Protection of White Superiority in America's Justice System Essays

Welch (2007) instituted her article with details of speculations and theories that coincided to the development of Black criminal labels. Now, the Black criminal labels are basically the stereotypes that black people are commonly involve or associate with regarding with crime. She thought it was a plausible concept to understand the images of crime shown by a society. She explicates on racial stereotypes through crime rates, black involvement in crimes, media, and racial hoaxes. For instance, young black males in America are commonly perceived as violent, gang affiliated, and sustain by other labels everywhere. She mentions “talking about crime is talking about race” which has adapted to the publics’ minds throughout a wide range in history (Welch, 2007; Barlow, 1998, p.151). Welch gives an example of a common white stereotype of African Americans as being less controlled, and more prone to crime than whites which adds to the public’s conception of criminality (2007; Higginbotham, 2002, p.147). Through the various factors, like black involvement in crime have contributed to the criminal stereotyping of blacks. Concerning this, Randall Kennedy interpreted how the reputation of Blacks has been “besieged” by beliefs from white people about inclinations beforehand towards criminal activity that could be traced back to when Africans were held in captivity (1997; Welch, 2007). His statement conveyed that African Americans have had this reputation for decades. The real

Feller begins her claim on why law enforcement is unfair to African Americans by using ethos which is the appeal of credibility, by acknowledging the statement of professor David Cole’s to show credibility to the audience by saying, “inequalities in the criminal justice system "do not step from explicit and intentional race or class discrimination, but they are problems of inequality nonetheless."” (p. 3) She uses this quote in her Race, Drugs, and Law Enforcement in the United States, to show the connection between the , “anachronistic requirement of intent, equal protection jurisprudence has not been able to

Race in the justice system isn’t something that is new to the modern worlds talks on how race

Racism in the U.S. criminal justice system is a big issue faced by the nation. This prejudice is strongly expressed today in its massive incarceration rate among minorities. People of color are being targeted by a bias system created by people with a bias mindset. This has resulted in African Americans representing about 35% of the jail population and 37% of the prison population despite only being 12% of the total U.S. population (Carson, 2015). According to The Sentencing Project (2013):

Historically, the criminal justice system has served as a focal point of much of societal racism. There is a long legacy of practices such as the criminal leasing system, extra-judicial lynchings, and police brutality have shaped the history of African Americans and the criminal justice system. Over the last thirty years, there has been significant change has occurred in some aspects of the system. In many jurisdictions minorities have moved into positions of leadership within law enforcement, the courts, and corrections systems. Supreme Court decisions have placed restrictions on such practices as prosecutorial bias in jury selection (James F. Nelson, Disparities in Processing Felony Arrests in New York State). Despite these

The American criminal justice system is presently described by some, despite its outward colorblindness, as a latter-day system of racial oppression. The defunding of basic social welfare, reactionary misdiagnosis, and myopic heavy-handedness merged, culminating in a law enforcement regime that regards the poor and people of color as combatants rather than citizens deserving equal protection. Its culmination, the decades-long “war on drugs,” is notable for its expansive apparatus and for its disparate impact on black and Hispanic citizens. Although white offenders offend more, their black counterparts are more likely to be arrested. This disproportionality recurs through indictment and trial, with far weightier charges being brought against a black

Racial discrimination has been an issue in the United States since its founding. Specifically, African Americans have had limited rights and opportunities because of their skin color. Thankfully though, the years have brought laws and regulations that improve the lives of colored individuals. These changes include the right to vote, own property, and even interact freely with the white communities. Despite these vast improvements, there are still aspects in the United States government that are not in favor of the colored community; one of these aspects is the judicial system and sentencing. Throughout history and even today, blacks face harsher and longer punishments than whites for comparable crimes. It is estimated that punishments placed on “black males in the federal system are nearly 20 percent longer than those imposed on white males convicted of similar

Many individuals whom are a part of a civilized society often believe that law and race are two very distinct concepts that don’t have any common way of interconnecting with one another and that the laws themselves have the tendency of being race neutral and unbiased. The United States has often claimed that their laws are fair and race neutral especially more so with the ratification of The US Constitution, and inclusion of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendment which is suppose to guarantee that “all people would have rights that equal those of white citizens” (United States Constitution). The inclusion of these amendments however, did very little to rectify post slavery racial relations between whites and blacks, and has in fact strengthened the view that race is a relevant part of American society. This allowed the American legal system to form race laws that not only favored segregation and exclusion, but also strengthened racism as a result. Through unsuccessful court battles, the cruel and unjust treatment of African Americans, and the unjust racially exclusionary laws, the definition of race has become nothing more than discriminatory, and biased which has become deeply ingrained in both the American Legal system, and in the Criminal Justice System as a whole.

On the surface, crime and punishment seem to be of an unsophisticated matter. After all the belief is, if someone partakes in committing a crime, then that individual should be held responsible for his or her actions and suffer the consequences. However, when examined it is evident that crime and punishment are both multidimensional issues that derived from the racial prejudice which are justified by age-old preconceptions and beliefs about African Americans. The United States practices a dual criminal justice system that aids in the maintenance of the economic and social hierarchy we have set in place, based on the subjugation of African Americans, within the United States.

After black slavery was abolished and a long period of “separate but equal”, the American society nowadays is still struggling in the conflict of racial groups. Specifically, racial inequality could be seen in the criminal justice system. When we expect the criminal justice system to bring us justice, it is actually holding the unfairness and injustice in

Introduction: The criminal justice system is defined as the set of agencies and processes established by governments to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate laws. This is a socioeconomic system that governs our social interaction and essentially our lives. This system is supposed to be implemented equally for all people, however, it has fallen short. For example, the number of black offenders and white offenders are the same, yet the number of Black offenders jailed versus white offenders nearly sextuples. The criminal justice system creates and perpetuates a racial hierarchy in the United States, and has done so since its inception. Black Americans are criminalized and targeted because of their skin color. This being said, I propose a deeper analysis of the Reagan administration, the War on Drugs, corrupt police practices, media, and sentencing in order to reveal if racism and

In 2014, we live in a world with a media saturated culture. This is the era of digital news services, of 24-hour news channels, free newspapers, and even media based applications. For the majority of us, the way in which we learn about the world outside our personal perception is through the consumption of news, mainly still through broadcast or print (OFCOM 2007). Various forms of media has fed the public statistics that created a sense of stereotyping for each particular race. For example, the media and those on film, such as politics and leaders of the government, link together race and crime, which conveys a criminal image of the public’s consumption (St. John & Heald-Moore, 1995). Since race and crime are tied together, when one thinks of a crime, hears about a crime, or when crime is being reported, race is usually associated with it. In the American society, a frequent representation of crime is that it is majorly committed by African- Americans. The view of African Americans has been distorted and twisted by the media and other contributors. Without question, almost everything that is being covered by the media is believed by most of society and it becomes their actual perceptual reality. Broadcast media and other various forms of media has a history for portraying African Americans in a biased manner, as if they were mostly reported involved in crime, drugs, or acts of violence. This has led to many cases of stereotyping, racial profiling, police brutality,

Even though crimes in the United States have been decreasing, the media has been covering more crime stories involving African-Americans. The media is striking fear into Americans because they are airing more crime stories targeting black criminals. This increase in news coverage is disproportional to the actual amount of crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports a drop in crime over the past few years, the biggest since the 1960s. Within this increase in crime coverage, a certain group has been presented as the typical offender. According to Malkia Cyril, the news covers more stories about black criminals than is accurate. This representation is creating a social stereotype that leads to the mass belief that all blacks are criminals. All of these

The criminal justice system in the United States has been around since the mid-1800s. It was created to bring order to our growing society and bring justice who have broken the law. As our country continued to grow and thrive, crime rates also began to increase. Though law enforcement has good intentions, it is evident that too many flaws in the criminal justice system are overlooked and must be brought into the light. There’s been a pattern throughout our history where racism plays a key role in law enforcement. Since the foundation of law enforcement, until about fifty years ago, a police officer’s main duty was to keep people of minority separated from everyone else. Even throughout our recent history from the past twenty years, families of color suffer the consequences of these flaws in the criminal justice system more than white families. Dr. Chenelle A. Jones believes that the criminal justice system is doing exactly what it was designed to do and the Department of Justice needs to rethink the system all together. While experts agree that the criminal justice system is flawed, there seems to be a pattern among scholars discussing the issue of racism as a significant part of the flawed system.

Since the birth of the criminal justice system, there has been much debate about racial discrimination and disparities within it, but little can or has been done to address, examine, and deter racially discriminatory actions from taking place. On one hand, those working within the criminal justice system, police and courts, share an inherent biased and claim their acts to be non-discriminatory. On the other hand, the community also plays a key role in influencing police and courts activities by pushing for more laws to be passed that they also see as non-discriminatory. However, what the police and courts “don’t realize” is their actions are indeed discriminatory. They see themselves as executing and enforcing the law, meanwhile these actions seem to target specific groups and impose harsh criminal punishments. In this essay, I plan to address why the community, police, and courts see their practices as non-discriminatory providing examples from “Code of the Street” by Elijah Anderson and “Law & Disorder in Philadelphia” documentary by Louis Theroux. They are seen as lawful and just practices due to the fact that police believe they are doing their part by cleaning up the streets and ridding neighborhoods of weapons and drugs, the courts believe they are handing down appropriate and proportionate sentences based on the crime committed, and the community is in support of enforcing these discriminatory practices for a better and safer society. In this essay I will attempt to