Essay On African American Incarceration

The incarceration rate for African Americans in the United States are extremely high. African Americans make up the majority of prisoners in the United States. According to American Journal of Sociology, “ In 2009, African Americans were nearly six times more likely to be in prisoned than whites.” Admittedly, we as 21st century Americans are starting to be reacquainted with the injustice of the law as a whole because it seems as if almost every news story is centered around an African American being wrongly accused and arrested. “According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime” ( Sophia Kerby, Center for American Progress).

African Americans get the same amount of time for
misdemeanor crimes as Caucasians may get for felon crimes. New York Times states, “ In October 2010, Bernard Noble, a 45- year- old trucker and father of seven with two previous nonviolent offenses, was stopped on New Orleans street with a small amount of marijuana in his pocket. His sentence: more than 13 years.” This New York Times article’s point is that the length of a simple drug charge should not match that of a larger crime. Also, Michelle Alexander, a law professor, in her book “ The New Jim Crow” maintains that, “ 40 years of impoverished black kids getting prison time for selling weed, and their families and futures destroyed ; Now white men are planning to get rich doing precisely the same thing?” In making this comment, Alexander wants readers to understand that what African Americans were punished for, Caucasians are now profiting off it.

The incarceration rate for African Americans in the United States is very high.
Many African Americans get targeted by law enforcement, which may suggest hate crimes. In recent years there have been an enormous amount of police brutality against African Americans. Although police brutality has been going on for years, you would think that since we have an African American President things would continue changing. The senseless killings of Micheal Brown, Tamir Rice, Oscar Grant, and countless others have somewhat brought the community closer. The movement #BlackLivesMatter has become a forefront for justice in theses crimes. Ben Jealous, former CEO and President of the NAACP acknowledges that, “While it may be interesting to talk about the odd Klan member on the police force in a small Southern town, the much greater and more immediate problem is that we have too many former schoolyard bullies working as police officers.” Ben Jealous statement is basically saying that this brutality is the cause of a deep vengeance of former schoolyard bullies that carried on the hate of the African American race all of their lives and now they have the opportunity to be in a higher position to cause serious damage to other people's
lives.

Work cited

"The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States." Center for American Progress. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.

The Targeting of Young Blacks By Law Enforcement: Ben Jealous in Conversation With Jamelle Bouie." The American Prospect. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.

Wegman, Jesse. "The Injustice of Marijuana Arrests." The New York Times. The New York Times, 2014. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.

Muller, Christopher. "Northward Migration And The Rise Of Racial Disparity In American Incarceration, 1880-1950." American Journal Of Sociology 118.2 (2012): 281-326. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.