Preview

Racial Injustice

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1340 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Racial Injustice
THE CRIES AGAINST RACIAL INJUSTICE
"Racism is a bad thing, you find it everywhere in the schools, the clubs and also in the streets." – Rasmus & Casper

The belief that one race by nature stands superior to another defines racism. Racism can be traced back to the beginning of civilization and has always existed as a horrible issue in our society. Many attempts and reforms have occurred in hopes of eliminating racism and much progress has been achieved. Yet, even after the emancipation proclamation, equality laws placed within the constitution, small revolutions and acts taken by people such as Rosa Parks -who refuse to sit in the back of the bus during an era of segregation- racism remains an ominous, undefeatable problem in our society. In fact, the justice system, thought to unit and promote equality in "the land of the free," actually contributes to the destruction of our national idea of racial harmony. This paper will focus on how the criminal justice system works and how racism plays a major role within the justice Lobhai 2 system. Incorporated throughout the paper lie excerpts from poets and individuals who have spoken out against this bias justice system and racism they many have experienced in their era. African Americans have especially experienced and suffered from racism, beginning from the days of slavery and the need for cheap labor during the Industrial Revolution. In an essay entitled Black Americans: Prisoners of Socio-economic Cycles, the author states that "Those first Africans were prisoners of a socio-economic system which by design was purposely incapable of rendering justice and therefore, equal opportunity to Africans as well as other minorities (Ansar 2)." During the years of oppression, in which blacks still experienced limited freedom within the law, many artists spoke against this discrimination through their literature. One such artist, Langston Hughes, who lived from 1902-1922, expressed his

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article, “The Rich Get Richer and Poor Get Prison” Jefferey H. Reiman clearly depicts that poor citizens have a greater chance for imprisonment over middle and upper- class citizens. The author makes it predominately obvious that he believes, at least as far as criminal justice is concerned, racism is simply one powerful form of economic bias (Reiman 1). Through studies, statics in the article overall show that black Americans with low income rates or no income at all living in “disorganized inner-cities” have an increasingly higher rate to commit crimes resulting in being arrested leading conviction. The criminal justice system functions to ‘weed out’ and thus grants advantages to the middle and upper- class. First, there is economic…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    While working for the American Civil Liberties Union, Michelle Alexander’s perspective changed as she gained insight on the racial bias in our criminal justice system and how it has been altered throughout time. In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindless, Alexander compares our current justice system to the Jim Crow laws of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which enforced racial segregation, by calling our system “The New Jim Crow.”…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Summary: The Racist NYPD

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Social justice issues take place at various levels: global, national, regional, and local. The article, “The racist NYPD captain who ruined my career for not targeting enough blacks and Hispanics got promoted” by Raymond, surfaces the prevalent social justice issue of racism in America. Racism is holding prejudices on the basis of the race or color. Originating many years ago, the issue of racism is complex one because of its far-reaching effects and implications. It makes people feel inferior, creates a gap between the people of the society.…

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Alexander, who for many years worked as a civil rights lawyer, uses her vast experience and knowledge concerning the criminal justice system to craft a meticulously researched argument that “colorblindness” is this generation’s most important civil rights issue. As the title indicates, she makes the bold claim that mass incarceration is the 21st century version of Jim Crow. This era in our racial history was one in which brutally devastating laws discriminated and segregated black populations. During Jim Crow, the idea of justice did not exist for black people within law enforcement or court systems. Though her argument is daring, Alexander successfully proves it by analyzing the criminal justice system. She discusses multiple ideas to formulate a case for individuals who are interested in social justice that refocus efforts to tackle the issue of over-populated prisons. In the books introduction, Alexander asserts that she is writing for an audience that cares deeply about racial justice, but also, she wants to empower individuals who have a impression that our nation’s criminal justice system is flawed, but do not have the data or evidence to back up their assumptions.…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The targeting of individuals because of their skin color is as clear a form of discrimination as not hiring a person because of their race. Thus, racial profiling in simplest terms is intentional discrimination based on racial stereotyping. It is disheartening that such intentional discrimination is a widely used tactic by law enforcement officers, whether they openly admit to the practice or not. One must wonder what would happen if the demographics in the U.S. were to suddenly flip and white people found themselves as the minority more likely to be approached (harassed?) by police, if racial profiling would continue to be a viable practice. It’s not…

    • 4949 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It should be noted, the criminal justice system in the United States of America is represented by a picture of a balanced scale. In theory, the scales of justice is supposed to be fair, and impartial, the scales are balanced, which signifies it’s equallity. However, the earlier example reveals that justice is not fair, and that minorities are unjustly targetted more than the majority group. The Critical Race Theory in a sense qualifies and quantifies the role race plays in every aspect of the American life. It qualifies it from the perspective that it explains systems of oppression and discrimination are purposely given to people based on race/ethnicity/gender and class. It quantifies it the statistical data that shows an unfair distribution of wealth and power that excludes the same group of people forcing them to deal with systemic inequalities and systems of oppression.…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The shameful history of the United States is a burden that is currently affecting everything from education to legal policy. Racial segregation has taken a toll on society and the lives of many minorities. The American judicial system lacks the understanding of human potential by targeting low income minorities and subjugating them for petty misdemeanors. Due to racial discrimination, false allegations towards minorities have resulted in wrongfully incarcerated people for petty crimes; more than likely, they will serve longer sentences for these offenses than a Caucasian person would. Without the necessary resources provided, lack of social capital can inflict damage to their reputation and the overall racial perception society has on minorities.…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There is a huge number of African Americans who are employed in common labor, in which most of them are now engaged, sure that there is no desire for the advancement of Negroes in their employ because they have difficulty with people of their own race. In other words, they have not yet been able to adjust or accept taking orders from another person of their own race.…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the Federal government is now doing, all state agencies as well need to continually document and collect statistical data that identifies the race of those individuals processed through the criminal justice system. In the areas of administering justice (police, courts, and prison authorities), we need to pay specific attention to and hold accountable individuals for any instances where racial discrimination exists. As a society, we need to be concerned¡Xand express this concern, at the all-encompassing patterns of racial discrimination. By pressuring our governments to take urgent action to stop racial discrimination in our country¡¦s justice system, perhaps we can begin to prevent or reduce the incidence this practice. By effectively acknowledging that there is a problem in the criminal justice system, we can clearly communicate the expectation that discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnicity is unlawful and a violation of an individual¡¦s…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Police Brutality Thesis

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Abstract: While racism is thought to be not present in today’s society, this dissertation will present various topics and relations supporting a cause against that. It examines the results of police brutality and how racial profiling and racism is closely tied with it. This dissertation also tests the arguments that racism is non-existent in the present day. By researching further into these topics, information was collected and presents the Michael Brown (Ferguson) case as a major reason why these issues need to be addressed and fixed once and for all.…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Racial Disparities

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Racial disparities the US is clearly seen in many areas like education, healthcare, income, justice achievement, and many others. After analyzing diverse types of racial disparities, I saw that some causes of racial disparity are the same. For example, poverty is affecting people in every stage. If you are poor you cannot have access to good education, proper health quality, fair justice and so on. Another cause is unconscious bias, where people are acting racial unconsciously because this is what they think is normal, acceptable. Numerous statistics show how people act like racist one toward another. I also have seen many stereotypes regardless African-American people, and how those stereotypes influence their life. For instance, black convicts…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Recent acts of racial injustice have led to a lot of outrage in the African American…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial Disparity

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Page

    Racial disparity is sometimes caused by racial profiling in several instances of detainments and criminal verdicts. Between the years 1995 and 1997 the American Civil Liberties Union exposed information on police detentions in which 73 percent of potential suspects were black. In another report, the Public Health Service showed that even though 70 percent of drug users were white, those thrown in prison were mostly black or of Latino descent (Head). This data reveals racial profiling as an inequitable practice that law enforcement agencies use in their final judgments upon dealing with criminals. These agencies generalize African American and Latino minorities as criminals as a conclusion based on officers’ mindsets about these minorities.…

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The role of race plays a prominent role in the U.S. criminal justice system. The United States claims to have a race-neutral criminal justice system but the number of arrested black men is significantly higher than white men even though whites are just as likely to be guilty of several crimes, especially drugs. The system, according to Alexander, leads to discriminatory results throughout each stage of the criminal justice process. The rates of black imprisonment cannot be explained by crime rates because discrimination in the system invalidates crime rates. Racial disparities start with the initial stop, search and arrest to the plea bargaining and sentencing, keeping the undercaste majorly black and brown. I believe a major ethical issue…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Racial Discrimination

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Racial connections between African-Americans and Asian-Americans have experienced both instances of solidarity and mistrust throughout histories of their encounters. Solidarity movements between the two groups existed, in an effort to combat U.S. discriminatory policies in the 20th century, as well as instances of racial tensions, such as African-American boycotts of Korean businesses in an effort to stand against racial discrimination. In an effort to secure resources and power, African-Americans and Asian-Americans have drifted apart in a racial divide. Asian and African-Americans, in their demand for resources and power, often collided in their interests. In the prospects of moving up the racial hierarchy, African-Americans and Asian-Americans…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays