit in a much bigger proportions by a different set of laws. The fact is that this is not an isolated affair. On the counter side in many of the large urban areas that exists today it is found that more than half of the African American men have criminal records. These people are then subjected to discrimination granted by the laws for the rest of their lives. There are many who argue that these mass incarcerations are a way to control the increasing crime rates. However this is not true. It is found that in the period of 30 years when the prison population increased to such levels it was found that the crime rates varied and sometimes went up and at other times went down. It is also found that currently the crime rates at some parts of the country are at historical low. However, when it comes of incarceration rates it is found that it has constantly soared. It is generally agreed upon by the Criminologists and Sociologists that in the United States the crime rates and incarceration rates move independently. It is found that there are more people in jail today for offence related to drug than the entire number of people who were incarcerated for all offences in the 1980. It is additionally also found that while most Americans violate laws related to drug abuse in their life time, the enemy in the war or the people generally criminalized are racially defined. Whereas studies suggest that whites are more prone to drug abuse a peek into the prison shows a different picture. What paints a further sorry picture of the affairs is that the Supreme Court has immunized the system of mass incarcerations from judicial scrutiny for racial bias much in the same way that it once rallied to the defense of slavery and Jim Crow in their days. Outline The following essay is a brief write up about the criminalization of the black people in America and the fact that the criminal justice in America is racially biased. The focus of the essay is on the fact that racial bias against the black population has not been eradicated but has merely changed its form. It is seen that that the criminal justice in the country and the population of the country in general are biased against the black community. It is found that when all the Americans commit the same crime it is often the Black who is victimized. It is also found that these African American peoples are stopped, searched, frisked and arrested at an early age; often before they have the right to vote. It is often found that these people are left from payroll after few months or years. However once these people have been branded as a felon they have to live a second class life for the rest of the period and are stripped of their basic human rights which were granted to them after the civil rights movement. After they are released from the prisons they do not enjoy their civil rights like the right to vote etc, they are not able to get any job neither they are able to get house loans or food subsidies any longer. This has been explored further in the following pages as part of this essay. Thesis statement: African Americans are not treated in the similar way as their fellow white counterparts and are subjected to racial bias. Black and Brown youths are frequently criminalized in America- in the Washington DC area it is found that the black kids are 2 to 5 times more likely to be suspended or expelled from the schools as compared to their white classmates. In the New York City for example it was found that over the course of a 4 month period in the summer and fall of 2011, of the 63 students who were arrested in the school other than 4 rest all were either black or Latino (Smith). It isn’t so that the behavior of the black is more disruptive but people tend to think in that way. The racial cast system has not ended in America but has been redesigned -Today, in the United States there are more African American adults under correctional control in the prisoner jails on probation parole than the total number of people enslaved in 1850, 10 years before the start of Civil war. As of 2004 there is more number of black people who were denied the right to vote than in the 1870s when laws were enacted that prohibited laws related to exclusive denial of the right to vote on the basis of race. It is found that over a period of 30 years the prison population in America actually quintupled. In the 1970s the prison population was about 300,000 people. In this comparison the total incarcerated population today stands at 2 million (Alexander 20-200). The incarceration rates in United States of America is highest in the world and dwarfs the rate that is found in the regimes that are termed as highly repressive like the Russia, China or Iran. These numbers may show that African American population are more dangerous as a race and are infested with criminals. However, this is not the case. It is seen that most of the rise in number of mass incarcerations is due to the rise in the number of people arrested on drug related issue. It is also seen that where as the whites are equally responsible for drug related abuse it is often the blacks who are targeted and are put behind the bars. It is also quite often seen that when the people are put behind the bars once then their entire life gets spoiled. They are branded to a life of second class. Roots of Racism run deep into the American soil- The act of racism and the target of the black citizen in America is not a thing of past in America. It is often found that there are several groups in America who like to recruit and tell people that the black and brown people are the one who are responsible for all the wrong that is going on in their lives. There are still acts of violence and acts of mass killings that are being committed against the black people in America. It is seen that the people or the citizens in America are biased against the Black in the United States. The racism and racial killings in America have begun from a time in 1619 when the black were brought to the American soil as slaves (Robinson). Whereas the fight by Martin Luther king Junior and other social activists have helped in bringing equal rights for all the people in the American society but the mindset of people haven’t changed at all. African Americans are mostly perceived as criminals- It is seen that out of the total American population only 13% are black and amongst them only 14% are reported as monthly drug users. However, it is seen that 37% of the people who are arrested for drug related abuses are African Americans. As of 2010 it was seen that if an African American and a white are arrested for the same crime then it is seen that the African American or the black will receive 10% long sentences as compared to their white counterpart. It is also seen in studies that police are found to be more likely to pull over and frisk the blacks and the Latinos than the white population. For example in the New York it was seen that 80% of the stops were made on the Latinos and Blacks. It was also seen that among this people 85% were frisked as compared to the fact that only 8% of the white people were ever stopped. It is also more likely in 33% of the cases that an African American will be detained while facing trial for felony after being arrested in New York City. It is seen that African Americans are less prone to committing a drug related abuse as compared to a fellow white citizen. However it is seen that if one take a peek inside the prisons of America then one can see that most of the people arrested are blacks. It is also seen that the rate of mass incarcerations have moved independently of the rate of increase or criminal activity. It is thus seen that while the rate of criminal activity has gone up at certain times and gone down at other times, however the rate of mass incarcerations has constantly moved up. Filing of minor African Americans- In the Illinois for example unlike other states in the United States of America if it is found that a juvenile is involved in a criminal activity which are most often non violent then he is charged of felony and is treated like an adult prisoner unlike in other states where there is a separate juvenile justice system for them. It is found that about 54 percent of the 17 year old who are prosecuted in the adult courts are either convicted of drug deals or property theft. It is also found that amongst all the cases of convictions 58% were for the non violent activities. If the cases of robbery without a gun are added then it comes out that 71% of all the convictions are for non violent offences. It is also found that 77% of those convicted are black and most of them belong to impoverished areas. These are the areas that have the highest unemployment rates in the country (Caputo). Thus it is seen that there is a clear case of racial bias that is happening. Works Cited Alexander, Michelle. The new Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of color-blindness. NY: New Press. 2012. Print. Caputo, Angela. Seventeen. 1 September 2010. Web. 26 June 2015. < http://chicagoreporter.com/seventeen/ > Robinson, Eugene. Racism’s roots still extend deep into America’s soil. 26 June 2015. Web. 26 June 2015. < http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/jun/26/racisms-roots-still-extend-deep-americas-soil/ > Smith, Mychal Denzel. On the Routine Criminalization of Americas Black and Brown Youth. 31st January 2013. Web. 26 June 2015. < http://www.thenation.com/blog/172559/routine-criminalization-americas-black-and-brown-youth# > Read More