Race Punishments : The Reality of the Criminal Justice System
“We are going to walk out of here mad woke!” my friend said as the lights were going down in the theater. Here I was, getting ready to watch this hyped up horror film that everyone was dying to see. Sitting next to me were my two best friends who are both from very different backgrounds, one German and Jamaican and the other Ecuadorian. As I looked around I took note that it wasn’t just my friends and I who embodied different nationalities in the theater but everybody else as well.
After the film had finished it was right there and then that I realized that this horror movie was bringing light to an issue that has coexisted since the beginning of time and that it would open up the eyes of several young Americans currently living in the United States whether they were African American, Irish, or Indian. History as we know it is being made everyday. Our pop culture reflect events and ideas that are happening in our world today. Even a small movie like “Get Out” that was overly dramatized can give insight to how people are currently feeling.
After the inauguration of our new president, racism was a term we all became familiar with. It brought fear and questions of what was to come next for the future of the United States. Others went as far as to even make arrangements to leave the country. What did the phrase “Make America Great Again” truly mean? It is clear that racism still largely exists and is affecting colored people on this land that we so call “free” but… how free are we really? Did we ever pause and think about it? Why is it that the United States holds about 25 percent of the world’s prisoners? Why do African Americans make up about 40.6 percent of that imprisonment population? Why are more than 33,000 immigrants captured and held in detention centers instead of being deported straight back to their homes? Why do detention centers even exist! Why is this idea of being a criminal attached to colored people only? So many of us say we are woke? But how woke are we really, because it wasn’t until I was forced to actually talk about it and educate myself on issues concerning incarceration that I opened my eyes to the reality we currently live in. What are we really doing to prevent such numbers to exist and creations of organizations such as GEO and CCA.
The United States isn’t becoming great again, it never was and it’s certainly not heading in that direction. What I have come to realize from all the films I have watched in my multi media communication class is that life in the United States for colored people has been far from glamorous. It has been an ongoing battle to be accepted in this nightmare they wish to wake up from and it is harming them physically, mentally and emotionally. We are stripping away their rights to be human by stamping their foreheads with endangering words such as criminals making it harder for them to find a job or a house and better yet an opportunity at life.
Is it shocking that in the African American community they teach their young not to trust the police because it is statistically known that 1 out of 3 young black males will be imprisoned in their lifetime compared to 1 out of 17 white males? We also capture undocumented immigrants who are seeking a better life or asylum and hold them in detention centers that are in horrible conditions for profits and use of labor. They are forced to work for $1 an hour and worse others are paid nothing at all, how is that just? There is also a growing number of reports on physical and sexual abuse of detainees leaving them emotionally distraught. According to the video below since the mid 90’s there has been a systematic push to connect immigrants with national security and criminality. Shouldn’t we be finding a way to legalize immigrants and organize easier paths to obtain citizenship instead of stereotyping them as criminals and holding them captive.
Lets also not forget the unfair treatment of Muslims after the September 11th attack.
For example we can recall the patriot act that allowed the detainment of non US citizens for national security reasons and a registry for people predominately from Muslim countries. Laws that were passed pointed fingers at people from a distinct religion. Such actions made citizens draw conclusions in their heads that all Muslims were criminals and therefore responsible for the action of one person. In reference to one personal narrative in the introduction of “The Accidental American”, Fekkak Mamdouh serves as a victim for being criminalized because of the way he looked due to the religion he practiced.
What happened to America being the land of the free? Free of judgment, open to religion, sexual orientation, color and lifestyle. Why are people being punished for who they are? They didn’t choose to be born this way, The United States as a whole (society) needs to change this idea that one race is superior to the other, no one person is the same or better than the other. We have different skills and talents that can contribute to the greatness of this country but instead we choose to see colored people as a different species calling them criminals and categorizing and fitting them into a box of only certain characteristics. The world belongs to everyone and we need to start embracing each other and fixing this mess we have created for a better future that should be more culturally accepting.
Take a minute and watch the films below and ask yourself if we are doing enough.
