American Violet Essay Topics

Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, examines mass incarceration in the United States, why the criminal justice system works the way it does towards minorities, the detriments associated with mass incarceration as it relates to offenders, and much more. In the introduction of her book, Alexander immediately paints the harsh reality of mass incarceration with the story of Jarvious Cotton who is denied the right to vote among other rights because he, “has been labeled as a felon and is currently on parole” (1). Other information Alexander presents in her introduction are her qualifications as an author of the book, and gives a brief summary of each chapter and how each one is laid out. Her qualifications are she is African-American civil rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and is also an Associate Professor at the University of Stanford Law School. From a critical standpoint, Alexander seems very qualified to write on the topic, being part of the marginalized group and also being an expert in the legal field of which the topic covers, enhances her ethos to where one could consider her an expert in mass incarceration topics, as they relate to African-Americans. Overall, the introduction of her book does a great job starting out giving a stark reality of topic at hand, giving brief statistical references about mass incarceration in the United States, and giving an outline for her book.

Tulia, a small town in Texas of just under five-thousand people, is a frightening example of how the judicial system is governed solely by racism as well as one corrupt man’s word. In 1999, nearly ten percent of the town’s African American population was arrested in a single drug bust. Of the forty-six people arrested, thirty-eight were African-American, furthermore all were convicted. The remaining seven arrested where know to associate more with the black community than the white in Tulia as well. With the towns income levels averaging at or below the poverty line, most arrested could not afford to hire a good attorney that cared or had the time to care, left therefore with one provided by the state. Consequently, convictions were up to ninety years in jail for allegedly selling three and a half grams, more commonly known as an eight ball, of cocaine in drug-free zones. In was only on appeals, that the convictions where revoked on insubstantial evidence.

Ethnic minorities are not likely to commit more crimes than whites. If police officers spend too much time suspecting ethnic minorities, they are likely to miss potential suspects. According to the Public Health Service, approximately 70% of drug users are white, 15% are black, and 8% are Latino, but the Department of Justice reports that among those imprisoned on drug charges, 26% are white, 45% are black, and 21% are Latino. A 2002 study in Minnesota found that African-American, Hispanic, and Native American drivers were all stopped and searched more often than Whites, but smuggled goods were found more frequently in searches of White drivers’ cars. Another study in Arizona shows that during 2006-2007, Native Americans, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, and Asians were more likely to be stopped and searched than Whites on the highways, but Whites who were searched were more likely to be transporting drugs, guns, or other illegal imports. Stereotypical assumptions should not be used as a tool to capture

Throught our hundreds of prisons in the United States, there are people who have been convicted of crimes that they did in fact not commit. And even with groups like the Justice Project doing their best to free these men and women, there will always be indivuduals who will serve a sentence meant for someone else. At the beginning of the semester, we were given a book on such a case titled Picking Cotton. Picking Cotton is more than just a book on a man who was wrongfully convicted of rape. It’s a book on the injustices faced by people everyday in the criminal justice system. While we may not to admit it, the majority of people who are facing these injustices are people of color. It was taught to us in class that as much as 60% of our prisons are populated by people of color. Our justice system, while it may be unintentional, is unequal when it comes to the treatment of whites and the treatment of people of color. Picking Cotton goes on to explain not only the unjustices that were faced by the defendandt, Ronald Cotton, but also the poor police work and innaporopriate treatement of Ronald throught the whole process.

The “American Violet” sparks up a lot of issues that we see today in our society. These issues are very important as they deal with equality among our citizens but they may often be overlooked. The issue I am going to discuss in this critical analysis is Racial Prejudice in the Criminal Justice System. Racial prejudice happens every day and may never completely end, but one would think that it would not take place in a professional, uniform place such as the Criminal Justice System. After watching this movie, I have been taken back by the actions of the people in charge of this system. The 14th Amendment states that “ no state shall make or enforce any

Law is defined in various ways. Donald Black defines law as government action to control the social environment and perspective of a society. Whereas Oliver Wendell Holmes defines law as a judge made decision (Lessan 2013). A combination of these definitions of law is the explanation for the legal trend of mass incarceration. The government decides what is criminal and what is acceptable. At the same time law is also a judge made decision. Judges bring their own perspective to legal decisions and sentences. DuVernay accounts for these factors in her documentary. This is first exemplified by the film’s comparison of the prosecution of white-collar crime and blue-collar crimes. Starting with Nixon’s “War on Crime” blue collar crime, or street crimes, were punished more harshly than white collar crimes. This is an example of the government criminalizing street crimes to shape the social perspective of crime(DuVernay

Brunson and Miller’s article about gender, race, and policing is focusing mainly on African Americans in poor urban communities and what roles come into place when it comes to law enforcement. Solely focusing on race, Brunson and Miller bring a point that states use more physical violence on minority groups than whites, many Law Enforcer are stereotypical when it comes to certain races. Brunson and Miller claims that it is no different in any other neighborhood and that there are always drug dealers in the neighborhood, and feels that it’s the norm. In the article Brunson and Miller display a chart that shows the percentage of African Americans, poverty level, unemployment levels, female headed families in Youth neighborhoods, St. Louis City

Bill Quigley’s examples are illustrations of racism in the Criminal Justice system because each example shows how blacks and Latinos are accused of crime more often than whites. Quigley states that “blacks are arrested for drug offenses at rates 2 to 11 times higher than for whites,” even though the statistics show that illegal drug use is about the same for whites and blacks. (Drug use p. 43). Research has shown that minority groups do have a higher percent of people who commit violent crimes. (Violent Crimes p. 54).

“As Blacks and Latinos and their families endure these unfair practices resulting front the over-policing of their neighbor- hoods, relatively few whites are impacted by crimes Latinos and blacks actually commit; many whites instead see the police force, which is also predominantly white, as being their frontline of defense in keeping crime "confined" to black ghettos and Latino barrios.” (Staples, Robert)

Arrest for whites and blacks often alter by the amount and gravity of the misdeed each rush commits. Is the higher occurrence of black apprehensions directly associated to their participation in serious lawless person perform (Walker).When revising arrest rates, racial discrepancies cannot be bypassed. exact to apprehensions clues propose that blacks are up to three times more expected to be arrested than whites (Huizinga). whereas numerous have speculated about the sources of racial discrepancies in arrests, few have empirically assessed promise explanations of these discrepancies (Kempf-Leonard). Environmental and communal factors like poor wellbeing care and the workforce lead blacks to a greater likelihood for apprehend because they may not have been the identical benefits as whites. Along these lines, risk components across multiple domains have been connected to white and very dark arrests (Leober). Blacks are more expected to be apprehended for drug offenses than whites even though they have alike benefits. African Americans are nearly four times more expected to be arrested than whites even, even though they use pharmaceuticals at similar rates, according to a new analysis of government data from the American municipal Liberties Union (Flatow). The lawless person fairness system is exceedingly bias in apprehend rates between blacks and whites.

In today’s American society much of the issues incurred are centered on racism or racial discrimination encompassing crime and the criminal justice system. A vast majority of the issues in the criminal justice system relate to race, ethnicity, or economic class and captures actions by legislators, the policies of the police, and the practices of the courts. In 2009 alone, African American males accounted for 6.7 times more incarceration rates than whites in both state and federal penitentiaries, largely due to the U.S. drug laws. In 2010, legislators of the State of Arizona required the local police to verify the immigration status of anyone based on mere suspicion, which leads to ethnic profiling of Hispanics and lawsuits for the laws’ constitutionality. The notion that the police conduct traffic stops and racially profile based on skin color and not the law being broken, as well as the statistics of prosecutors offering better plea deals based on class, or Judges sentencing people of color more harshly, all yield a feeling of injustice for minorities and a fear of crime for whites (Walker, Spohn, & Delone, 2012).

Joy is a professor at the Washington in St. Louis. The authors are famous for their education and knowledge in legal ethics, criminal justice and trial practice. McMunigal is a professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of law. U.S. crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the subordination and subjugation of black Americans. The article is different from Cao (2015), Hickman, Powell, Piquero, and Greene (2016) and Joy (2009) articles. The authors focus on fact that attorneys need to comply with the rules of ethics and to give their best efforts to ensure that all witnesses within their control comply with the rules. The public have the right to be informed about the rules and policies whenever the media

inherent bias against black and brown communities may contribute to officers targeting these individuals more. Police departments are primarily made up of white men, especially in the higher positions of administration.. People of color are also more often to be in poverty stricken neighbourhoods and American society loves to demonize and persecute poor people. Broken windows policing is a policy where strict enforcement on even minor offences allegedly ensure peace and public safety. It also targets these groups specifically. The War on Drugs is often times a justification for the aggressive manner that these departments treat drug use a crime instead of an issue of public health. That is why incarceration for low level drug offences affect Blacks and Latinos higher. Finally, the militarized nature of modern policing makes violence a common tactic used by these institutions. As defence department surplus is being distributed, police departments feel justified to use these dangerous tools and tactics to violently address social problems with swat teams and

When talking about the inequity and the injustice in the world today; it is important that many have topics such as police brutality,injustice, and racism are bought up throughout the discussion. Over the years African-Americans have been victims of discrimination, Jim Crow, segregation, and many more unconstitutional acts of racism and still have overcame it all. Also, there are still crooked people in the criminal justice system such as police officers, judges, jurors, and many others; understanding that being African-American has a rough price to pay in the United States of America without the corruption of the criminal justice system and African-Americans as a whole need to realize. Lauryn Hill states “you can’t handle the truth in a courtroom of lies.” Also, In the poem “Mystery of Inequity” by Lauryn Hill she examines corruption to talk about crooked lawyers, false indictments, and slavery.

SWAT deployments for drug raids target minority households an uncompromisingly consistent 61 percent of the time; this disproportionately constitutes a disparity of up to 47 times as many raids when compared to white households.