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Institutionalized racism in the criminal justice system
Impact of stereotypes
The impact of racial stereotypes
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The Minority Law Students Association (MLSA) submits this brief in support of the Petitioner. The Minority Law Students Association was created to provide law students of color with a united forum to promote key issues that confront all minorities. MLSA maintains an interest in guarding against racial discrimination in all areas of the law. Therefore, MLSA has a substantial interest in the outcome of this litigation.
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
There is a deeply rooted stereotype that those of color are inferior to Caucasians. This has been in place since slavery, while racism is not as obvious as it once was it is still corrupting our society. When President Obama was speaking at an ABC Town Hall about the Black Lives Matter movement he said, “It’s
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The Civil Rights Movement brought about great change and many people thought blacks would one day be treated as complete equals, this was a fantasy. There will always be racism, maybe not extreme racism, but always systematic beliefs that one race is better than another. In the 21st century racism isn’t as much of a public threat, but is still an issue within the criminal justice system and is now known as institutional racism. Although, the Court has worked hard to eradicate racism in the criminal justice system and allow review under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), if there is a clerical mistake or a mistake arising from oversight or omission whenever one is found in a judgment, order, or other part of the record.
In Mr. Buck’s case, the credibility and biases that Mr. Quijano had as an “expert,” encouraged jurors to follow their implicit bias in finding that Mr. Buck had an increased likelihood of dangerousness in the future. The fact that Mr. Quijano was the defense’s expert magnified the effect of his testimony. Due to the defense counsel’s decision to introduce Mr. Quijano’s testimony against his own client, the court should hold that Mr. Buck’s circumstance falls under Fed. R. Civ. P.
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Blacks were thought to have thicker skin and thicker skulls than whites. Leading to the belief that they were less sensitive to pain and less able to think abstractly. Even Abraham Lincoln believed that they were inferior to that of the white man, once stating “There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white
Although the Donald Marshall case may be apparent today, it would be just as easy for another case like Donald Marshalls to occur again. It depends on the people involved in the case and whether or not they are dedicated to performing their positions professionally and adequately. If the individuals enforcing the law are not following regulations and allowing their personal beliefs of culture and race impact their professional performance then I do believe this could occur again. When looking at the current Toronto Sun and other news reports the most common wrongfully convicted are accused of sexual assault, having said that, this shows racism is not as common. In addition, when looking at the news reports most people who are wrongfully convicted are kept in jail for many years before their case is settled, therefore it is difficult to tell if wrongfully convicting people is as common today as it was when Donald Marshall was
Brown, D. (2012). An invitation to profile: Arizona v. united states. International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 12(2), 117-127.
This mentality derived from the idea of profits. This was evident when white workers decided to call Africans/Native Americans as “colored” and how much wage they should received. Race was one of the ways to maximize profits through the recognition of cheap labor and the value of blacks/Native Americans to society. By putting labels of ‘colored’ or ‘freeman’, it prolonged the notion of ‘whiteness’ through acknowledgement of who has independence and freedom vs. who did not have it. The focus was not on labor alone because it also focused on property and enforcement of power to white folks and the powerlessness to the ‘others’.
However, there are still those who are racist and discriminate against people of different color. Even if slavery had ended and people may not talk about it much openly, racial caste and discrimination still goes on in the modern times. From the article, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander states how America has entered the era of “post- racialism” which is said to be the colorblindness era. Alexander states how racial caste is still alive in America and just merely redesigned it. It is those who are poor and colored that “amount to a new caste system- one specifically tailored to the political, economic, and social challenges of our time. It is the moral equivalent to Jim Crow”. The problems with police brutality, drug war, and the expansion of the America’s prison system all got to deal with those who are poor and colored. People of color are more likely to get the racial profile and abused by the police, even if they didn’t do anything wrong. They become labeled as “criminals” and then become part of the practice America has left behind towards slaves. The person of color labelled as a criminal have all their rights taken away from them like a slave. This interferes with their employment, housing, denial of having the right to vote, and excluded from jury
As soon as Europeans brought Africans to America to be slaves, the Africans were seen as an inferior race. Their inferiority meant they did not deserve the same rights as the white people they belonged to, nor did they deserve to be treated as people. These African Americans worked hard as slaves and were viewed as a physically capable race, so when slavery was abolished in the South, whites saw these capabilities as a threat and were frightened by the African Americans. Whites let their fear of African American strength run wild, thus the beginning of racial stereotypes. African Americans were also seen as a lesser species because of their skin color and people began to treat them differently solely because of that reason, beginning the racial
This article notes the lawsuit made by the NAACP and makes a claim for why it was wrong. The author integrated personal experiences and other expert opinions.
In 1995, Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher were two Caucasian students who applied for admission into the University of Michigan’s school of Literature, Science and the Arts with in-state tuition. They were told that they were denied admission because they were not competitive enough applicants to be admitted on the first review. Two years later, Gratz and Hamacher decide to file a class action lawsuit against the University, the school they were applying for, Lee Bollinger, and James Duderstadt, arguing that the admission procedure discriminated against certain racial and ethnic groups which violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Racism is a subject that needs to be tended to and the article “Leaked Documents Reveal Dothan Police Department Planted Drugs on Young Black Men For Years, District Attorney Doug Valeska Complicit”, written by Jon B. Carroll, proves it. I agree with Jon B. Carroll that victims who are convicted wrongfully do not always get the justice they deserve; this is a point that needs emphasizing because many people still believe that once it is known that the victims are innocent, their lives will fall into place.
The legal system is still unfair to black men. “They couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts”(Lee 220). In To Kill a Mockingbird, the Ewell family’s word was believed over Tom Robinson’s word. Black men have a harder time of proving their innocence when white witnesses are used against them. That was true in the 1930s and is still true today. “The young black males are shuttled into prisons, branded as criminals and felons, and then when they're released, they're relegated to a permanent second-class status, stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement — like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of legal discrimination and employment, and access to education and public benefits. Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you've been branded a felon" (Legal Scholar: Jim Crow Still Exists In America, npr.org). This is an example of how black people are still treated the same today as they were under Jim Crow. Black men do not get as many fair trials so more end up in jail. Because the trials are not always fair, it is harder to know who is really guilty or innocent. Then the legal system strips them of their rights forever no matter what. Racism against black people has resulted in violence and brutality. “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an’ that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank!” (Lee 76). This statement shows the brutal and horrible treatment that some white people recommended for black people. Tom Robinson was not even found guilty, but many white people wanted him dead. It showed that it didn’t even matter if he was innocent. “Despite making up
This is due to what we have been spoon fed by the media, I don 't agree or like how people of color and gender are stereotyped but this article made me much more aware of how the media still has such an enormous impact on our racial decision. Whites were portrayed in a positive way just due to color and were provided so much more then blacks, such as schooling, reading, treatment and so much
According to the documentary race is still one of first things we notice when we meet or see new people. Even though we may not be racist or believe in racial stereotypes, we can still perpetuate them by letting them determine our initial thoughts or passing them on. Throughout the history of the United States, being a minority never carried the same advantages as being white. At a time, even groups who we would determine as caucasian were not considered to be fully white as they were immigrants from places such as Eastern Europe and had to go through legal processes to determine their “whiteness”.
Based on from what I seen and experienced, racism is still here and now that we have improved technology we can catch people in the act. There was a time when I went shopping and I went in a high end store. As soon as I stepped foot into the store, the security guard there stared me down as if I came to steal. It doesn’t matter if I’m a black man or women it’s the fact that I’m black. Implicit bias is very real and prevalent to today society. The second article was an opinion based on what he knows and sees. It’s not because of our provocations that causes black people to have disdain towards the police. It’s because of cases like Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Miriam Carey, and Kelly Thomas that black people are hurt and angry. Black lives matter was created to stand against injustice in the criminal justice system. This is how social workers can step in and encourage social
Racism is happening before the suspect even gets a chance to explain themselves or be accused of any crime, and the rules of being able to do such a thing are becoming even more lenient so that police are able to perform such actions. “The rule requiring police to have ‘specific information’ was loosened. This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race, these people get convicted far more significantly than others who have the same charge but are white, which continues as far as giving a person of color the max sentence that they can have on a certain charge just for the color of their skin. The justice system has turned into the opposite of what it claims to be and continues to grow as a racist overseer, bashing down on those that they believe should be punished as harshly as possible simply for the color of their skin.
Most whites are quick to judge someone 's honesty and integrity on whether they are black or white. Blacks are often looked upon as thieves, gangsters, thugs, and trouble makers by whites, especially older aged white americans. Almost all of the time this is caused by a feeling of superiority to their race or being extremely prejudiced and racist towards blacks, most often because they were brought up that way. Many whites look at blacks as less than them and not
In the U.S.A, many people may argue that racial disparity is non-existent in today’s time. Those people usually are ignorant to the fact that America still have room for growth. From the slavery days, to segregation, to now, a time where a white and black person can sit down together in the same setting and be civilized is great, but if the two get into an illegal situation and both have to be on tried, who will be the one that is cruelly convicted? Who sentencing will have more time? The Black man, in all cases this may not be true, but in most cases it is. So therefore, in America, the Criminal justice system still has a way of bringing the African-American community down through Massive Incarceration.