African American Injustice Research Paper

The first article I am going to focus on, Foreword: Addressing the Real World of Racial Injustice in the Criminal Justice System, was written by Donna Coker . Primarily, the article talks about the statistical evidence of in justice regarding racial profiling in policing and imprisonment. Official incarceration data speaks for itself when it shows that although African Americans make up twelve percent of the U.S. population, they make up of almost half of the population incarcerated for crimes (Coker, 2003). Researchers with the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimate that twenty-eight percent of African Americans will be imprisoned at one point in their life (Coker, 2003). A study conducted by the Sentencing Project reports that nearly one in three African American men between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine are under the supervision of the criminal justice system on any given day (Coker

There are large racial disparities in incarceration and related detainments for African Americans. They are more likely to be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections than any other racial or ethnic group (H.West, Sabol, & Greenman, 2010). Institutional racism is believed to be the reason why African Americans, especially males, are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. On balance, the public believes that discrimination against black people is based on the prejudice of the individual person, correlates to the discrimination built into the nation’s laws and institutions (Pew’s Research Center, 2017). This belief is actually supported through several experimental studies that provide evidence that African Americans are to be seen as more criminal and threatening than others thus more likely to be arrested or even shot (Greenwald, Oakes, & Hoffman, 2003). Racism within the criminal justice system very much exists and is still relevant.

There are more than two million people incarcerated in the U.S, whether it is in jails, prisons, or immigration detentions and the race with the highest percentage of locked up people are blacks. For many years, black men have always been at top of the list for going to prison during their lifetime. Following black men would be the Latino males, then white males, and so forth. Of course minorities are arrested more than whites. This is because they get off way easier with police officers and the law. Blacks have it the hardest where they get pulled over for any and everything. Most of the time they get killed for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Everyone is supposed to be treated fair, but police officers have their own motto for that. “Once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences.” (Knafo, 2014). I feel this quote is referring to blacks because police find anything to arrest them for just to be able to send them into court and convict with anything they could possibly think of. After they find something to convict them with, they face sentences that were never supposed to be given in the first place, leading to unnecessary lawyers and money wasted trying to get them out. For the people who are sent to prison for a real conviction, it usually has to do with making, distributing, or using drugs. “We find

In 2010, the American Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that the African Americans had the rate of imprisonment that was almost seven times greater compared to the white men’s incarceration rate. In addition, the

Even before a minority steps into a courtroom, racial disparity in our justice system begins with the exercised policies implemented by law enforcement (Nellis). Policies such as stop and frisk, and search and seize are practices used by the police force, yet the disproportional amount of blacks who experience any of these exercised methods compared

The inception of “race” began in America during the European colonization. The Europeans captured and enslaved the Africans, in Africa and traveled to America and found a new breed of humans, the Native Americans. The Europeans found the Africans and Native Americans from themselves based on their physical characteristics and who they worshipped differently. Since they found this abnormal, they treated them as barbarians. The treatment of both races by the Europeans were unjustifiably inhumane. With that being said, is there a difference today in treatment between races, by one another?

In today's society it is hard to believe that once a person was denied freedom because of the color of their skin. In the 1800 African Americans were treated poorly and were denied their freedom. The freedoms African Americans were denied was their social freedom which is the freedom to socialize with who ever you want and to marry who you want, Political freedom which is to vote and to be able to run for political jobs and economic freedom is to able to spend money and make money and able to get a job , pay taxes and to own land. A lot of people of think that in the north African Americans were free but in my opinion they were not. In this essay we will be talking about how African Americans were not free in the north.

For many years African Americans were slaves and forced to do labor and some women were raped. After fighting the civil war many slaves were free but after the civil war they started putting African Americans into prison for minor charges. In prison they were required to work in labor to help the economy. Later on in the 20th century many African Americans did not have any rights because of the Jim Crow laws. In the Jim Crow laws you were not allowed to vote if your grandfather did not vote. Many African Americans were segregate, they were not allowed to use the same water fountain or go to the same school. However, before the Jim Crow laws many white people still discriminate African Americans. Many black people were hanged and killed for

Prior to World War II, black people in the United States (especially in the rural south) lived in poverty and suffered greatly from racial inequality. “Most African Americans lived in the South and worked on farms under a newly developed rule of society known as Jim Crow. Under this system, blacks had their votes restricted by white primaries, literacy tests, and poll taxes; they were segregated from whites” (Johnson). Black people faced major segregation in nearly every venue of life. Under Jim Crow laws, blacks were forced to use separate public facilities such as water fountains and bathrooms as well as hotels and restaurants. In most, if not all cases, the facilities offered to the black

Innocent until proven guilty is one of the basic tenants of the American criminal justice system. Historically, this principal has not applied to everyone, with slave owners having complete authority over their slaves. Certainly this has evolved greatly over the last 150 years, and today criminal rights theoretically apply equally to all American citizens. In the legal system today, everything from arrest requirements to sentencing mandates are created to be applied consistently across all citizens. However, throughout the entire criminal justice process, from arrest to sentencing, there are apparent disparities in the application of criminal rights across individuals of different racial backgrounds.

Our country has a grim past marked by racial turmoil and segregation. Since the founding of this country, there has been some form of racial injustice. For example, the enslavement of Africans until 1860, the segregation of colored citizens until the rise of MLK and Malcolm X, or the racial profiling and innocent killing of young black men and women in modern times. All these examples show just how unjust and discriminated America really is.

It’s hard being a African American in the Criminal Justice System. Article “Is the Criminal Justice System Racist” states that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, [and] receive very different sentences … for the same crime.” This statement is most definitely true, it has happened here in Thomasville, GA. There was a African American man who was arrested for rapping a 16 year old girl and when he went to court they sentenced him to 15 years in prison. A Caucasian man committed the same crime but instead of the girl being 16, she was 13. He was charged with rape but went to jail for one day and was let off on a bond.

African Americans face a lot of discrimination from the criminal justice system. More African Americans are incarcerated for minor offenses in comparison to their white counterparts. A black American is likely to be stopped in traffic and thereafter detained for minor traffic offenses compared to a white American. This means that they are likely to get a fast conviction, which taints their record making it easier to be convicted for other offenses. Consequently, the justice system, has not favored them; neither has balance or equity been observed in the courts following the poor legal representation, biased laws, and the negative perception by the judicial

There have many movements throughout American history that have left a footprint in modern day society. The 1900’s were filled with many of these. Groups like the Civil Rights movement, Anti-Vietnam protestors, and the feminist movement are perfect examples of this. Those three movements specifically list among the most important and influential causes in American history. Even today they continue to resurface and shape American society.

“It’s the secular state that is responsible for the woes we are seeing today. People should understand that we are not saying we have to rule Nigeria, but we have been motivated by the stark injustice in the land. People underrate us, but we have our sights set on bring Sharia to the whole world, not just Nigeria.”