Angry Black White Boy

In his essay, “Pretty like a White Boy: The Adventure of a Blue-Eyed a Ojibway,” Drew Hayden Taylor discusses his negative life experiences, and decides that he will no longer classify himself as either a White, or Native person, though he is of dual ancestry. Though he aims his essay at the Everyman, he assumes that the reader has knowledge in Native history. Taylor, the comedian mentions that he never knew his White father, and it is likely that he was raised in First Nations household. This assumption supports the ethos of his essay as a whole. While examining the thesis, Taylor makes jumps in logic that are difficult for the reader to follow, on the path to his conclusion. Taylor’s style is consistently lighthearted, and his essay is structurally sound, however, due to errors in logic, his essay appeals to the heart alone.

Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict

With so many news stories and incidents surrounding the topic of race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that racism may exist within the criminal justice system. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possible determinants may play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts. The issues surrounding the topic of race is like the two faces of the same coin as there are usually two sides that we have to consider: reality and media portrayals. The reality side of situations is always there at the time, but it is so subtly hidden from society that nobody understands it unless they witness it firsthand and with the media spreading filtered information, it becomes even harder for us to identify the key issue; this is especially the case when dealing with the police and racial profiling. If you turn on the news and flip to a channel where it is reporting on the police and their arrests, you will most likely see more arrests pertaining to minorities than other ethnicities. In the news, we can often see a misrepresentation of ethnic minorities, usually African-Americans, being arrested when compared to others and this has caused problems around societies countless times. For this essay topic, I will be discussing the different issues surrounding race within the parameters of criminal justice and inequality; furthermore I will be

A large reason for the writing of this book is that there is currently not much research concerning or call for a criminal justice reform. According to Alexander, the main goal of the book is to “stimulate a much-needed conversation about the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy in the United States” (2012:16). Another premise for this research is that it is no longer socially correct to use race to discriminate against people, so Alexander argues that society as a whole is now

This article entitled “Jim Crow Policing”, written by Bob Herbert, is an opinionated article which aims to shed light on the alleged racist and xenophobic behaviors of the New York Police Department. The article was published on February 1st, 2010, almost 7 years ago, which is important to note because of the changing environment that New York is as a whole. Herbert takes a stance against the NYPD, claiming that the officers of the department have “no obligation to treat them (blacks, hispanics, other minorities) fairly or with any respect…” He also states in his opening paragraph that some of the officers that are partaking in the harassment are minorities themselves, and he calls that

America has been built on inequality and evolving forms of racism for generations. Our criminal justice system is a reflection of the structural racism that has and is permeating our country. The criminal justice system of the United States is not explicitly racist, however there are many internal and unspoken policies that enact a structural racism through policing and the courts, however, our criminal justice system shows more racial disparities than racism. The lenses of two individuals who have in some way experienced the criminal justice system show the internal issues revolving around race, In Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleeve’s work Crook County and Wilbert Rideau’s In the Place of Justice, we see how the structural racism and more so the racial disparities play huge roles in shaping the life outcomes for people of color.

Stephanos Bibas explained the high incarceration rates in his article, “The Truth About Mass Incarceration,” by stating that, “Over the past few decades, prosecutors have grown tougher, and more consistent.” He also explains that over half of arrests today lead to felony convictions versus twenty years ago when one-third of arrests lead to felony charges (Bibas). Bibas concludes that the increasing incarceration rates cannot be tied to racism among the judicial system, but can be explained by increase in convictions and arrests for crimes considered felonies. Even though Bibas presents fair points, race is also a factor in arrests, between June 2005 and June 2008, African Americans consisted of 85% of all stop-and-frisks by the NYPD, while only 8% of stop-and-frisks were performed on white people (Graff 129). “...The criminalization process works so well precisely because of the hidden logic of racism,” Angela Davis writes to describe how hidden racism leads to the widespread belief that African Americans are more likely to be criminals than white people (268). This societal expectation that all African Americans are criminals has lead to more stop-and-frisks and more arrests of people of

Based on the statistics of NYPD’s 2016 second quarterly reports, 1,862 people in the African American community are stopped versus 342 Caucasians (NYPD second quarter reports, 2016). Consequently, this implies policemen classify “blacks” as delinquent even though they are uninvolved in any unlawful acts the majority of the time. The product of racial discrimination furthers the understanding that the country still does not hold minorities equal next to the other ethnicities. This demonstrates just one example on how the Stop and Frisk law variously inflates negative predigest to further the understanding that “blacks” are synonymous with barbarous criminals.

For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the issue of racial profiling. The act of racial profiling may rest on the assumption that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to commit crimes than any individual of other races or ethnicities. Both David Cole in the article "The Color of Justice" and William in the article "Road Rage" take stance on this issue and argue against it in order to make humanity aware of how erroneous it is to judge people without evidence. Although Cole and William were very successful in matters of showing situations and qualitative information about racial profiling in their articles, both of them fail at some points.

Discrimination is a known concept that happens everywhere, yet police and prosecutors are blind to it. Their ways of preventing crime are discriminatory in every sense of the word and they categorize people based on their skin color and where they reside. The disproportionate minority contact with the stop and frisk method is one of the ways that discrimination can be seen. “Code of the Street” and “Law and Disorder in Philadelphia” help dissect why discrimination is not seen by police and their agencies and also how police officers and their administration go about ways of preventing crime. The pressure within the police, community, and courts create inequalities for the individuals going through the Criminal Justice System.

Tension between police and minority groups have caused many violent riots throughout the years. The 1992 Los Angeles riots were mainly due to black-white tensions, and the public’s response to the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers in the case against Rodney King (Baldassare, 1994). Agencies have taken notice of this problem and are now doing their best to try to reverse societies perceptions of racial profiling. This paper will explore the problem of racial profiling, and how police agencies are now using new policies and techniques to help limit it.

James Baldwin, an African American author born in Harlem, was raised by his violent step-father, David. His father was a lay preacher who hated whites and felt that all whites would be judged as they deserve by a vengeful God. Usually, the father's anger was directed toward his son through violence. Baldwin's history, in part, aids him in his insight of racism within the family. He understands that racists are not born, but rather racist attitudes and behaviors are learned in the early stages of childhood. Baldwin's Going to Meet the Man is a perfect example of his capability to analyze the growth of a innocent child to a racist.

Police institutions have adopted a model that targets racial minorities. policing occupation largely white-male dominated, especially in the higher ranking positions. Racially minorities disproportionally represented in the criminal justice system police forces exist only to serve the elite’s interests Complementing the Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interactionism - significant influences of socialization in explaining the patterns of police brutality interactions between people, including violent encounters between civilians and police officers, role-taking. Police and civilians alike learn to behave to the norms, rules, and expectations of a particular group. In the context of police-civilian interactions black viewed as “rule violators” and police oppressors respectively in the eyes of one another.

resentful of him. They not only beat him, but try to force him to fight other

The 1960’s was a time in America that was filled with history making events. The Civil Rights Movements was just one of many. From Rosa Parks on the bus to the marches in Washington D.C.; America was riddled with racism and war. James Baldwin’s “Going to Meet a Man” is no exception it depicts a sheriff who is an extreme racist. This story in many ways depicts the most violent circumstances the pure hatred that some white men and women had against African American people. Baldwin’s “Going to Meet a Man” accurately depicts the extreme side of racism; but most cases the violence that was shown usually was not performed by the sheriff in public.