Alexander, (2010) compares mass incarceration to the era of the laws of Jim Crow in the sense that these laws, just like the present system of mass incarceration, are meant to control the world population. Although the populations like African Americans seem to be graduating from prestigious universities and taking up white-collar jobs by becoming Chief Executives in blue-chip companies, much of the success of the African Americans remains a myth. The author posits that there has emerged a new system of control that has come to replace the systemic and oppressive laws of Jim Crow and these have become the true definition of slavery and domination.
Many are in denial concerning the existence of racial caste in the US and this stems from the misunderstanding about how the system of racial oppression works. Therefore, the author essentially states that the racial caste system in the US is evident and is actively affecting people in Asia and other parts of the world. In the event that anyone was to visit the US from any other part of the world, many would be shocked by the number of African Americans incarcerated. The United States prison system is highly racialized and made to feel and look as though it is a tool aimed at keeping African Americans in prison.
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Some of the popular reasons given for the uneven racial distribution of prison populations include Black culture, poor schooling and high rates of crimes. Whereas the system is unconsciously designed to seem as if it is fighting the criminals, it is essentially acting as a tool for social control targetted at the African American population. During the era of the Jim Crow laws, many light-skinned African Americans would lie to seem white and pass by the judgment, racial discrimination, and stigma associated with being African American. Presently, many formerly incarcerated individuals have to lie to their employers to get employed and other people in society to survive judgment and avoid negative criticism. Ultimately the author posits that the war against drugs and the mass incarceration of African Americans is a systemic mechanism aimed at containing their population and this is not any different from the horrors of the ancient times of Jim Crow rules that targetted African Americans. In fact, this present mechanism is even more dangerous since it is embedded within a legal framework and rightfully has the backing of the law.
The most approximate reason for the rise in levels of incarceration among Black communities is not in the rise in crime levels but in the policy laws and political processes aimed to keep contain the African American community. The most popular reason is, therefore, the tendency to use imprisonment as the direct answer and response to even petty crimes. Long sentences, intensification in the fight against drug laws and the introduction of mandatory prison sentences are some of the reasons for overall high rates of incarceration. Moreover, these have been the reasons for the increase in incarcerations among African Americans and Latino communities.
The department of law enforcement intensified the enforcement of laws touching on the arrest and control of drugs and these laws favored whites over blacks and Latinos. New mandatory minimum sentences were introduced despite the low rates of the use of drugs among Blacks. Additionally, Blacks had no demonstrated levels of trafficking and this was different from the whites. Even before the formation of the policies that targeted blacks over whites, they had long been targeted for arrest at a higher rate compared to their white counterparts. Over the course of history, there have been increased strikes and protests against arrests of blacks.
Structure refers to the recurrent patterned arrangement of human behavior limiting or influencing the chances and opportunities available in society. In view of this definition, therefore, structure refers to the planned or well-orchestrated mechanisms that lead to systemic reactions and patterns of behavior. Players in a structural system can either be aware or unaware of their actions but all the same, their collective actions lead to the oppression of other people or the benefit of others. For instance, in the case of the systemic arrests of African Americans, officers of law enforcement arrest blacks with the protection of the policies and lead to their congestion in prisons and this constitutes a structured mechanism of action. Agency refers to individuals’ capacity to act in an independent manner and their ability to make their choices. Moreover, it also refers to government structures also set up to fulfill the needs and the requirements of structured governments.
Due to the manner in which the system is structured to oppress the black man and favor the white man, African Americans hardly have any role models that they can look up to form the inner cities and therefore this makes it delusional to think about success and imagine that they can do it. The more the system continually works to oppress blacks the more they are convinced that they cannot make it and this situation forces them to drugs and other ills which makes it hard to take advantage of opportunities like school and social learning. Carrying a criminal record to the workplace after being incarcerated is highly problematic since it denies black folks the job opportunities they need to survive and this inadvertently leads them to vices like drugs and violence in the bid to survive. The system both in the inner cities and the outside world is modeled to oppress the blacks and this is part of the entire organ aimed at containing them.
Works Cited
Aexander, M. (2010). The New Jim Crow. Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, 1 (1), 8-26.
