Examples Of Institutional Racism
I feel like the most prevalent social justice issue in today’s society is institutionalised racism. Institutionalised racism prevents people of color from rising in the system. An example of institutionalised racism would be mass incarceration. We are living in an era of mass incarceration. This mainly started with the “war on drugs” imposed by Richard Nixon. This targeted poor/black/brown people. They were sent to jail for years for petty crimes of carrying an ounce of drug. Then came Bill Clinton and imposed the “3 strikes” bill which meant that people who were convicted of 3 crimes spent their life in jail. This lead to overpopulated prisons. The worse thing about this is that many prisoners didn’t receive rehabilitation after they got
out. They were shunned from the community and couldn’t receive a job because of their criminal record. Many of them even lost their vote because of a felony they committed. Most of those that sent to jail for drugs are people of color even though most drug users are the whites. Another example of institutionalized racism would be the SB1070 passed by Arizona in 2010. This allowed police officers to stop someone that looks like an undocumented immigrant (mainly brown latinxs).Detention centers for immigrants grew uncontrollably. They are more like prisons, in which they are treated very poorly. Families were kept there for up to 10+ months.These detention centers are unsanitary and overcrowded. I believe that getting rid of institutionalised racism in this country will be very hard, especially with the rise of Donald Trump, whose platform was based on institutionalised racism.We have to realize that white privilege exists and it has always existed since the late 1600s when they came and stole the land from Native Americans. We should listen to people of color in order to see what the problems are and how we can solve them. We should NOT speak for them. We should raise their voices and let them be heard.
out. They were shunned from the community and couldn’t receive a job because of their criminal record. Many of them even lost their vote because of a felony they committed. Most of those that sent to jail for drugs are people of color even though most drug users are the whites. Another example of institutionalized racism would be the SB1070 passed by Arizona in 2010. This allowed police officers to stop someone that looks like an undocumented immigrant (mainly brown latinxs).Detention centers for immigrants grew uncontrollably. They are more like prisons, in which they are treated very poorly. Families were kept there for up to 10+ months.These detention centers are unsanitary and overcrowded. I believe that getting rid of institutionalised racism in this country will be very hard, especially with the rise of Donald Trump, whose platform was based on institutionalised racism.We have to realize that white privilege exists and it has always existed since the late 1600s when they came and stole the land from Native Americans. We should listen to people of color in order to see what the problems are and how we can solve them. We should NOT speak for them. We should raise their voices and let them be heard.