Criminalization of Ethnic Groups - Essay Example

? Criminalization of Ethnic Groups Introduction The world today is treated like a battlefield that nurtures fierce competition every passing moment, instead of what the philosophers and thinkers conceived as a global village. Today every human identity is in the pursuance of dominating the other. This competition has grown so intense that it is not only about dominating the other and winning, in fact it is about ravaging the other’s existence and denial of the rights that the other identity possesses. Such a competitive environment within the human race has given birth to historically unheard and beyond imagination concepts of war, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, terrorism etc (Turvey, 2008). With the research conducted for the accomplishment of this paper it is identified that power of media and economic instability are the factors that contribute in criminalizing of various ethnic groups over others. The details of the entire mechanism will be discussed throughout the length of this paper through examples and real life events. Role of Power in Criminalizing Identities With the advancement of internet and technology, the world has become a small place as far as the communication is concerned. Geographical boundaries are becoming less and less significant when it comes to information sharing. Any news, event or surge taking place in one part of the world is shared almost in real time with the other. This information sharing, though, has become exceedingly easy in the modern age; however, it does not come to us without adversities and negative impacts. The growing landmarks achieved by information technology and communication methodologies have shifted the definition of power with a bang (Coleman, Sim, Tombs and Whyte, 2009). Power of Media Power, previously known as the capacity to get things done, is transformed into an ideology that entails influencing people and feeding one’s own thoughts to their minds. Thus the role of communication has gained great importance to the practicing of power, lately. The entire concept of Power and the transition that it has been through over the period of time has evolved a modern day notion known as “the freedom of speech”. Freedom of Speech means that a common man has the right to speak up against the odds that he has been subjected to, at a level or platform that can be heard and noticed by the concerned authorities. This platform is known as media and thus freedom of speech has in turn empowered the media (Coleman, Sim, Tombs and Whyte, 2009). Today power is positively correlated to its ability to influence media. In other words prevalence of power is dependent upon its capacity to manipulate media. With media penetrating deeper and deeper into the lives and minds of the people, the common man to be precise, practicing of power has become easier than it was centuries ago. The powerful entities in the world make powerless entities appear as foes not only to their existence but also to the rest of the world. This leads to the emergence of notions like racial profiling and criminology. The entire mechanism of how it works is extremely complex and intriguing; nonetheless it is very effective and long lasting in terms of its influence on the minds of the people. The criminalization of various groups is not determined on the ground realities anymore; in fact it is determined upon the understanding and interpretation of the events forwarded by the media to the subjects. And how media represents information is handled by those in power (Naber and Jamal, 2007). Macroeconomic Waves Macroeconomic cycles and the impact of their occurrence on the economies of the world also explain categorical racial and ethnic profiling of groups. In case of recession or economic downturn, corporations adopt the strategy of cutting down their costs; this on most occasions results in the shedding of minority employees from the organizations. Expulsion of these employees results in unemployment in the society. With particular ethnic groups targeted for downsizing and shedding of employees, these ethnic groups become economically weaker in comparison to others. To meet the daily domestic requirements, these households start making efforts to earn money somehow or the other. Since all the legal routes to prosperity are blocked by the prejudiced establishment, therefore these groups end up indulging into illegitimate activities for meeting their requirements. Once they start performing illegal acts to win the bread for their dependents they are spotted by the media and general public as villains in the society. Stereotyping becomes a norm in the society and this also contributes in labelling members of the specific ethnic group or race as intruders, criminals or untrustworthy. This change in the mindset of the media and opinion of the masses regarding a particular ethnicity or race of people results in criminalization of such groups. An example of this could be the Blacks living in USA or UK. Blacks are seen as corrupt, criminal minded and betraying people, just because of some members of the same skin colour were found guilty of criminal charges and offense. Judging entire community on the basis of actions of a few representatives is known as racial profiling and is one the prominent reasons why some ethnic groups are targeted and criminalized over others in the society (Sheikh, 2011). Real life reflection of Criminalization of specific ethnic groups in the World Macroeconomic dominance and stability along with the capability to manipulate media allows a powerful country to impose war over a lesser powerful country. No matter what the objectives of the war are, but the sufferers and victims are always unarmed and unrelated, innocent people that have nothing to do with the war itself. This phenomenon has been observed in “War on Terror” that was imposed on Iraq and Afghanistan. The war was originally fought against a challenging regime that threatened the security and existence of the then World Super Power, United States of America. In Iraq alone, USA spent around a trillion dollars and incurred great losses in terms of its human capital as more than 4500 soldiers lost their lives. The death toll for Iraqis was a multi-fold of what the USA had to face. But after 9 years of bloodshed and mass killings USA decided to announce a withdrawal of its troops from Iraq in 2011. This clearly indicates that either the war had no objectives or predefined goals when it was imposed on Iraq or may be the USA have failed to accomplish what they had in mind nearly a decade ago (Grabber, 2010) Such events give rise to animosity and hostility with the individuals that are subjected to such circumstances. The oppression when goes beyond limits it leads to an uproar among the affected and the suppressed; this uproar results in reliance from the lesser powerful subjects of the tragedies. This is the point when powerful uses its power agents to label a group as foes to the global community. Using media and modern tools of communication the powerful players transfer their personal ideology to the masses. This leads to the initiation of the process of criminalization where normal human beings, under the circumstances, transform into what they never were or wanted to be, criminals, in the literal sense of the word. These nascent criminals practice theft, robbery and even slaughter and killings of other humans to overcome the fears and frustrations that have grown inside them beyond controllable limits (Razzak, 2008). This is the stage where the powerful states and actors manipulate the masses and convince them of their activities against the lesser powerful and now powerless states, countries or groups of people. This happens so dramatically that the masses start demanding their authorities to ravage the existence of such venomous and lethal groups from the world. The establishment in this case succeeds in getting the masses behind their preconceived objectives and makes the people a party to the aimless destruction. This entire phenomenon results in the polarization of this world at a mass scale with powerful competing against the powerless with full flow. This gives birth to hatred, racial profiling, labelling and stereotyping of human groups and leads to prejudice in decision making at an inexplicable level for an inestimable period of time. Changing opinion of Masses against Minorities With the polarization of the world on the basis of the perceptions injected or communicated to the masses leads to racial profiling. Racial profiling is a dangerous phenomenon. It refers to situations where a person is known more for his colour, race, gender and cultural affiliation than his qualification, skills, talent and who he is individually. An increasing trend has been observed in the radar of racial profiling. Racial profiling is engulfing more and more ethnicities and regions of this world. This expansion in its scope, racial profiling has led to increasing prejudice in this world (Harcourt, 2006). Today the name of a person or the clothes that he wears defines who he is. Judging people from the face and drawing conclusions about their thoughts, ideologies and objectives has become a norm in the society today. The worst and most recent forms of racial profiling came to limelight post the regrettable events of September 11 in the US, known as the 9/11. That day marked the initiation of a new era of darkness for the American Muslims. The people of the same land and nationality began doubting one another. The mistrust since then has grown deeper and sharper with an anti-Islam and anti-Muslim sentiment, that has got a foothold in the general American mindset. Indeed the repercussions were too humongous to be confined to just one country, and the racial profiling practices made their way in various countries of the world and each reacted in its very own way (Malkin, 2004). The recent developments in France and Spain on the constitutional banning of “burqa”, a religious apron usually put on by Muslim females to guard their modesty and to show revere to the commandments of their holy scripture, Koran. This was a strong blow made by the Sarkozi establishment to the trust and loyalty of millions of Muslims that are French citizens (Dossa, 2009). All of a sudden the local Muslims were treated as intruders and were urged by the locals to go back to their homes, may be Arab or the Middle East, disregarding the fact that these Muslims are as French as any other non-Muslim natives inhabited in France. Similar discriminatory practices have led to a growing intensity among the two newly discovered types of humans, Muslims and Non Muslims. The mistrust and hostilities have grown stronger and deeper with the passage of time, and unfortunately no prominent efforts have been made from either side to curtail the animosity to some extent, if not eradicate it completely out of the system (Sheehi, 2011). The attempts made by the authorities in labelling members of a particular group as foes to the society is not a one sided affair. The societies that are subjected to such treatments and policies do feel independent enough to retaliate against the discrimination. The retaliation, logically speaking, is impossible to be in a peaceful manner simply because these less powerful entities can neither control media to voice their opinions nor are they given a fair chance to get their opinions across. Therefore in trying to get noticed, these entities end up indulging in offensive activities and this goes on to reinforce the existing perceptions in the minds of the masses into irrevocable convictions (Sheehi, 2011). Conclusion Geopolitical situation of this world has changed drastically over a decade. The race between the supreme powers to dominate the powerless countries and their natural resources has changed into madness whatsoever. To accomplish their obscene objectives these so-called super powers are using the common man of their regimes. They are manipulating the minds of a common man through a biased electronic and print media and making them think and say whatever these super powers want them to. This manipulative policy is based on many factors and it works on a carefully plotted mechanism. One of these factors is the independent media which has given even the common man the freedom of speech to speak against the odds and hence, has gained a sort of irrevocable trust. As a result, the common man is to believe whatever he sees or listens to whether it is a sugar-coated lie. The misunderstandings which are being spread by the media have resulted in mass destructions that are focused towards a certain ethnicity and the intensity of the destruction has increased many folds after the 9/11 event. But, as an action is always answered by a reaction, same thing has happened after this visible polarization. Frustration, mistrust and anger have penetrated to the very roots of these ethnicities being molested and they revolted with force. This retaliation as a result, has made them criminals or more specifically “Terrorists”, in the eyes of the rest of the world. References Amaney Jamal, Nadine Naber, 2007. Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects (Arab American Writing). Syracuse Univ Pr (Sd). Bernard R. Harcourt, 2006. Against Prediction: Profiling, Policing, and Punishing in an Actuarial Age. University of Chicago Press. Brent E. Turvey, 2008. Criminal Profiling, Third Edition: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis. 3rd ed. Academic Press. Doris A. Graber, 2010. Media Power in Politics. 6th ed. C Q Press College. Irum Sheikh, 2011. Detained without Cause: Muslims' Stories of Detention and Deportation in America after 9/11 (Palgrave Studies in Oral History). Palgrave Macmillan. Michelle Malkin, 2004. In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror. Regnery Publishing. Parin Dossa, 2009. Racialized Bodies, Disabling Worlds: Storied Lives of Immigrant Muslim Women. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. Roy Coleman, Joe Sim, Steve Tombs, David Whyte, 2009. State, Power, Crime. Sage Publications Ltd. (Coleman, Sim, Tombs and Whyte, 2009) Sherene Razzak, 2008. Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. Stephin Sheehi, Ward Churchill, 2011. Islamophobia: The Ideological Campaign Against Muslims. Clarity Press. Read More