The United States Of America Essay

In today’s modern world, many people would be surprised to find out that there is still a racial caste system in America. After witnessing the election of a black president, people have started believing that America has entered a post-racial society. This is both a patently false and dangerous mindset. The segregation and stigma of race is still very much alive in our society. Instead of a formalized institution such as slavery or Jim Crow, America has found a new way to continue the marginalization of blacks by using the criminal justice system. In Michelle Alexander’s book “ The New Jim Crow”, she shows how America’s “ War on Drugs “ has become a tool of racial segregation and how the discretionary enforcement of drug laws has

The physical side is at one time they did love each other because kids were born. The shared activities are the fact they have children and they still do things as a family.

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.

The “War on Drugs” established that the impact of incarceration would be used as a weapon to combat the illegal drug problem in this country. Unfortunately, this war against drugs has fallen disproportionately on black Americans. “Blacks constitute 62.6% of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons in 1996, whereas whites constituted 36.7%. The drug offender admissions rate for black men ranges from 60 to an astonishing 1,146 per 100,000 black men. In contrast, the white rate begins at 6 and rises no higher than 139 per 100,000 white men. Drug offenses accounted for nearly two out of five of all black admissions to state prisons (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” The disproportionate rates at which black drug offenders are sent to prison originate in racially disproportionate rates of arrest.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander tries to advance intellectual dialogue regarding mass incarceration in the United States. Alexander does this by carrying out a historical analysis of the process in which the correctional system controls African Americans through intentionally selected, and systematically sanctioned legal limits. In fact, the United States incarceration rate is not at peak by coincidence. Moreover, it is not coincidental that Black men and women make up the majority of this number. According to Alexander, this problem is a consequence of the “New Jim Crow” rules, which use racial stratification to eliminate black individuals in the legal sense. Black people and a small number of the Hispanic community face racial stratified laws when they face the justice system. This paper will support the claims that race is a major factor in the incarceration of black men in the United States, which includes the Jim Crow system, the slave system and the drag war. This process will also involve analyzing of some of the arguments presented within the book.

In the book The New Jim Crow author Michelle Alexander argues that a racial caste system still exists in the United States. Furthermore, this caste system is set up by the social control that is created by the discriminatory practices of the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs and mass incarcerations create a racial “undercaste” of African-Americans, by marginalizing ex-offenders in America. Within her arguments she describes the racist practices of, and policies surrounding, the War on Drugs. These extend from the police force on the ground, who are apprehending the criminals or, in many cases, innocent people, all the way to the practices of prosecuting and sentencing of these people. There are many instances where the injustices extend all the way to the Supreme Court. However, that may not be surprising given the fact that the War on Drugs is a federal government institution. This racism, while inherent, is not always apparent. In this paper I will assess the broken practices that the War on Drugs implements, including mass incarceration, and how racism is the basis for these practices. However, while it does show that racism does exist in these practices, Alexander doesn’t necessarily show that racism is the reason behind the War on Drugs and mass incarceration, but rather a by-product.

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.

Throughout our society, people often question the meaning of being an American. America is defined as the land of the free and home of the brave. Most people say America is a country where everyone is treated equally no mater what color of skin you are right? But who determines the freedom of an individual? Since the beginning of American history things were never equal. Blacks were forced and taken as slaves into America by white slave traders. Blacks and other minorities are often faced with unfair disparities within the criminal justice system due to the color of their skin or the bias of race and culture. In this debate, I will analyze the racial disparities within the criminal justice system by analyzing sentencing individual convicted of the drug offense of powder and crack cocaine.

Incarceration rates are a definite proof that racial discrimination occurs. “Incarceration rates in the United States have risen sharply since 1980”, stated Filip Spagnoli, “the racial distribution of inmates in the U.S. is highly negative for black Americans. Whereas they only make up 12% of the total U.S. population, they represent more than 40% of inmates”

Racism has a huge impact on society to this day. The greatest wrong doing in the U.S criminal justice system is that it is a race based organization where African Americans are specifically focused on and rebuffed in a considerably more forceful route than white individuals. Saying the Us criminal justice system is racist might be politically disputable in different ways. In any case, the actualities are debatable. Underneath I explain many cases of these issues. Information on race is available for each step of the criminal justice system – from the use of drugs, police stops, arrests, getting off on bail, legal representation, jury selection, trial, sentencing, prison, parole, and freedom.

Racial discrimination in the United States has been a radical issue plaguing African Americans from as early as slavery to the more liberal society we see today. Slavery is one of the oldest forms of oppression against African Americans. Slaves were brought in from Africa at increasingly high numbers to do the so-called dirty work or manual labor of their white owners. Many years later, after the abolishment of slavery came the Jim Crow era. In the 1880s, acts known as the Jim Crow laws were enacted by Southern states to keep oppression of African Americans alive. These laws helped to legalize segregation between blacks and whites. Slavery and Jim Crow were created to regulate how African Americans functioned in society. Slaves were refused the right to vote, refused citizenship, refused education, and labeled as incompetent as a way for whites to keep what Author Michelle Alexander of the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness calls “social control”. Alexander argues that mass incarceration is the new modern “racial caste system” of social control. She further goes on to claim that this new system of mass incarceration has replaced the old social systems that were used to oppress African Americans such as slavery and Jim Crow. The system of mass incarceration fueled by the War on Drugs was established as a form of racial control. This new system puts people of color into an endless cycle of

During the early 1900’s, The United States government was ruled by white men that have captivated the American patriotism. The patriotism of the American society was greatly enchanted by the white superiors wanting to establish a strong American values and culture. The era of the time gave little hopes and dreams of living in a land that its purpose was to give the opportunities to all newcomers. However it was a different scenario among the Mexican American community. The Mexican communities within the United States are force to adapt to a new tradition due to the defeat of Mexican-American War. The Mexican government efforts to persuade its people to leave the United States were no effect because of their disloyalties to its government. From here on the Mexican-American community in the United States will decide its own self recognition of identity.

On March 15, 2011 a civil war began in the nation of Syria. Thousands of civilians stood up in protest to the government of Syria led by Bashar al-Assad. These protests began peaceful but quickly turned violent. These protesters demanded democratic reforms, release of political prisoners, an increase in freedoms, abolition of the emergency law and an end to corruption. This quickly escalated into hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in protest against the government. By 2013, nearly one-hundred thousand lives had been taken by this conflict and that number had risen to a quarter of a million by 2015 (Sharnoff). As this war has raged on, the Syrian government’s allies have grown impatient. Russia is Syria’s largest and most powerful ally has grown concerned over this war as Syria has been important to Russia in many ways over the years. Ideologies brought these two nations together in the mid-twentieth century and the relationship has progressed into a strong alliance.

Today, in the 21st century, English has become one of the most used languages around the world. It is so widely used that linguists have considered it to be the new ‘lingua franca’. Along with its language the United States is one of the most influential countries around the globe. There is no denying its presence in everything from international politics to entertainment. In fact, it is thought to be the only country that rivals the world 's once-great empires in terms of its global impact. In an article written by Mclean, she proclaims, “the U.S dominates world politics by providing the language, ideas, and institutional frameworks around which much of the world turns” (2). However, the United States did not just become an imperial power over night. From the middle of the 19th century till present time the U.S has been intervening in foreign lands. One country that has been immensely influenced by English colonization, to present day, is the Island of the Philippines. Whether it was consciously or not, the control of the Philippines by U.S after the Spanish-American War was a small step towards world power. A brief look into Philippines’ history shows how much different the island would’ve been without English rule. Although the Philippines were not pleased with the transfer of power over to America in the Treaty of Paris, the short 50 year rule proves to have had a major impact on Philippine culture, customs, and politics today.