Richard Wright 's Native Son

Michelle Alexander depicts the grim reality for many young African American men in today’s society in her book the New Jim Crow. The harsh reality for many of them is that they will never be able to fully participate in mainstream society and receive the benefits and basic rights that are taken for granted by the rest of the nation. Her findings show that existence of the Jim Crow laws have yet to fully disappear from society like many believe they have, when it fact, the restrictions of the Jim Crow era have merely been reinvented in the form of the United States’ federal justice system. Today, the United States

Throughout history, African Americans have encountered an overwhelming amount of obstacles for justice and equality. You can see instances of these obstacles especially during the 1800’s where there were various forms of segregation and racism such as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan terrorism, Jim- Crow laws, voting restrictions. These negative forces asserted by societal racism were present both pre and post slavery. Although blacks were often seen as being a core foundation for the creation of society and what it is today, they never were given credit for their work although forced. This was due to the various laws and social morals that were sustained for over 100 years throughout the United States. However, what the world didn’t

In the new proactive book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander dives into the not so complicated racial issues that plague this country that we tend to ignore. In all of history, African Americans have had to constantly fight for their freedoms and the right to be considered a human being in this society. It’s very troubling looking back and seeing where we have failed people in this country. At the turn of the century, when people began to think that we had left our old ways behind, this book reminds us that we are wrong. Racism is still alive today in every way, just in different forms.

Racism is a thing of the past, or is it? Michelle Alexander’s, “The New Jim Crow,” main focus is on mass incarceration and how it occurs in an era of color blindness. Alexander also focuses on the social oppressions that African Americans have suffered throughout the years, until now. In this essay, I will discuss how the system of control was constructed, Alexander’s compelling historical analysis, and if the current system would be easier to dismantle. I would like to start by delving into how the system of control was constructed.

The topic of whether or not there is racism in the legal system is becoming increasingly debatable among certain groups. The obvious evidence that has been glaring in the faces of the public for decades says it all: the criminal justice system is, and always has been, swayed by racism. Despite this, the opposing side of the argument - which mostly consists of privileged whites – diligently argues that racism was outlawed decades ago. There are also African Americans who are unaware of how their race is constantly being oppressed. However, the younger generation is quickly becoming culturally and politically woke and passing on the knowledge. Although racism is not explicitly stated in the law, racists are still hiding behind the supremacy of the country. White policemen have went as far as mindlessly killing young black people and claiming it was done out of self-defense. White judges will find loopholes in the legal process when dealing with an offense committed by an African American. They are targeting African Americans and punishing them more harshly than the white people who commit crimes.

In America, people used to deal with racism daily in The Jim Crow South, the era of ‘Separate but equal.’ In the South, many people of African-American descent experienced racism seen never before. Since the 1960’s, Americans have tried, and tried again to fight for the rights of people, but it never seems like enough. People have long debated, and are still debating, about the issue of Jim Crow, and whether it still lives on today. The effects of The Jim Crow South today still negatively affecting African-Americans today in the south.

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 New Jim Crow is a book that discusses how legal practices and the American justice system are harming the African American community as a whole, and it argues that racism, though hidden, is still alive and well in our society because of these practices. In the book, Michelle Alexander, author and legal scholar, argues that legal policies against offenders have kept and continue to keep black men from becoming first class citizens, and she writes that by labeling them as “criminals,” the justice system and society in general is able to act with prejudice against them and subordinate black Americans who were previously incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, by limiting their access to services as a result of their ‘criminal status’ and therefore, further degrading their quality of life. The New Jim Crow urges readers to acknowledge the injustice and racial disparity of our criminal justice system so that this new, more covert form of racism in society can be stopped.

Our past is full of cases that represent the inequality of the criminal justice system. In the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Plessy V Ferguson, in 1896 the court upheld racial segregation and made the separate but equal the standard doctrine of the United States until 1954, when the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v Board of Education which made the racial segregation illegal and highlighted the protections offered in the fourteenth amendment as it relates to equal protection. Despite the 14th Amendment 's promise of life and liberty under the law, this group of Americans found themselves subject to another law, known as the "Jim Crow Laws." These were a group of laws passed primarily in the southern states during reconstruction and lasting until around 1965, were established to make sure that the whites were treated differently than the blacks, in everyday life, including the criminal justice system. Even though the Jim Crow era has passed by, we unfortunately have come to the conclusion that we have just entered a new era of Jim Crow. “We are arguably no longer under Jim Crow or de jure discrimination; however, unfortunately and regrettably, we are presently realizing manifest de facto discrimination, or the new Jim Crow” (Durrant, 2015). Statistics show that over 40 percent of students who are expelled from school today are African American and over 70 percent of students who are referred to law enforcement for criminal activity are

It is clear that throughout the nation Blacks are the most chastised for the color of their skin. Many blacks are held accountable for something they have not done, even if there is proof on their side. The punishments for “their” actions are harsh and brutal. Among these atrocious acts of fatal injustice are lynchings.

You can find Racism anywhere politically, in our government, schools, and especially in law enforcement as well as courts of law. There is a term for this that is called Institutionalized racism. It has been around for years, since the days of slavery in the United States and is still an ongoing issue today. Slavery forever created tensions in race relations in the United States. It may very well be the earliest form of Institutionalized racism in our countries history, yet it certainly wasn’t the last. African Americans continued to face even more adversity with segregation laws in the south for years following the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th, 14th, an 15th amendment. Du Bois describes life in the south for blacks after the Civil War in “Black Reconstruction” “In Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, it was said in 1866 a year after slavery was abolished: ‘“The life of a negro is not worth much there. I have seen one who was shot in the leg while he was riding a mule, because the ruffian thought it more trouble to ask him to get off the mule than to shoot him’”. (Du Bois, pg 672). Although this country has come a long way since those days, racism is still an everyday issue today in America, whether it’s in a school, neighborhood, or related to the law.

Actions considered inherently immoral are seen only as inherently immoral. Sympathy is not considered as an option to a person who commits a heinous and undesirable act. The acts of murder as committed by characters such as Bigger in Richard Wright’s Native Son and Guitar in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon are first seen as immoral, evil, and irrational. However, as the books progress and characters express the rationale behind the deaths and crimes committed, the reader develops an understanding, if not sympathizes, with the logic and motives behind committing the distinguished crime.

Topic: In class we discussed both Their Eyes Were Watching God and Native Son as examples of the literary genre sometimes called the bildungsroman (novel of growth or development) or more simply as coming of age stories. Choose one of the novels and argue whether or not the bildung or growth experienced by the novel’s protagonist is successful in the sense that the character has learned something that will contribute to his or her maturity into adulthood. If you do not think the protagonist has learned something, then what can the reader learn from witnessing the protagonist’s story?

In the book Native Son, Richard Wright portrays the life of a young black man living in poverty, in 1930’s Chicago. Richard Wright takes readers through the difficult life of Bigger Thomas, and the consequences of his crimes. If Bigger wouldn’t have gone through his life the way he did, he would have turned out to be a completely different person. Or, if he had lived like a white person, he would have never become the hard, hateful felon he was. That is why I believe, based on Bigger’s experiences with his poverty, lack of education, and the group of people he surrounds himself with, that nurture is stronger than nature.