Prison's Grip On The Black Family: Article Analysis

The City: Prison’s Grip on the Black Family is an article with a goal of given enlightenment into why we see such a large number of African Americans in U.S. prisons. This article uses individual examples of how society has brought these circumstances on to certain African Americans. It also gives statics and examples of laws that have been passed that set up African Americans to be at a major disadvantage in life, which results in the increased risk of being incarcerated. Each three of the major frameworks of perspective (functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist) would view this article very differently, but each would have very strong opinions about why this problem is happening and how it can be fixed. This article opens and
closes talking about the same women, Dawn Hawkins, in Philadelphia, which is the location the article is primarily focused on. It is using her as an example because she is an African American woman who has been to prison herself, for possession and intent to sell drugs, and because she has a young son. The article uses the son to show how that the rapid incarceration of African Americans, especially males, is a current and pressing issue that affects people right now. They use this example and a few others to highlight the very real problems that our systems have been oppressing African Americans, which result in them having a higher rate of incarceration. Dawn Hawkins is an example of someone who couldn’t get a job due to racial prejudice and had to turn to selling drugs to be able to buy things like diapers for her children. This is in combination with cops focusing their “war on drugs” on areas that have high populations of African Americans resulted in her getting arrested. The article uses individual examples to show a systematic problem in this country. In-between each individual example they widen their focus and show statics and reasoning behind why African Americans are in prison at a much high rate. At first, the article looks into why Philadelphia is the poorest city in the United States and has the highest incarceration rates. Philadelphia is like this due to having a high rate of arrest non-violent offenders and targeting African Americans. Then once someone gets arrested it is even harder for him or her to make it out of poverty. Following talking about Philadelphia the article widens its view of the entire United States. It calls out issues such as America’s already high incarceration rates, Jim Crow Law’s, Nixon’s “War on Drugs,” Clinton’s Violent Crime Control Act, and racially targeted search and seizures. All of these issues are why this article believes that African American’s are enduring a prison epidemic that shows no end in sight even with decreasing crime rates. The Functionalist perspective would believe that the issues covered in this article are to do with problems with society. One of the biggest arguments that the Functionalist would have after reading this article would be on the exam of Dawn Hawkins son Khyrie. They would point out that when Khyrie was moved to live with his aunt he was part of a community with better social institutions. The biggest one being the new school he was going to. The Functionalist would say that the reason we have now seen improvements in his behavior would be because he was part of a better school and he was experiencing more traditional values. A Functionalist would argue that this allowed him to conform to society and therefore is why he saw benefits from his new environment. They would use this example in the article to champion for this change through the United States. They would state that by making this large society changes to allow more African Americans to be apart of better schools and social orders, like with Khyrie, that we would then see a decrease in the incarceration of African Americans. The Functionalist would also want to delve into the part of the Article that talks about segregation.
The would point out the town in Philadelphia in which has a 42 percent poverty rate and is 98 percent African American. The Functionalist would point to how by having this segregation you are not having assimilation, amalgamation, or ethnic pluralism, which is what the functionalist want. They would argue that is these segregations that are causing the increased poverty and incarceration rates of African Americans. So their solution would divide this ethnic enclaves and create a true melting pot. They would believe that by doing this the African American’s would start to have anglo-conformity and them fitting into society would result in them finding success and staying out of prison. Those that follow the Conflict Perspective would agree with Functionalist and believe that the issued that this article deal with has to do with societal wide problems. They would not agree with almost any of the Functionalist reasons or solutions to this said problems. This article actually aligns the most with the Conflict Perspective, so those with this perspective would have a lot to run with. This being said there are two main points that they would focus on one. The first would be that this article shows multiple times that the justice system is predisposed against African
Americans.
One example in the article of this was the Stop and Frisk method that was used in New York City to try and stop crime before it happened by searching individuals who the cops felt could commit a crime. It turns out the cops were deciding who to search, not based on who they most often find weapons on, which was whites 1 out of 49 stops, but it was based on race. Eighty-three percent of the people stop and frisks were Hispanics and African Americas. These individuals were only found to have weapons 1 and 71 times for Hispanics and 1 and 93 times for African Americans. So clearly those who hold the conflict perspective would use this as an example of the justice system being set up against African Americans, which that is why they are incarcerated more frequently. To fix these higher rates, they would say you have to fixe this racial prejudice problem.
The next example the conflict perspective would focus on it is that it is pre-set inequalities and oppression that result in African Americans having a higher rate of imprisonment. The conflict perspective would point to the reasons that Dawn Hawkins said that she had to start selling drugs. She had to do it become the system was set up to not give her the same opportunities as her white counterparts. If she would have had the same opportunities she would have never had to turn to selling drugs, which would have resulted in her never being arrest and in turn, would result in her son being a raised in a more stable environment. The conflict perspective would argue that to fix this problem the solution would not lie in punishing people like Dawn Hawkins, but to target the system that created them. Therefore by creating better opportunities for African Americans, we would see less in prison.
Finally, the Social Interactionist Perspective (SIP) would believe that the problem actually lies on an individual basis. The SIP would point to racial and ethnic socialization as to why we see such a drastic amount of African Americans in jail. This is because in U.S. culture there is a process by which you learn person/group identity, intergroup/interpersonal relationships, and one’s position in the social system. This process in the U.S. tends to lead to white Americans have the power and African Americans having none. The SIP would target this process on an individual bases teaching our culture that African Americans commit more crimes and being lesser in society, which isn’t true, as to why they have a high incarceration rate.
The SIP would also point to the segregation that was discussed early as to why this happened, but again instead of viewing it as a societal problem, they would view it as an individual problem.
They would believe it is the teaching that there is us/them boundaries that result in racism, that result in high incarceration of African Americans. They would say that the cops are taught from a young age that the "them" is the superpredator, which the article talks about is this new type of young criminal that is commonly portrayed as black. Then they would talk about how African Americans have been taught from a young age that the Cops are the "them" and the cops will not treat them fairly and will hurt them. The SIP would point out that this dynamic shown throughout the article, along with the racial and ethnic socialization is why African Americans have a higher incarceration
rate.
Overall, the three perspectives all have points on why the issue of higher rates of incarceration of African Americans in the United States exists and what must be done to combat that problem. In reality, it will take a combination of a variety of people all with varying perspectives to come together to find a solution to this problem the plagues the United States. Only time will tell which perspective is actually correct about their ideologies, but either way, this is a problem that needs to be addressed and solved.