The inseparable relationship between racism and criminal justice.
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This is a quote from the United States Declaration of Independence and its arguably one of the most important and quoted lines from the text. However, the statements made in the declaration are contradictory with the United States’ theory vs it’s practice in our country today. Our country says “all” peoples have the right to equal opportunities and rights yet Black people are killed by the police everyday for simply being black. “Illegal” immigrants from Mexico are caged and exiled because they don't have the “right” to be in the country. BIPOC citizens are more likely to be convicted for crimes they did not commit. Yet all citizens have the right life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness right?
There is an undeniable privilege to be White in the US. If you are White in the US, you are truly able to strive for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” without the overarching tyranny of racism hanging over them. White people in the US are able to interact with police without fearing death. White people can go to court and know they will be able to post bail or get a fair sentence. White people can sleep in their beds without being shot to death, like how Breonna Taylor was murdered by police in March earlier this year. BIPOC people in the US go through struggles and adversity White people will never understand. These painful struggles are still persisting in BIPOC people’s lives because of the white control in this country.
In the United States, racism is deeply embedded into our law enforcement, policing and judicial systems. It’s through these discriminatory institutions that the individuals that are in power over local/national criminal justice systems are continuing to protect, promote and expand white power/privilege in the United States.
The History between racism and White power in the United States
The foundation of White privilege/power was built when the White peoples of Europe and their colonies in the Americas started the colonization of indigenous people in the Americas and enslavement of Africans. These civilizations made slavery, the owning and trading of human beings, an economic system. The south’s income and stability relied on their racist control of African and Indigenous peoples. However, around a hundred years later on January 31st 1865 after the civil war was finished, the 13th amendment was passed. This amendment stated that “nor slavery or involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” Yes, this was a good. There was no more direct slavery, however, criminals can still be considered slaves. So, this was exactly what the white people in power in the south took advantage of. In the documentary 13th by Ava DuVernay, the main commentators describe this as the “first big prison boom.” The southern law enforcement used its policing to their advantage and arrested African Americans on minor charges like loitering. Eventually this recreated a slave population for them to work to rebuild the south from the civil war. Proceeding this we see these ideas of “white supremacy” and the black “criminal” being further emphasized by this first mass incarceration of African Americans in America. We even see it represented in political cartoons, films that used black face like “Birth of a Nation” and literature like Sarah Barnwell Elliott’s story “The Incident”. This writing tells the story of Abram, a black man, who the town finds suspicious of raping a woman and the sheriff arrests him. The town wants the man lynched but the Sheriff doesn't want to, which paints the Sheriff- who is a white hero and the black man as a racist. In “A History of Forgetting and the ‘Awful problem’ of ‘race’ ” by Matthew Wilson, it provides a deep study of Elliott’s story and racism in general, and it states “Clearly, in the racial imagination of the nineteenth century, that the answer is that no work will avail … Abram is so thoroughly degenerate, a new post civil war n*****”. This study of this text helps us understand the thoughts of white southerners at the time, as Elliott was one. These White people truly believed black men could not help their savage ways and were just “evil”. This idea was stressed even worse after the civil war because they weren't being “tamed" anymore by slave owners. These toxic perceptions of white and black people from back then in the law enforcement, society and from places like literature are still poisoning our society today. These racist ideals are still providing a basis for the individuals in power of our law enforcement and judicial systems today to continue enforce racist ideas and white power over people of color in the United States.
Police brutality today
It’s hard to think that killings of innocent black men as a result of police brutality like Trayvon Martin and George Floyd still occur. Though its upsetting, they happen because of racist law enforcement systems are still allowed operate as though they are not flawed. Many Americans and politicians say police are vital to the United States society. These Americans say we cannot function without them and we should support them. Although more realistically, they do not want to live without them because white Americans and authorities cannot fathom living their lives without having our privilege and power as white people at hand. In Vorris L Nunley’s “Hey it’s me Trayvon!”, he unpacks the idea of the trope that America has of black men. Nunley states that “The Black body is guilty until proven innocent. George Zimmerman did not even have to testify because the fear of the Black trope permeates the American imaginary like bacteria permeates the human body. The always-already criminalized Black trope speaks for itself. Zimmerman’s Whiteness spoke for him” while talking about the murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. This is how white people in the US see black people. This is how the police see a black man who was pulled over for a broken tail light. This is how a judge sees a a black man who was accused of raping three woman. This is true or else black people wouldn't be disproportionally more likely to have a fatal interactions with the police than white people. This racist brutality by the police towards black people like Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Tete Gulley and too many more, further emphasize the white power implemented since slavery. Further continuing the idea of “police = white heroes” and “black people = criminals”. The simple fact that white people do not have to worry about being killed, shot at or detained for an unfair reason because of racist implications and ideals in a government law enforcement system that’s meant to protect society shows how unfair it is to be a person of color in the United States.
The mass incarceration of people of color in the United States
The mass incarceration of people of color in the United States has been a newer problem in the past few generations as numbers of incarcerated people have skyrocketed since the 70's. Again in the DuVernay’s 13th, the commenters explain how “The United States makes up up 5% of the worlds population, yet 25% of the worlds inmates. One out of four people in the world are imprisoned in the US.” Yes, this number is utterly shocking to hear but if you look at the percentages of the black, Latino and white populations they scare you even more. In the Pew Research Center’s article “ Black imprisonment rate in the U.S. has fallen by a third since 2006” by Josh Gramlich, it states that “In 2018, black Americans represented 33% of the sentenced prison population, nearly triple their 12% share of the U.S. adult population. Whites accounted for 30% of prisoners, about half their 63% share of the adult population. Hispanics accounted for 23% of inmates, compared with 16% of the adult population.” These numbers show that black and Latino people are disproportionally incarcerated more than white people, so much so they account for more of the US prison population than the actual country’s population. But why it this you may ask? Simply, because of our racist views of minorities as criminals. This directly affects our judicial systems responsible for giving these people sentences. A specific example of this is the Central Park 5 case which ended in the incarceration of 5 black and Latino boys, 4 of which were under 18, and all of which were innocent. Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray and Raymond Santana were all charged for the rape of a woman simply because they were black and Latino boys in the park at the wrong time. The city of New York pressured the law enforcement to jail them, because they were depicted as “monsters” in the press because they were black/Latino. We see in the series also by Ava DuVernay “When They See Us”- which was about Central Park 5, how the cops and lawyers coerced confessions from the boys, manipulated their families and sentenced them to years in prison with little to no evidence. Those boys were sentenced because they needed a scapegoat and the story was believable because they were Black/Latino — because still in the 80s, and even now, people of color are viewed as “criminals”. White people do not have this stigma related to them. White people were never owned and traded like cattle or hated and criminalized for their skin color This is because of the white privilege/power created by institutionalized racism through slavery and Jim crow laws — etc. This stigma of the “ Black criminal” still is plaguing our criminals justice system clearly by the numbers of people of color incarcerated. White power/privilege is still being supported by these racist ideals and law enforcement/judicial systems. These unjust, racist acts wont stop unless the systems change.
It’s very easy to say “we need change” but how can we actually stimulate change in our society for the better ? First off, you can be apart of a conversation about the racism that is still being instituted through our criminal justice systems. Maybe start a conversation at your dinner table. You can spread awareness and do your own research on the topic to gain a better understanding on it. There’s also more active participation like protesting peacefully, signing petitions, starting debates and making clubs or organizations around you. The United States has needed change since these racist operations were put into place, and I believe it will happen with this generation.
