Guilty Until Proved Otherwise: Criminalization of Black People in the US
Forewarning, this reflection will merely be a glance on how criminalisation have been functioning in the United States. There is no pretension to covering all of the aspects of this very complex situation in only one post. Although I am not an expert on the subject, my identity as a black woman, has given me some insight to understand the depths in which race and racism entangle our society and affect our relations with ourselve and others.
To jufge someone in the legal system means to determine right, and what is wron, and furthermore, establishing punishments when needed. But how do we differ right and wrong? How, and to what extent, are punishments applied? In such an intrinsically racist society, what is the accuracy and fairness on the process of judging right and wrong?
Following the influence of 13th, a very interesting documentary available on Netflix, I will talk a little bit about the United States 13th amendment and how it might have shaped how black people have been criminalized — in a country that represents 5% of the world’s population and that has 25% of the world’s prisoners.
Passed by the Senate in 1964, this amendment abolished slavery and forced labor except when serving as a punishment of a crime. In section 1 it states exactly that:
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
With the end of slavery and the questions of how the slavery-based economy on the South of the United States would turn out without its black labor force, the answer came in form of a loophole. The “except” part when taken to action, turned out to be an open breach in which those former slaves would be arrested by extremely minor crimes, like loitering. If you were a free black men at that time, for example, you could get caught and arrested simply by wandering around the streets at night.
This was the very start of the mythology of the "black criminal". From that point forward, a deep work to construct the figure of the black male as rapists, criminals and vagabonds that should be imprisoned and punished by law.
“I think it begs the question is whether the system’s actually broken, or whether the system we’ve created is doing precisely what we intended it to do”
– Robin Steinberg, Founder of The Bronx Defenders
A similar practice would later on be known as “stop-question and frisk” program, a New York police practice. “Stop and frisk”, as it is more commonly known, regards police’s practice of temporarily detaining, questioning and searching people on the streets. According to data made available by the New York Civil Liberties Union the stop and frisk reached its peak in 2011, when 685,724 New Yorkers were stopped by the police, out of the total, 53% (350,743) were black and only 9% (61,805) were white. More recently, the number of people stopped have been dropping concisely since 2012, to the point where only 10,861 were stopped, but the contrast remains: out of this total, 58% (6,277) were black and only 9% (947) were white.
But let’s talk about the part of the amendment that says “the party shall have been duly convicted”. One could then discuss that only people that have actually committed a crime and been (fairly) judged would be submitted to punishment. But unfortunately that’s not how the american system of justice has been shown to work. What are the actual conditions in which a black person stands for trial?
In 2010, Kalief Browder, a young black boy, was coming back from a party, when he got stopped and arrested in New York by allegedly stealing a backpack one week before. Charged with second degree robbery the bail was high enough that his family couldn’t raise the money to pay it, even through a bail bondsman. So at 16 years old, Kalief Browder was sent to Rikers Island, a jail complex with a reputation of abuse and negligence regarding its inmates.
During the 3 years Browder was kept there, two were spent in solitary confinement, he refused to pledge guilty. Kalief was very clear: He would not take a deal. He was not going to admit to a crime he didn’t commit.
Finally released in 2013, Browder’s story made the news and a became a symbol of strength in face of what the american justice system represents to black lives. Even so, this story does not have a happy ending. In 2016, after struggling with the aftermaths of his incarceration, including deterioration in mental health, Kalief Browder killed himself.
Unfortunately, Kalief’s story is one of many more. It could have been the story of Jamal Clark, 24 years old, unarmed and killed by officers in 2015. Or I could also talk about Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, two black men recently arrested by staying inside a Starbucks. The point is that this is how the legal institutions in United States deals with its black citizen.
Once again, let’s raise the questions:
How to differ right and wrong? And how do people in power differ right and wrong?
How, and to what extent, are punishments applied?
In such an intrinsically racist society, what is the accuracy and fairness on the process of judging right and wrong?
This is how black people are treated in the land of freedom.
Guilty until proved otherwise.
Some Interisting Sources:
The Rise of the Penitentiary: Prisons and Punishment in Early America, Adam Jay Hirsch
“Are Prisons Obsolete?”, Angela Davis
“ 'A multibillion-dollar toll': how cash bail hits poor people of color the hardest
America’s Bail Bond industry disproportionately hurts Black people", P.R. Lockhart
“What Is Rikers Island?”, The New York Times
The Origin of Black Codes, PBS
Black Codes, Britannica
13th, Netflix
TIME: The Kalief Browder Story, Netflix
