Analysis Of The Umar Abdullah Johnson Theory Of Black Male Alienation

Racism in the United States has not remained the same over time since its creation. Racism has shifted, changed, and shaped into unrecognizable ways that fit into the fabric of the American society to render it nearly invisible to the majority of Americans. Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness shatters this dominantly held belief. The New Jim Crow makes a reader profoundly question whether the high rates of incarceration in the United States is an attempt to maintain blacks as an underclass. Michelle Alexander makes the assertion that “[w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it” using the criminal justice system and colorblind rhetoric. (Alexander 2). The result is a population of Black and Latino men who face barriers and deprivation of rights as did Blacks during the Jim Crow era. Therefore, mass incarceration has become the new Jim Crow.

While the Civil Rights Movement is considered a success, there is still racism in the United States today, in which blacks are still viewed as overly aggressive and overtly dangerous compared to whites. The racism we are familiar with today is called “institutional racism” and is not only shown in workplaces, but in schools and courtrooms. Institutional racism is defined as a pattern of social institutions who give negative treatment to a group of people based on race. To elaborate on institutional racism, starting with pre-school, black children make up only 18 percent of the pre-school population, but make up almost half of out of school suspensions. In K-12 black children are three times as likely to be suspended than white children. Now moving to the court system, black children make up nearly 60 percent of children in prison and are more likely to be sentenced as adults than white children. These statistics show that black’s, even black children, are more likely to be viewed as dangerous and subject to worse sentences.

The history of Jim Crow is a story of white power, but it is also a story of black survival and resilience. The Jim Crow era lasted nearly a century because of the federal government and there is still work to be done today. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander, is a book about the discrimination of African Americans in today 's society. One of Alexander 's main points is the War on Drugs and how young African American males are targeted and arrested due to racial profiling. Racial profiling, discrimination, and segregation is not as popular as it used to be during the Civil War, however, Michelle Alexander digs deeper, revealing the truth about our government and the racial scandal in the prison systems. The term mass incarceration refers to not only to the criminal justice system but also to the larger web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control the labeled criminals both in and out of prison today. The future of the black community itself may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society.

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.

Luis Torres Professor Gallagher English 1A June 7th 2018 America’s Modern Slavery African american males have one in three chance to go to prison in their lifetime, while white males have one in every 17 chance to go to prison. Racism in the U.S Justice system has been a nationwide issue ever since segregation was outlawed, ever since then the incarceration of young african american males and other minorities has increased dramatically. The “War on Drugs” is a clear example of the disbalance and inequality in our justice system which is one of the reason mass incarceration is happening, making it a modern slavery and modern segregation system.

Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness goes into great detail on race related issues that were specific to black males, the mass incarceration, and how that lead to the development of institutionalized racism in the United States. She compares the Jim Crow with recent phenomenon of mass incarceration and points out that the mass incarceration is a network of laws, policies, customs and institutions that have been working together to warrant the subordinating status of black males. In this paper I will go into a brief examination of the range of issues that she mentions in her book that are surrounding the mass incarceration of black male populations.

Does the US prison system operates as a new Jim Crow system? Or, to put it another way, whether “mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions” that locks black Americans, particularly males, into an undercast. This essay agrees that Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, is correct that the US prison system and mass incarceration operates as a new form of racism. The effects on black Americans of mass incarceration are striking, and yes, mass incarceration does have the result of continuing and reproducing racially biased policies and systems from previous racist generations. These effects are not just felt by the black Americans

The lives of young African American males is under constant threat in the United States. “Only 41% of African American males graduate from high school in the U.S., leaving more than half of African American males between the ages of 16 and 19 unemployed” (McGee, 2013). According to McGee (2013), fifty percent of African American males in grades 6–12 have been suspended compared to 21 % of White males. Seventeen percent of African American males have been expelled, compared to 1 % of White males and there are more African Americans (mostly male) under correctional control today—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.

African American males who live in poverty are the most vulnerable and oppressed population in society. Since the first slave ship set sail from Africa with hundreds of Blacks in tow headed to America, black have endured the worst treatment of any one individual race in America. Slavery lasted over three hundred years and has been illegal since 1865. However the underlying effects of slavery continue to plague Black males in society. In our modern day society there are still underlying racial injustices. Black males are racially oppressed in educational setting as they have the lowest high school graduation rates than that of any other race. Black males are racially profiled by law enforcement and are represented in prisons and jails than their white counterparts. Once Black males have paid their debts to society, their criminal records place them at higher risk of becoming underemployed or unemployed. If the American Dream is promise to all U.S. citizens then structural changes are needed to assure their survival. I believe empowering Black males using the Strength Based Perspective helps to identify individual, family and personal strengths in effective problem solving and application of the Critical Race Theory helps practitioners to understand the core issues of oppressive barriers throughout the lifespan.

The professors use hard hitting facts that demonstrates the truth behind African Americans and the way the law enforcement perceives them, giving the reader some distinctive insight. The history of the law enforcement along with the criminal justice system has portrayed that they are disproportionality race-based. Blacks are more likely than whites to be racially profiled (Staples 2011), to be stopped by law enforcement, and receive harsher sentences. Unfortunately, it has been shown time and time again that judges, jurors, and the law enforcement finds it challenging for them to sympathize with African Americans. All in all this body of academic work has highlighted external factors that have shaped the lives of Blacks in America without giving due attention to the words of Rodney King, the man who became the face of racial injustice (Chaney and Robertson 2014). Four themes were unveiled in the analysis King’s quotes: appreciation for the struggles of former Civil Rights Activists, appreciation for the legal system, personal feelings related to police brutality, and the desire for non-violence as a catalyst for positive

How would you feel if the outcome of your interaction with authority depended on whether you were black, Latino, or white? Unfortunately, police brutality is the sad reality that many black and Latino boys experience in their childhood. The disadvantages of their upbringing results to the reinforcement of societal restrictions on their success. On a positive note, education becomes salvation to marginalized group because it provides them means to escape the system that prevents them from becoming successful. However, Charles M. Blows and Victor M. Rios reveal that black and Latino boys are at a disadvantage in the school to prison pattern. Therefore, the recent death of Michael Brown only heightens public awareness of police brutality on colored males. According to Charles M. Blow, bias educational system is a major factor in criminalization of black and Latino boys. But we cannot disregard that a significant perpetrator of racism is ignorance and false media representation. Therefore an increase of awareness of the existence of discrimination and improvement on media depiction of black and Latino characters would render racism defenseless.

Two million African Americans are presently under the criminal-justice system, in prison, or on probation. The past few decades, millions of more people have been in and out of the System. To be 100 percent; nearly 70 percent of people released from prison are re-arrested within three years. Most people appreciate that millions of African Americans were locked into a second-class status during slavery and Jim Crow. These earlier systems of racial control made a reminder of Political, social, and economic discrimination that this nation is still haven’t overcome. This non-ending; disturbing issue to this day; has a widely effect many families and communities. Prisoners are released and fear is increased.

Throughout history Black men have been accustomed to being profiled, interrogated harassed by whites, and accused of accusations. Racial profiling has been a major component of America’s History. History has repeated itself and Black men are still facing the same limitations as they ancestors experienced. Lynching’s and accusations was a historic experience for blacks in the 1940’s. Today, we see Blacks arrested and incarcerated at higher rates then any other racial group. As Michelle Alexander research demonstrates incarcerating blacks is our “New Jim Crow”.

The book Race, Incarceration, and American Values describes mass incarceration as essentially a legalized form of genocide that is slowly destroying the fiber of African American families and communities. It provides explanations for the origin of mass incarceration as well as the reasons for the disproportionate level of African Americans in the prison system. Glenn Loury, along with Pamela Karian, Tommie Shelby, and Loic Wacquant discuss how America has let fear and greed cause an inequitable landscape for citizens who have the misfortune of being born the wrong color and of the wrong social-economic class. The principals of equality and freedom on which America was founded has become nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Maybe the pride America displays to the World as a Global power incapable of wrong doing is what is holding it back from recognizing the mistakes it made and undergoing to process of change. Or, maybe it is what we fear most. It is what we know in our heads and hearts; but never dared to say. That it is a careful crafted system to keep those with power in power!

In the book, The New Jim Crow, Alexander (2010) discusses the battle society is currently facing against a racial caste system that was set in place by the criminal justice system. This new caste system, erected under the cover of providing security to the public from criminals, has divided the American society in to an us versus them culture. The us, being representative of the majority, and the them, representing minorities, especially African American men. The system put in place has accomplished this by manipulating the public view of African American men. Portrayed as common criminals, drug addicts, and abusers the media has convinced the public that black men are a danger to society. In this way, a strong association with criminal activity