Mass Incarceration in the United States - Book Report/Review Example

Mass Incarceration in the United States A new racial caste system has been created in the United States (Alexander 1). The new system is identical to the old Jim Crow and slavery that were witnessed many years ago. Despite the changes that have occurred in various aspects of society, things have still remained the same. Every generation has devised effective tactics for achieving the very similar goals that were even shared by the founding fathers. In particular, America has not yet achieved an egalitarian democracy that would see all American citizens irrespective of their race and class, enjoy equal rights in society. Arguments and rationalizations advanced to support exclusion and discrimination based o gender have evolved, though the outcome has never changed (Alexander 1). For instance, a large percentage of black Americans are still barred from voting, just as their fathers, grandfathers and great grand fathers were denied the most basic right throughout a good part of American history. In addition, black Americans are largely subject to legal segregation in other social aspects such as employment, education, housing, jury service, public benefits. Nonetheless, lack of opportunity, access to relatively poor education and consistent poverty cannot offer an adequate explanation to this recurrent trend. The current system of control has been an effective means for propagating racial exclusion and discrimination (Alexander 2). The present racial caste system in the US denotes a stigmatized group of black people literally caved in an inferior situation by state law and custom. It has locked a large portion of the African American population out of the mainstream society as well as economy. It operations can be traced in criminal justice institutions, particularly the court system and the police as the key law enforcement mechanisms. The concept of mass incarceration implies a more or less larger system that confine the target population not only behind bars in real prisons, but also behind walls that seem undetectable by a naked eye; the virtual bars. It is analogous to Jim Crow laws which essentially confined people of color into a lifelong second class citizenship. The criminal justice system coupled with a network of laws, rules, regulations, policies and customs have conspired to control labeled not only in prisons but also outside the prison. For instance, once a labeled criminal is released, they get into a disguised underworld of legalized segregation and lifelong social seclusion. They become part of what is referred to America’s new under-caste (Alexander 5). Moreover, the criminal justice system has featured similar problems of racial bias just as other primary institutions of society that are often overwhelmed by challenges related to deliberate and unintentional bias. The criminal justice is used to label individuals of color as “criminals” and thereafter engage in operations that are supposed have been abandoned long time ago. For instance, today criminals are legally discriminated nearly the same way African Americans were once legally discriminated. Nonetheless, being labeled a felon entails ancient forms through which people of color underwent; discrimination from employment, housing, denial of voting right, exclusion from jury service, limited access to better education, food, among other benefits availed to the general public. The US has a long way to go as far as realizing the dream of an egalitarian, multiracial democracy is concerned. For instance, few legal rights have been put in place to constrain the police in the drug war. Furthermore, a significant amount of financial incentives have been offered to law enforcement to facilitate in mass arrests. Furthermore, the civil society has concentrated its focus on defending affirmative action at the expense of promoting racial progress in the criminal justice system and well as other essential institutions in society. During the past two decades, civil rights advocates and organizations have been concerned with mobilization and rallying in protecting affirmative action, for example in higher education, which was deemed to promote diversity in the struggle for a just society. People of color have been subjected a plethora of social problems (Alexander 12). To begin with, a large percentage of the population cannot access better educational opportunities. Education has been proven to be an essential human right across the world. It enables individual to come to terms with what happens in their environment. Also, it enables them realize their fundamental rights such as the right to vote, access food, shelter, freedom of speech, among others. In addition, it equips them will knowledge and skills necessary in the job market – through which they can get income to better their lives. However, the black race has been and continues to enjoy limited opportunities in the education system. Second, African Americans have been denied the right to access proper housing. A good number of them stay in filthy and unhealthy houses that compromise their existence. In addition, they are subject to discrimination in employment. It has been observed that most top jobs are a reserve for members of particular classes in the society, people of color are not part. Therefore, employment opportunities and labor laws conspire to render a great deal of the back American either unemployed or underemployed. Moreover, they are prone to discriminatory arrests. The criminal justice in the states has been accused of racial bias on many occasions. For instance, a radical group of young blacks held a community meeting in protest of brutal police, the new three-strikes law in California and the expansion of the police system in the US. Presumed realities of business in drug have perpetuated the belief that a large percentage of drug dealers are black and brown. The consequence of this mistaken belief has seen a large number of African Americans labeled as criminals who often find their way behind bars. Generally, people who have experienced incarceration lack the capacity to join lines between the prevailing systems of control. This can be attributed to the fact that once they get out of prison, they enter a new system of life that is often characterized by limited access to their basic rights, such as voting and legal representation in court. They are also subjected to discriminated and subordinated living as society brand them new images such as social misfits, criminals, among other bitter terms. Nonetheless, it has been argued that the war on drug was part of a genocidal scheme by the state that was aimed at destroying black people in the United States. Its consequences were astounding. For instance in a span of not more than thirty years, the penal population it the states had drastically expanded from around 300,000 to the highs of 2 million (Alexander 5). As a matter of fact, the largest percentage of this population comprised people who had been convicted for drug trafficking. Today, research statistics estimates that three out of four young black men (especially from the poor neighborhoods) stand a high chance of serving a sentence in prison. Furthermore, few rules have been enacted to intervene in war on drugs. In the past, it was generally acknowledged that a police officer was to possess a search warrant in order to stop and search someone, unless there existed a significant cause to ascertain that the person was involved in a particular criminal offence; a basic Fourth Amendment provision. However, this is no longer the case. The provision was modified legalizing a police officer to protect himself as well as others in the area to conduct a discretionary search to a person he or she suspects the person was involved in a criminal activity. The search was primarily meant to discover weapons that could be used against the police. Consequently, the onset of the stop-and frisk provision has heightened racial discrimination. For instance, people of black have been victimized by unwarranted searches even in the absence of probable cause of criminal activity. However, research has also shown that the sell and use of illegal drugs is remarkably even across people of all colors in the US. In the case of any significant variations, the findings revealed that the whites, especially the youth, stand a higher chance to get involved in drug related crime as compared to the people of color. However, statistics from US prisons indicate the complete opposite of what the research findings indicated. The correctional institutions overflow with black and brown people convicted for drug related offenses. In addition, many cities which have been wrecked by the war on drugs record that 80% of young black men hold criminal records, a condition that subjects them to legalized segregation for a good part of their future lives. The state uses punishment as a primary and effective approach to social control. Therefore, a correlation is established between the degree or severity of the punishment and the practical patterns in crime. In addition, people who have reasonable economic as well as social opportunities have been confirmed to stand lesser chances of committing offences irrespective of the penalty attached to the offence. On the other hand, those who have served a sentence in their lives stand a higher chance to commit offences in the course of their fore life. In one of Rothenberg’s collection, McIntosh’s arguments through her article titled, “"White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack." Multiculturalism (1992)," tends to blend with Alexander Michelle’s observations. Just like Alexander, she holds that the whites in the United States have been accorded certain privileges which are out of reach of the African Americans. Her article laid significant emphasis on bringing to the foreground the entirety of privileges that respective races enjoy. She held that flesh colored band aids ate exclusively reserved for white people in the society. Generally, young individual cannot come into the understanding that the color aids blend into the skin of a white person. Therefore, it becomes comparatively challenging for an African American to put on a band aid and generally feel ok. In addition, the two authors agree on the fact that the people of color a victims of the system. The issue of racial discrimination and exclusion is a social construct; it is a product of our society (individual actions and behavior). It is the people themselves who create and propagate the system of racial segregation. For instance, McIntosh says that she was taught to acknowledge racial discrimination only in individual acts of meanness, rather than invisible systems which advance dominance on her group (McIntosh 1). Therefore, she made her mind to try and select conditions she thought are highly attributed to skin-color privilege than to other social aspects such as religion, class, geographical location, status, among others. Just like Alexander, she agrees that there are general forms through which the people of color are discriminate. She pinpointed but not limited to housing, education, and entertainment as some of the areas racial discrimination is propagated. Furthermore, time and place (work environment, home, entertainment, among others) provide the area for racial exclusion and discrimination. She suggests that it is necessary for the white race to understand the fact that they are accorded unfair conditions in society, in order to overcome the systems of racial oppression in all institutions in society (McIntosh 1). Furthermore, she suggests the idea that in the event the privileges enjoyed by the whites are lessened, people of color stand a low chance of facing direct and extreme forms of oppression they are subject to. She frequently used to come into contact with her African American colleagues, friends as well as acquaintances. She decided to work out on herself and identify a number of daily effects of privileges of white people in her life. From the list of conditional areas she thought skin-color privileges had more significant impact on people of color, there are some that blend with Alexander’s issue of mass incarceration. For example, careful selection of people to hang around with, choosing particular residential areas that guarantee individual satisfaction, either going for shopping alone or with people you attach particular desirable attributes, and other things that would see and individual create a social distance with others on the basis of race (McIntosh 1). In addition, the fact that the government plays a central role in the provision of security and safety of its citizens becomes a common feature in the two articles. It is the government, for example, through its control systems (criminal system) that enact laws and regulation that are supposed to stand against such vices. From the article, “We Must Demilitarize the Police” published in the TIME on August 14, 2014, Senator Rand Paul provides a number of solutions that can be applied to end racial inclusion and discrimination. He argued that any person who held the idea that race does not compromise the application of criminal justice in the United States was simply not paying significant attention on the matter. The Mississippi senator said this, amid violence in Ferguson following the shooting of the 18-year old Michael Brown, a black teenager. He termed the incidence as an awful tragedy. Specifically, he called on the government to demiliritize the police in an attempt to fight racial exclusion in his state as well as the entire US society. Research studies had found out that people of color were less confident in the security officers. They believed that the officers were biased in their selective operations on the blacks. Furthermore, the black had less confident in the criminal justice system that also exercised bias in execution of criminal cases related to the color people. In addition they believed that the police officers were less honesty. This trend made the state senator to stand up for his jurisdiction and appeal to the state to demiliritize the police in order to address the problem of race that had almost paralyzed operations in the whole county. To him, he sees the whole control system as biased and in need of appropriate shape-up. Streamlining the criminal justice system would guarantee every citizen irrespective of his or her, equal rights and privileges. This would be an effective point to in stemming the menace out of the society. From my point of view, there are several things the state as a whole, social institutions (such as schools, the church, political leaders, civil society, among others), as well as individual American citizens (both black and whites) can do to tem the menace of racial segregation out of the country. As eluded on earlier, it is worth to retaliate the fact that racial exclusion and discrimination is just as social construct that developed in people and continues to evolve from one generation to another. Furthermore, I would suggest that all stakeholders involved in the fight against the menace by combining efforts and working as a team to develop an effective framework that would help individual persons as well as social institution deal with the issue of racism. First and foremost, it s necessary for every individual in the United States to personally acknowledge the fact that racial exclusion and discrimination is an undesirable social behavior in society. This should start by people accepting themselves as either white or black. Actually, skin color is a biological phenomenon that no man has any say over it. No one wanted to be black or white, it just happened like that. It could be the Almighty’s plan for you to be born black or white, and besides, the bible clearly states that every individual was created in the image of God. It does no say that the white or the black were created in God’s image. Therefore, self appreciation is a first step to fighting racism. Second, people must learn how to appreciate others irrespective of their race, as well as other social stratifications that have been erected in society. People must accept other people the way they are and accommodate them in all aspects of life. Although it may seem ridiculous, I am sure this is one area that both the blacks and the white races have performed pretty poor. The traditional culture created what has been proved today as a mistake, the belief that the African race was inferior. Therefore, people should disregard this misleading notion and accord every individual whether black or white the kind of treatment a normal human being deserves. I believe should everyone learn how to accept each other without socio-cultural attachments such as race, the issue we are discussing at the moment will never have a chance to thrive in our society. Furthermore, I would call for various learning institutions such as schools, colleges and universities to heighten the fight against the vice. Today, education plays a central function in the development of a child. This is a tender time during which young individual grasp basic things in society. Therefore, teachers should capitalize this period to teach them the basics of racism. For example, they should develop an inclusive curriculum that caters for the specific and diverse need of the students. Furthermore, they should avail adequate information in the form of posters, banners, art and drama, outdoor activities, and other digital media that can effectively convey information on the problem. In particular, these tactics should aim creating awareness on the adverse effects of racial exclusion and discrimination, and also provide insights on the significance of a racism-free society. Moreover, the government has a lot to do as far as stemming racism out of the country is concerned. To begin with, the selected leaders should champion the rights and privileges of its subjects irrespective of racial status. Also, the senate should enact rules and policies that facilitate equal rights and privileges of all citizens. For instance, it should amend various laws and statutes that have been effective in perpetuating racial exclusion and discrimination. For instance, a good number of people have cried foul of the criminal justice system in creating racial divisions among Americans. The court system has been biased in the pronunciation of its verdicts. The police have been biased in searching, arresting and prosecution of people of color as compared to the whites. The government has directed significant amount of financial investment in war against drug, which has turned out to target only the black population in the country. These are some of the flaws the government needs to correct in order to realize a racism-free society. In addition, the church, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the civil society should focus their attention on the enforcement of equal rights of citizens. Matters relating to employment opportunities, housing, representation in the court, access to basic needs, and elevation of poverty in the society should be accorded the highest priority. The family should also step up to encourage their children to adopt ideologies that are inclusive. The family entails the first and the closest structure an individual makes contact with. Therefore, parents should capitalize on this great opportunity to instill virtues that are race-sensitive. Works Cited Alexander, Michelle. The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press, 2012. McIntosh, Peggy. "White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack." Multiculturalism (1992): 30-36. Rand Paul. We Must Dimiliritize the Police. TIME, August14, 2014. Retrieved from: http://time.com/3111474/rand-paul-ferguson-police, on May 6, 2015, at 2pm. Read More