...Institutional racism is viewed in many ways within the American society, which was founded on the discrimination of slavery. This can be seen in the Jim Crow racial caste system, which regulated African Americans to the status of second class citizens, according to Ferris State University. Imagine being paralysed by racial discrimination, unable to go anywhere or do anything without your race impacting on your opportunities in life. Imagine if your own religion was twisted against you? This was the reality of many African Americans during the time of Jim Crow laws. Even church leaders claimed that blacks were cursed to be servants and that God supported racial segregation, which finally ended in 1954. Although this horrible discrimination has now officially ended, instutionalised racism still corrupts justice in...
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...Prison, Why So Many? Jennifer A. Spry ENG 122: English Composition II Ava Hardiek January 7, 2013 Minorities in Prison, Why So Many? Introduction Racism has been a part of history for many years and is a very real problem in the world, not just in the United States. For example, New England colonists fled to a new land, later to be known as America, for religious freedom from European dictators, early settlers of the United States enslaved African-Americans, Adolf Hitler murdered millions of Jewish people, and Middle Eastern Muslim terrorists destroyed the World Trade Towers killing thousands. In the United States, before the Civil rights movement, African-Americans were severely discriminated against. They were not allowed into certain restaurants, they were given restrooms and water fountains that were only used by “colored people”, and they were forced to sit in the back of the bus. Schools and neighborhoods were segregated and interracial relationships were forbidden. Racism was considered socially acceptable and the judicial system upheld arrests and convictions of those that did not conform to the laws. It was impossible for a person of color to receive a fair trial. Today the judicial system is designed to punish criminals for the crime not their minority status, but the truth can still be twisted by racism. Some people argue that the law is flawed and the courts are biased because we are judged by a group of people who are randomly selected to decide the accused...
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...The last way racism happens is through sentencing. According to Thefreedictionary.com sentencing is defined as, “The judgment formally pronounced upon a person convicted in criminal proceedings, esp the decision as to what punishment is to be imposed.” Racism in sentencing is a common thing in the judicial system, it happens because colored people are more likely to be sentenced longer for the same crime that a white person could do. In an article written by the Huffington Post, the NYPD has stated that 80% of people that got pulled over were colored people, out of those people, 85% were searched down while only 8% of white people were searched. (Huffingtonpost.com) The authors believe this is unfair to colored people, it is unfair that colored...
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...Minority Inmates in Today’s Prisons Sherry Atkinson Eng. 122 Instructor: Susan Turner-Conlon November 25, 2013 (1) Our American prisons have an enormous amount of African American inmates. With crime not being racist you have to wonder, is this due to higher rate of minority crimes or the manner in which our judicial system works as far the sentencing of, black men and women. Even though sentencing guidelines were established over a decade ago, and, it brought about uniformity to punishments the statistics prove that the sentencing of African Americans is unfairly done. From being a part of our corrections system at one time in my life, I know that just having any type of criminal record is a green light for the authorities to look at you differently. So I can’t imagine also having the stigma of being a minority also. Does that sound raciest? I am sure it probably does but stating from various sources racism is more evident than ever in the correctional system today. According to Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project and David Cole, a Georgetown Law Professor, although white and African Americans use and sell drugs at about the same rate, black men in 2003 were almost 12 times as likely to go to prison as white men. (Washington Post, June, 2011) Another point to make is the way our communities are policed. I being a white female and up until I was 42 had never really driven in the projects of the city. I on the other hand lived in a country...
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...The article ‘Harsh Sentencing’, by Human Rights Watch, is about official corruption and criminal injustice. This article stood out to me because I hadn’t seen official documentation of the unfair trials within and of the United States justice system besides my vague posts and few others’ rants online. As a result of reading this article, I chose it because I thoroughly enjoyed how the author, from Human Rights Watch online, really summarized these events. HRW and I share the same opinion on this topic, in that we don’t believe the laws and the enforcers of such laws “couldn't be subjected to criticism as they're just doing their job”, but instead are indeed too undesirably cruel and bigoted in their ways of “justice”. ‘Harsh Sentencing’ talks...
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...SOCIOLOGY IN CRIMINAL SYSTEM Abstract Sociology in the criminal justice system s both interest but very complicating. There are some many different aspects on what can be touched upon. The criminal justice system is known to be very biased. In specific terms the system is racial bias and unfair. The America uses a formal social control, to deal with crimes. Statistics show a fair difference and connection between race and the percentage of people convicted of crimes. Other components influence these percentages but always seem to come back to race. The racial unfairness has taken a toll on the American people and contrasts the idea that America was originally built on Incredible as it is America is one of the most tolerant nations in the world. America is a country that was built on freedom, pride, happiness, and equality. Though this is common knowledge and an allusion of the American people, the country has some faults. Equality is a major moral in America that was fought for in history and even in today's society. Throughout our history minority groups have fought hard for there rights and we have accepted the fact that its wrong to discriminate. It is agreed that racial discrimination is wrong as well (Banks, 2009, p 79). Racism has been a problem in America seen the country was founded. Slavery was a form of racism in the early centuries of America. Our judicial system has been a pride and...
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...RRacism is a topic of discussion that will always bring out a debate. Many events have occurred that one would find horrifying just based off racism. Simply being judged or opposed by the color of your skin or ethnic features, something one has simply no control of. All humans are under one race, the human race, yet some still discriminate against others of different backgrounds. “Is racism a permanent feature of American society?” is the matter at hand though. In this article, this question is answered and given many points to view when answering this question. The debate of this question in this article begins with two different viewpoints. There is case that someone who goes by the name Derrick Bell, says yes to racism being a permanent feature in American society and then there is Dinnesh D’Souza who thinks otherwise. The article then goes to show what people believe racism is and ways to end it in American society. Derrick Bell feels that racism is a permanent feature in American society. He feels this way because there are whites that truly won’t let go of the past racial discrimination and will only stand for their color. He gives examples such as lower class whites will stand with upper class white; who don’t have a real interest in helping the lower class, rather join blacks who share the same needs as them. He also says that whites only view blacks as being lower than they are that’s why blacks don’t stand a chance in competing with whites in society. He...
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...The issue of mass incarceration sparked conversation about racial disparities within the prison system. Following the abolishment of Jim Crow, legal racial segregation in the United States appeared dead. According to civil rights advocate, Michelle Alexander this is not the case; racial segregation appears dead, but mass incarceration perpetuates a racial caste system that preserves this outdated practice. In Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, she points to the cause, enforcement, and victims of this system, but her arguments lack the depth to stand against counterarguments. Primarily, Alexander links mass incarceration’s cause of the War on Drugs. Her secondary cause for this phenomenon appears after this war begins; many defendants cannot obtain “meaningful legal representation” (Alexander 17), a claim which widely goes undisputed. Meanwhile, the argument that “convictions for drug offenses —not violent crime—are the single most important cause of the prison boom in the United States” (Alexander 102), a repetitive argument in her book, sparks controversy. Scholars, such as Pfaff, believe that writers distort the role of drug convictions due to focusing on only...
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...Man accused of rape- because of the color of his skin. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, a black man, was convicted without sufficient evidence of raping a white girl and sentenced to prison. While trying to escape, he was shot and killed by the prison guards. Tom Robinson’s trial was unfair and was heard by a biased jury. The question now is: Would Tom’s case have played out in a modern court like it did in the book? The answer is NO! It is true that minorities feel that prejudices and racism against them are still present in our modern justice system, which can be supported by the recent riots and the “Black Lives Matter” movement. However, Tom Robinson’s trial would not have had the same outcome in our modern judicial system as it did in To Kill A Mockingbird due to modern day defenders of Civil Rights for all....
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...Caprice Golden Professor History August 14th, 2024. The Role of Racism in the Failure of Reconstruction The Reconstruction era in United States of America history, spanning roughly from 1865 to 1877, remains a crucial and controversial period marked by efforts to rebuild a nation that was torn apart by civil war and to redefine the social and political landscape of the South of the United States of America. Central to the debate surrounding Reconstruction is the question of whether racism played a decisive role in its perceived failure. Reconstruction emerged in the aftermath of the Civil War with ambitious goals in mind: to integrate millions of formerly enslaved African Americans into American society as full citizens, to rebuild the Southern economy that was devastated by...
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...have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.? Today the world, black and white, recognize that Apartheid has no future. In South Africa it has been ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. That mass campaign of defiance and other actions could only culminate in the establishment of Democracy. Perhaps it is strange for you to observe the situation in Palestine or more specifically, the structure of political and cultural relationships between Palestinians and Israelis, as an Apartheid system. This is because you incorrectly think that the problem of Palestine began in 1967. This was demonstrated in your recent column ?Bush?s First Memo? in the New York Times on March 27, 2001. You seem to be surprised to hear that there are still problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important component of which is the right to return of Palestinian refugees. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established ?normally? and happened to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling for a ?state? but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa. In the last few years, and especially during...
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...Unfair Incarceration: Minorities’ Plight in the U.S. Judicial System DeVry University Cultural Diversity in the Professions SOCS 350N Spring 2013 Abstract The United States is well known as the Land of Opportunity, but if you’re a minority that opportunity maybe a greater chance of being incarcerated in the state and federal penal systems. Civil rights battles have raged for the greater part of the last century in this country. With milestone victories in the early and mid 1960’s equality under the law seemed to be a foregone conclusion. There are numerous laws, policies and even a Constitutional Amendment that address the matter that race should never be a factor. With this is all in play and in mind, you would think that statistics of the U.S. penal systems racial analysis has to be completed with a huge margin in error because it is not near equality. In a cursory search of this topic one can find a deluge of graphs, tables, and statistical analysis. The one thing you cannot find is a quantitative or qualitative consensus of why this has occurred or why it is still occurring. A preponderance of the evidence is anecdotal and offers suggestions of policies and attitudes that have led to this epidemic in contemporary American society. In this review, an endeavor to gather the gist of the issue and attempt to answer why or how this came about and the numerical extent. Followed by the consequences to the affected groups and the whole of society. Finally...
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...Running Head: Death Penalty Larry Williams Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice CJA/313 University Of Phoenix Robin Rabiner May 10, 2009 Death Penalty There are crimes that take place throughout society. When crimes are investigated, and investigators have evidence that prove who were involved, there are consequences for their actions. In some cases, there are crimes that involve consequences such as the death penalty. This consequence can be one of the severe punishments that are placed in our judicial system. There are many people that are for, as well as those are against the death penalty. In many cases, the death penalty has its benefits, as well as its flaws. Unfortunately the death penalty seems to cause problems that leaves many mulling over. In this case, it seems that the flaws of the death penalty needs reinstituted. History The death penalty laws were founded in the early 1800s. This punishment was implemented for 25 different crimes. However, the death penalty establishment goes back as the early Fourteenth Century. “The death penalty was also part of the Fourteenth Century B.C.'s Hittite Code; in the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for all crimes.” (Death Penalty Information Center, 2009). As the centuries progressed, the number of death penalty crimes increased. By the early 1700s, there were over 200 crimes which systematize the death...
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...articles. The main focus I think that they both argue is for a shake up of the system that has allowed for racism to continue under the guise of necessity, and protection for so long which has inevitably influenced the crime and poverty within the nation. Two of the points they mention that I found incredibly interesting were the “All lives matter” discussion and colorblindness, as well as the solutions provided on how this situation can be handled and resolved. Judith Butler argues in the article “What’s Wrong With ‘All Lives Matter’?” that by trying to be inclusive and using the phrase, “all lives matter” it inadvertently diminishes the purpose of “black lives matter” by refusing to address and solve the initial problem presented by this movement. She states that “Claiming that 'all lives matter' does not immediately mark or enable black lives only because they have not been fully recognized as having lives that matter.” and also brings up the topic of “race-blindness” that is further elaborated on in the other article (Butler, 6). In “Post-Racial Racism: Racial Stratification and Mass Incarceration in the Age of Obama” Ian F. Haney Lopez mention “colorblindness.” This much like the “all lives matter” topic...
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...Race has been a large social problem in crime over many years. Legal systems, the humans’ psyche, and racial biases have turned the legal system against minorities. Men that were ready to become their own kings founded this nation on institutions that suppressed social classes beneath them. The common trait that could separate these bureaucrats from the work force was their race. This was simply the seed of white privilege in the United States. Flourishing ever since attributes of white privilege has found favoritism in law officers and legal professionals of today. History has proven over time that laws are put in place to keep the powerful in power. Power holds it value in property. Once slavery was abolished laws all over the nation were put in place to insure that whites remained in control. At the time the main thing that divided whites from blacks was citizenship. The key component to being a citizen is the right to vote. Jim Crow laws required that to be a citizen you had to own property. These laws also made it impossible to...
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