For some reason this story reminded of the crack vs powder cocaine issue. Showing that if you are a minority, in this case a black man you can not escape the law. Affirming that stereotype that most black men are criminals. This story would make the news because racial stories are what sell.
If people did not believe that blacks are disproportionately arrested for crimes, they should not be able to believe it anymore. This is an outstanding number of people in jail, and when you hear that it is only the black population, the shock is even greater. Black, and minorities in general, are often the target of crime control, meaning that they are perceived as the most dangerous threats to society, so police feel the need to arrest them more often. The fact is, they are the ones who commit the most crime, but not because they are the most 'inherently evil'. People of color are more likely to live in rougher neighborhood, and more likely to be uneducated and hold less serious jobs. All of these factors, along with many others, are the cause for the general population and those people in power to believe that people of color are more trouble. So, in order to fix this problem, one thing that could be done is to try and make neighborhood better and to try and raise the educational level of EVERYONE. Then, if that is able to be accomplished, maybe the stigma of black=criminal can be erased.
This is extremely sad and it touches on so many of the topics from class; the criminalblackman archetype (which we obviously are helping to make a perpetual self-fulfilling prophecy), the disparities and problems caused by the "war" on drugs, attributing the cause crime to personal flaws rather than societal issues for some groups, and the likelihood of minorities to get sentenced more harshly. What really blows my mind about this whole issue is that we've known for so many years that minorities, especially young black men, are disproportionately sentenced. Why has this not changed?
On another, slightly related note, I heard a news story that African-Americans (along with much of the rest of the population) are moving to the south again in search of better job opportunity, and in the process neighborhoods are shifting to be less segregated. Perhaps if this trend continues, the arrests and sentencing will decrease since our class discussion a while back pointed to the fact that if police are more likely to patrol minority neighborhoods, then of course there are going to be more arrests of minorities.
It seems unbelievable to me that so many people, especially scholars and criminal justice experts, can pinpoint the problem/s with the system yet nothing changes. The "war on drugs" is clearly an undeniable failure and money pit, yet we persist in an unrelenting pursuit to rid the streets of drugs. In the process we fill jails with minorities and spend an inordinate amount of money in doing so. How long can a problem that we have created continue? Can politicians change this awful cycle? They tell us what we want to hear. The public really doesn't know the truth about the drug war and that is a shame.
As we all know the media are most likely focus on acts of racial minorities, and in this case the "war on drugs" is not an exception. The problem is that people including the law enforcement have the misconception that blacks are more involve in crimes like this type. As we discuss in class the media has a color for crime and it is "black" therefore a lot of people that rely on the media has this wrong stereotype about minorities especially African Americans. This is very sad, because there are a lot of knowledge people that had discuss this misconceptions and inequalities and that the key problem here is racial inequality in society, but yet no body wants to listen and nothing changes. To me is like slavery, the only difference is that they not owned by people, they are own by the prison and jails.....in another class we have discussed that the law enforcement tend to patrol minority and poor neighborhoods where crimes seems to be high, therefore the number of arrests increases, but the truth is that crime is everywhere but the media will always focus on minorities and of course the offenders are labels according to what we watch in the news....
The fact that African Americans are disproportionately arrested and targeted is a major problem that our criminal justice system is wrapped up in. From class we know that crime is "blacker, younger, and maler". The criminal justice system defends the war on drugs and disparities in race, with mandatory sentencing and less discretion among judges. Administrators of CJ also defend the current system with thoughts of being proactive and getting drugs and crime off the streets. However, what they fail to adress is the fact that whites and other races are equally dealing in drugs and crimes but they are not targeted. I mean look at the NIJ reports like "Driving While Black" is a perfect example of the rates of arrests just because of race. I think it is ridiculous to focus on someone based soley on their race and not facts or evidence of criminal activity. The whole cycle is wrong, starting with the police and the american psyche of crime portrayed by the Media, to the court system, to then who ends up in jails and prisons. The focus needs to be on the fact that once labeled a criminal people will reoffend as a criminal. Feeding back to what the article states, once convicted there is no more opportunity to advance and attain the "American Dream", so they reoffend. It is easy to target a poor, minority area but real policing would be, to stop White collar crime, or White middle to upper class crime at higher levels. I mean we know that Powder cociane, the "whiteman" drug is a more pure form and more expensive to get. And yet we attack crack cociane dealers on small scale sells. In order to fix this we would need to revamp the media, police, judges, politicians, and the perception of the American People.
The war on drugs is not targeting only black people, the war puts all people and of all color in jail if they are caught with drugs, the sentencing is quiet different but this is why most of our prisons and jails are over filling by the day. Dr. Robinson said "1/3 of all the black people are in prisons". So if you line up 1,000 black people you can take out 1 out of every 3 of them. So do i think the system is racist? Yes. I am glad that this professor had shone this situation and i think we need more people like this to step up and do it. This might help change the laws rich white people made.
For some reason this story reminded of the crack vs powder cocaine issue. Showing that if you are a minority, in this case a black man you can not escape the law. Affirming that stereotype that most black men are criminals. This story would make the news because racial stories are what sell.
ReplyDeleteIf people did not believe that blacks are disproportionately arrested for crimes, they should not be able to believe it anymore. This is an outstanding number of people in jail, and when you hear that it is only the black population, the shock is even greater. Black, and minorities in general, are often the target of crime control, meaning that they are perceived as the most dangerous threats to society, so police feel the need to arrest them more often. The fact is, they are the ones who commit the most crime, but not because they are the most 'inherently evil'. People of color are more likely to live in rougher neighborhood, and more likely to be uneducated and hold less serious jobs. All of these factors, along with many others, are the cause for the general population and those people in power to believe that people of color are more trouble. So, in order to fix this problem, one thing that could be done is to try and make neighborhood better and to try and raise the educational level of EVERYONE. Then, if that is able to be accomplished, maybe the stigma of black=criminal can be erased.
ReplyDeleteThis is extremely sad and it touches on so many of the topics from class; the criminalblackman archetype (which we obviously are helping to make a perpetual self-fulfilling prophecy), the disparities and problems caused by the "war" on drugs, attributing the cause crime to personal flaws rather than societal issues for some groups, and the likelihood of minorities to get sentenced more harshly. What really blows my mind about this whole issue is that we've known for so many years that minorities, especially young black men, are disproportionately sentenced. Why has this not changed?
ReplyDeleteOn another, slightly related note, I heard a news story that African-Americans (along with much of the rest of the population) are moving to the south again in search of better job opportunity, and in the process neighborhoods are shifting to be less segregated. Perhaps if this trend continues, the arrests and sentencing will decrease since our class discussion a while back pointed to the fact that if police are more likely to patrol minority neighborhoods, then of course there are going to be more arrests of minorities.
It seems unbelievable to me that so many people, especially scholars and criminal justice experts, can pinpoint the problem/s with the system yet nothing changes. The "war on drugs" is clearly an undeniable failure and money pit, yet we persist in an unrelenting pursuit to rid the streets of drugs. In the process we fill jails with minorities and spend an inordinate amount of money in doing so. How long can a problem that we have created continue? Can politicians change this awful cycle? They tell us what we want to hear. The public really doesn't know the truth about the drug war and that is a shame.
ReplyDeleteAs we all know the media are most likely focus on acts of racial minorities, and in this case the "war on drugs" is not an exception. The problem is that people including the law enforcement have the misconception that blacks are more involve in crimes like this type. As we discuss in class the media has a color for crime and it is "black" therefore a lot of people that rely on the media has this wrong stereotype about minorities especially African Americans.
ReplyDeleteThis is very sad, because there are a lot of knowledge people that had discuss this misconceptions and inequalities and that the key problem here is racial inequality in society, but yet no body wants to listen and nothing changes.
To me is like slavery, the only difference is that they not owned by people, they are own by the prison and jails.....in another class we have discussed that the law enforcement tend to patrol minority and poor neighborhoods where crimes seems to be high, therefore the number of arrests increases, but the truth is that crime is everywhere but the media will always focus on minorities and of course the offenders are labels according to what we watch in the news....
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that African Americans are disproportionately arrested and targeted is a major problem that our criminal justice system is wrapped up in. From class we know that crime is "blacker, younger, and maler". The criminal justice system defends the war on drugs and disparities in race, with mandatory sentencing and less discretion among judges. Administrators of CJ also defend the current system with thoughts of being proactive and getting drugs and crime off the streets. However, what they fail to adress is the fact that whites and other races are equally dealing in drugs and crimes but they are not targeted. I mean look at the NIJ reports like "Driving While Black" is a perfect example of the rates of arrests just because of race. I think it is ridiculous to focus on someone based soley on their race and not facts or evidence of criminal activity. The whole cycle is wrong, starting with the police and the american psyche of crime portrayed by the Media, to the court system, to then who ends up in jails and prisons. The focus needs to be on the fact that once labeled a criminal people will reoffend as a criminal. Feeding back to what the article states, once convicted there is no more opportunity to advance and attain the "American Dream", so they reoffend. It is easy to target a poor, minority area but real policing would be, to stop White collar crime, or White middle to upper class crime at higher levels. I mean we know that Powder cociane, the "whiteman" drug is a more pure form and more expensive to get. And yet we attack crack cociane dealers on small scale sells. In order to fix this we would need to revamp the media, police, judges, politicians, and the perception of the American People.
ReplyDeleteThe war on drugs is not targeting only black people, the war puts all people and of all color in jail if they are caught with drugs, the sentencing is quiet different but this is why most of our prisons and jails are over filling by the day. Dr. Robinson said "1/3 of all the black people are in prisons". So if you line up 1,000 black people you can take out 1 out of every 3 of them. So do i think the system is racist? Yes. I am glad that this professor had shone this situation and i think we need more people like this to step up and do it. This might help change the laws rich white people made.
ReplyDelete