More handpicked essays just for you.
What are the importance of education
What are the importance of education
What are the importance of education
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Jim Crow laws were established and came about in the beginning of the 1880s and these laws were created to legalize segregation between African American and Caucasians. This book the New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness explains the mass incarceration of African Americans in the war on drugs. The text explains how it is said that most drug dealers are said to be black or brown, and that the War on Drugs is a racist conspiracy to put “blacks” back in their place. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world largely due to the war on drugs. The war on drugs came about during the late 1980s and it was said to target African Americans. This is one of the most important root causes in the increase …show more content…
According to the New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, drug arrests have tripled since 1980 and more than thirty one million people have been incarcerated for drug offenses since the drug war began. Nothing has contributed to the mass incarceration of African Americans in the United States more than the war on drugs. At the end of 2007, more than seven million people were behind bars, on probation, or on …show more content…
Becoming a convicted felon could change a person’s life within the blink of an eye. As stated earlier, it becomes harder for the individual to find employment and obtain housing in addition to hindering one’s opportunity to vote. Many felons resort back to old habits and end up becoming repeat offenders, in turn, making prison a home for themselves. The war on drugs, in my opinion, will never cease because I feel like there will always be drugs in the world and there will always be buyers and suppliers. At the end of the day, economics are important and it all comes down to supply & demand. I also think it will never end based on the fact that being a felon makes it harder for individuals to obtain a job. As a result of this, most of these men turn to selling drugs to make a living. I think the criminal justice system should change things in regards to the hardships felons have to deal with once they become apart of the system. There are some individuals who actually learn their lesson once they are incarcerated for so long. These are the individuals who deserve a second chance in life—no matter what has happened in their past. Felons are frowned upon when they are released from prison, but I feel that even though they
Michelle Alexander in her book "The New Jim Crow" argues that Mass Incarceration is similar to Jim Crow; Alexander believes that caste systems such as Jim Crow and slavery are similar to the existing system of mass incarceration. In addition, Alexander accuses the U.S. criminal justice system, implying their laws undividedly target African Americans through the War on Drugs and racial limitation. In comparing mass incarceration with Jim Crow, Alexander points to compelling parallels regarding political disenfranchisement, legalized discrimination, and symbolic production of a race. Alexander, moreover, effectively offers a rebuttal to the counterargument that the New Jim Crow does not carry the same level of racial hostility as the Old Jim
The Author transitions the past and present signatures of Jim Crow and the New Jim Crow with the suggestion that the New Jim Crow, by mass incarceration and racism as a whole, marginalizes and relegates Blacks to residential, educational and constitutionally endowed service to the Country. The final chapter of The New Jim Crow reviews the manner in which the Black community might respond to the racism that exists today. Some research implies that we in America have reached a point of attrition as to incarceration, and the positive effects outweigh the negative effects of marginalization and collateral damage to the community. By some research, the "War on Drugs" procreates poverty, joblessness, family breakdown, and crime.
Michelle Alexander wrote a book called "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." The original Jim Crow was a racial caste system that segregated whites from blacks, where whites were privileged and viewed as the chosen ones while blacks were taught to be minority and used as servants between 1877 and the 1960s. The Jim Crow system kept whites superior to blacks with laws created to keep whites favored. It was a legal way to prevent African Americans from getting an equal education, from voting; it was a system of "Separate but Equal". In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed to outlaw discrimination due to ones skin color. Although this act was passed we still continue to live in a society where discrimination is quite relevant but systemized. Through Michelle Alexander's book we can understand her argument that there is a new form of legal discrimination although laws state that discriminating an individual because of their race is illegal. Michelle explains that there is a current mass incarceration among black men in the United States. The use of, possession of, or selling drugs is illegal but it has been systematically created that laws make it impossible to. She claims that the criminal justice system uses the War on Drugs as a way to discriminate and repress the black man.
Human rights experts have reported that in the 70s, African Americans in the U.S were already being overrepresented in drug arrests, with twice as many arrests as Caucasians (Fellner, 2009). Since the war on drugs began, African
These stories were riddled with stereotypes and bias and because of these stories there has been a government lead war on drugs that is racially fueled towards Black Americans. In 1971 President Nixon declared War on Drugs in the United States of America. With the War on Drugs cam e hefty prison sentences and a racial bias towards the Black American public. Black Americans were coming off the tail end of the Civil Rights movements, only to be segregated again in the statistics that were coming out about drugs and the fallacy of highest population of
Today, more African American adults are under correctional control than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began (Alexander 180). Throughout history, there have been multiple racial caste systems in the United States. In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander defines a “racial caste” as “a racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom” (12). Alexander argues that both Jim Crow and slavery functioned as racial caste systems, and that our current system of mass incarceration functions as a similar caste system, which she labels “The New Jim Crow”. There is now a silent Jim Crow in our nation. Mass incarceration today serves the same function as did slavery before the Civil War and Jim Crow laws after the Civil War - to uphold a racial caste system.
The War on Drugs is believed to help with many problems in today’s society such as realizing the rise of crime rates and the uprooting of violent offenders and drug kingpin. Michelle Alexander explains that the War on Drugs is a new way to control society much like how Jim Crow did after the Civil War. There are many misconceptions about the War on Drugs; commonly people believe that it’s helping society with getting rid of those who are dangerous to the general public. The War on Drugs is similar to Jim Crow by hiding the real intention behind Mass Incarceration of people of color. The War on Drugs is used to take away rights of those who get incarcerated. When they plead guilty, they will lose their right to vote and have to check application
United States Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs (Vol.12, No.2 (G)). New York: Human Rights Watch. Retrieved April 12, 2005, from Human Rights Watch Web site: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/Rcedrg00-01.htm. ACA Policies and Resolutions -. (2004, October ). The.
The targets of the drug war are certain racial groups just because they are of color, they are targets because the law enforcements have bias opinions about the people of color rather than those who are white.The people of color and whites are both as likely to use and sell drugs, but the people of color have a bigger probability to get arrested, searched, prosecuted, convicted or sent to jail for the violation of drug laws. The drug war isn't only about people of color, it is about every races including white. The enforcement does not look for the increasing of drug activity because But the law enforcement doesn’t focus on the high income neighborhoods in search for drugs, what they do is focus on the poor low income neighborhoods because that is where they think drugs are being abused. The drug policies are very discriminatory and attack those that are non white, or those who live in a neighborhood where everyone thinks drugs are abused there. According to the article “Race, Drugs, and Law Enforcement in the United States” it uses statistics from seattle that shows a clear example of the discrimination of the supposed war on drugs.“A recent study in Seattle is illustrative. Although the majority of those who shared, sold, or transferred serious drugs[17]in Seattle are white (indeed seventy percent of the general Seattle population is white), almost two-thirds (64.2%) of drug arrestees are black”(hrw.org 1). This quote shows what a study found in seattle, that the population in seattle is seventy percent but most of the people in jail are blacks. Seattle has a problem where cocaine and crack are the main drug being abused and sold, but the people who sell it the most is whites but the majority who end up in jail for cocaine or crack charges are african americans. Well this happens because black people do drugs but also white people, but the ones who are the victims of incarceration are
Department of Justice. African Americans are arrested for drug offenses at rates 2 to 11 times higher than the rate for whites – according to a May 2009 report on disparity in drug arrests by Human Rights Watch.”
Through the term Jim Crow is not one that you see on a day-to-day basis to refer to the disenfranchisement of blacks in today’s society, it still exist and is full fledged. Targeting black through the form of drugs allows for racial discrimination to occur without using the classification as a public basis. Though one might argue that the issue is drugs, race is a consistent trait that is common is all cases of mass incarceration.
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”(Lyndon Johnson). For generations in the United Stated, ethnic minorities have been discriminated against and denied fair opportunity and equal rights. In the beginning there was slavery, and thereafter came an era of racism which directly impacted millions of minorities lives. This period called Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system up in till mid 1960s. Jim Crow was more than just a series of severe anti-Black laws, it became a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were positioned to the status of second class citizens. What Jim Crow did is represented the anti-Black racism. Further on, In 1970’s the term “War on Drugs” was coined by President Richard Nixon . Later President Ronald Reagan officially declared the current drug war. In reality the war had little to do with drug crime and a lot to do with racial politics. The drug war was part of a strategy of used by the government. The President identified drug abuse as national threat. Therefore, they called for a national anti-drug policy, the policy began pushing for the involvement of the police force and military in drug prohibition efforts. The government did believe that blacks or minorities were a cause of the drug problem. They concentrated on inner city poor neighborhoods, drug related violence, they wanted to publicize the drug war which lead Congress to devote millions of dollars in additional funding to it. The war on drugs targeted and criminalized disproportionably urban minorities. There for, “War on Drugs” results in the incarceration of one million Americans ...
Equality is something that should be given to every human and not earned or be taken away. However, this idea does not present itself during the 1930’s in the southern states including Alabama. African Americans faced overwhelming challenges because of the thought of race superiority. Therefore, racism in the southern states towards African Americans made their lives tough to live because of disparity and inhumane actions towards this particular group of people.
According to statistics since the early 1970’s there has been a 500% increase in the number of people being incarcerated with an average total of 2.2 million people behind bars. The increase in rate of people being incarcerated has also brought about an increasingly disproportionate racial composition. The jails and prisons have a high rate of African Americans incarcerated with an average of 900,000 out of the 2.2 million incarcerateed being African American. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics 1 in 6 African American males has been incarcerated at some point in time as of the year 2001.
Another reason racialized mass incarceration takes place is because of the high rates of poverty and unemployment for inner city African Americans, especially those with low-education and low skill levels. Urban ghettos have been associated with the problem of social disorganization and crime. The biggest reason for this is the war on drugs. There is no substantial proof that verifies African Americans are more involved in illegal drug consumptions than other groups are. However they are arrested more than other groups. Bobo and Thompson stated that blacks are almost 34% involved in drug-related arrests though only 14% of those are among regular illegal drug users. Among drug related convictions, African Americans make up half of the cases whereas only 26% of the white population is convicted. As Bobo and Thompson stated, “Illegal drug consumption seems to know no race. Incarceration for drug-related charges, however, is something visited in a heavily biased manner on African Americans.”