Diversity in American Society - Essay Example

Diversity in American society How law is a political instrument used by groups to further their own interest In the conflict theory, Karl Marx states that there are two key social groups in a stratified society; the ruling and subject classes. Those who rule obtain their power from the influences of the forces and ownership of production. They oppress and exploit the subject class, leading to a basic conflict of interest among them. Political and legal institutions of the society serve as instruments of the ruling class power to further personal interests (Moen, McClain, & Walker 88). Powerful and rich people in the society force the poor to adhere to social order and the weak to fulfill their own desires. An example to show how this happens may be illustrated in the perspective of crime management. According to conflict theorists, both the law and crime are products of power struggle. A few powerful groups like the police manipulate the legislative procedure, and forbid acts that intimidate their interests. For instance, regulations that forbid theft, trespassing, and vagrancy are believed to protect the rich from being attacked by the poor. Despite the fact that laws against actions like rape and murder seem not to be so obvious in a single social class’ interest, the powerless and the underprivileged are much more probable than the rich to be detained if they commit these kinds of crime. In addition, ethnic and class exploitation are basic roots of most of the crimes in societies. Failure of the powerful class to give legitimate opportunities to the poor is what results in high crime rates among the subject class. The criminal justice system demonstrates classism and racism, thus crime can only be wiped out only if exploitation and inequality are eliminated from the society. How lobbyists and PACS work Lobbyists direct their efforts basically at the national level, that is, to congress committees that regard administrative agencies and legislation that are mandated to write or enforce laws. They depend on individual relations with executive branch and Congress members who keep regular contact. They give evidence at committee hearings, offer data to the staff, and quite frequently, write the laws. On the other hand, Political Action Committees or simply PACs raise and issue money to political aspirants. They may be associated with prevailing interest groups like trade associations, though can exist independently. PACs do not often operate differently from interest groups, but rather finance campaigns of a larger lobby group. The activities lobbyists and PACs do not meet the needs of the middle and lower classes. It is not clear how their contributions really alter policies. Since the contributions by PACs go to the top officials, it has no direct impact to the common citizen. On the other hand, Lobbyists have busy schedules with little time assigned to consider the desires of the lower classes. Further, the influences made by these interest groups are mostly in favor of the executives, who belong to the upper class as compared to the interests of the middle and low classes. Most key politicians and corporations hire professional lobbyists with an aim to endorse their personal interests as intermediaries. This is of no benefit to the local citizen, who may have his interests but no one to represent him at the top ((Moen, McClain, & Walker 121). The story of Emmett Till Emmett’s visit to Money, Mississippi was a tragic one. He was a 14-year old African American boy who was brutality killed following the allegations that he flirted with a white woman some few days earlier. His eyes were scraped out, his head shot, and his body thrown in a river. Till was brought up in a neighborhood full of working class people on the South part of Chicago. His mother had always warned him to be extremely careful wherever he went due to his race, but Till took it lightly. While at his uncle’s place, Till was accused of grapping a white woman and consequently murdered by the woman’s husband. After his body was discovered, his mother insisted that an open casket be used at the burial so that the whole world could witness what racist assassins had done to her son. The jet, a magazine published weekly, wrote the story with Emmett’s photograph and in a few days later, the murderers were put to trial. Few witnesses absolutely recognized the defendants as killers. However, an all-white jury took long to issue a “not guilty” verdict claiming that the State had failed to identify the body. The whole community and particularly the African Americans were upset following the court decision as well as the decision of the state not to indict the murderers on the detached charge of kidnapping. The story tells of the discrimination and social constraints faced by African Americans and how the state, the courts, and all those in power do nothing to eliminate the vice in the community. Instead of helping to combat racism, these institutions promote the vice by covering the guilty racists at the expense of the marginalized group. The story of Richard and Mildred Loving and its impact on interracial marriages Richard was a white man and Mildred was black, both being Virginian citizens. The two went to Washington, DC in 1958 where interracial marriage was legalized, so that they could get married while there. On their return back home, they were put into custody and expelled from the country for 25 years for breaking the Racial Integrity Act of the State. The trial judge gave the sentence of exile with the reason that God created all races and placed them on varying continents, yet the two had interfered with this arrangement; the races were not meant to mix. The couple lived in Washington for five years, with Richard working as a bricklayer. They got three children and with time, sort for some help from a youthful attorney by the name Bernard Cohen. Richard and Mildred asked the Cohen to request the jury at Virginia to reconsider their decision. The attorney claimed that the two were just simple citizens who had no interest in winning a given civil rights principle, but their motive was purely based on love. They demanded for a right to live together peacefully as a husband and wife in Virginia. This was a step that led to the most pivotal moments of the civil rights movement; legalizing interracial marriage. In June 1967, Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 was unanimously declared by the court as unconstitutional and put to end all marriages based on race in the United States. The Loving story brings up debates and discussions regarding interracial marriages and open-mindedness in the U.S. It unites all groups who support equality in marriage to search for understanding and commonalties. It also analyzes the miscegenation crime imposed on the couple, whose origins are in slavery, and the effects it had. Openly revealed, the story motivates mixed race couples and their generations to share their thoughts and struggles and claim their exclusive identities. Disproportionate number of black males and the prison system in the U.S Due to inflexible sentencing principles like “you are out law” and “three-strikes”, disproportionate populations of young black men may be imprisoned for life in situations where they are less guilty than a track of untreated addiction, as well as drug-related offences committed before. In 2005, 9% of all black males in the range between 25 to 29 years were imprisoned, in comparison to 1.5% of whites, and 3% of Hispanic males ((Moen, McClain, & Walker 54). The crimes for which whites and racial minorities are also different. Hispanics and blacks are more probable than whites to be jailed for drug offences. A larger percentage of Blacks than Hispanics are jailed for offences related to drugs as compared to whites, who account for a very little percentage. These disparities are noteworthy on the basis that drug offences comprise a larger share of the increase in state prisoners for minorities as compared to whites. From the statistics that show disproportions, Hispanic and Black males are considerably more probable than whites to be imprisoned in the U.S. However, inequality is not necessarily equivalent to discrimination. Disproportion only shows a disparity in outcomes, denoting that discrimination might be in existence. Discrimination involves dissimilarity attributable to disproportionate treatment through acts such as unfair practices and policies. Studies about sentencing decisions where imprisonment is an option indicates that there are cases of discrimination at times. For instance, young Hispanic and Black males who are unemployed have been imprisoned more severally in comparison to similarly situated white youths, even when brutality of the offence and the history of the crime were considered. Nonetheless, all the explanations, be they true or false, indicate that racial dispropotionality in prisons is extremely a matter of concern in race and justice to be tackled by criminal justice policymakers. Work cited Moen, Phyllis, McClain, Donna, and Walker, Henry. A Nation Divided: Diversity, Inequality, and Community in American Society. New York: Cornell University Press, 1999. Read More