Color Of Crime

In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, written by Ernest J. Gaines in 1993, Grant Higgins struggles with the idea of criminal justice in the south during the 1940s. During this time in Bayonne, LA African Americans did not receive the same justice as whites. In this quotation one can see the discrimination, “Twelve white men say a black man must die, and another white man sets the date and time without consulting one black person. Justice?” (Gaines 157).

On August 26, 1935, I witnessed Maycomb County Court turn the United States Court System into a monstrosity. Thomas Robinson, 25, was accused for the alleged rape and molestation of Mayella Violet Ewell, a white woman (citizen of Maycomb, Alabama). As I entered the courtroom, I realized that Maycomb had been inundated with racism and supported the segregation of public facilities, as do most Southern states. This was my first trip to Alabama, but I have never seen so many people at a trial before. I’d say 80% of the courtroom was Caucasian, with the minority making up the convict’s family or friends.

“Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were fatally stabbed on the evening of June 12, 1994, their bodies discovered early the next morning… O.J. Simpson, her ex-husband, was acquitted Oct. 3, 1995, of their deaths in a trial that riveted the nation and divided many along racial lines” (latimes.com editors). The trial faced many challenges during the time, it was even considered the “Trial of the Century” because it caused so much controversy. O.J. Simpson was an American Football player who ruined his career after the suspicions that he murdered his ex-wife and her friend and due to other crimes that occurred later. Many people believed the acquittal was caused because of racial views, which caused a division among the nation.

Staples carefully develops an argument that forces readers to face their own racial biases and presumptions through the careful use of purpose, unity, coherence, organization, and revision. Staples' article serves two purposes: to educate readers on the realities of racial profiling and discrimination and to persuade them to consider their own prejudices. By fusing intimate tales with greater historical and sociological background, he succeeds in doing this. He describes, for instance, how a white woman sprinted away from him

In this article, the authors examine the research of how the criminal justice system forms racial profiling in the United States as incarceration increases. The authors use longitudinal data to find information of how one’s skin color can affect one’s punishments compared to someone who is white due to the stereotypes that revolve around their race. As they further investigate they found that “there is a stereotypical link between race and crime” (Saperstein et al., 2014) as arrest and the consequences associated with the crime are increased to people who are minorities. The article strongly suggests an extensive impact on increased policing and rise of incarceration on racialization and stereotyping with results of groups, police judgments

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.

The Scottsboro Boys were nine black boys people blamed in Alabama for assaulting two white ladies on a train in 1931. The cases from this occurrence managed prejudice and the privilege to a reasonable trial. The cases incorporated a lynch swarm before the suspects had been arraigned, every white jurie, surged trials, and problematic crowds. It is refered to as an illustration of a general unnatural birth cycle of equity in the United States legitimate framework.

We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way

In her book, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander who was a civil rights lawyer and legal scholar, reveals many of America’s harsh truths regarding race within the criminal justice system. Though the Jim Crow laws have long been abolished, a new form has surfaced, a contemporary system of racial control through mass incarceration. In this book, mass incarceration not only refers to the criminal justice system, but also a bigger picture, which controls criminals both in and out of prison through laws, rules, policies and customs. The New Jim Crow that Alexander speaks of has redesigned the racial caste system, by putting millions of mainly blacks, as well as Hispanics and some whites, behind bars

Introduction Attention Getter: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “One in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime” (Kerby 1). Bridge: People of color are going to prison at a drastically high rate for something they may or may not have done. Introduction of Topic: Racial profiling is happening all around the country and it is violating the rights and equality of African Americans.

Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.

Even before our nation’s founding, people of color have been discriminated. Decades pass and the criminal justice system is still “racist” labeling people of color as criminal, meaning black equal criminals therefore is fine to discriminate people of color just because they’re criminals. In “The New Jim Crow” the system targets black men because they are associated with crime, meaning crime stands in for race. In the other hand, As Heather Mac Donald writes in her book “The War on Cops”, “The criminal-justice system does treat individual suspects and criminals equally, they concede. But the problem is how society defines crime and criminals” (154).

Synopsis In the introduction, Michelle Alexander (2010) introduces herself and expresses her passion about the topic of how the criminal justice system accomplishes racial hierarchy here in the United States. In chapter 1 of The New Jim Crow, Alexander (2010) suggests that the federal government can no longer be trusted to make any effort to enforce black civil rights legislation, especially when the Drug War is aimed at racial and ethnic minorities. In response to revolts formed between black slaves and white indentured servants, rich whites extended special privileges to their indentured servants that drove a wedge between them and the slaves that successfully stopped the revolts.

Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.

His sympathetic persona along with his analogies actively connect the reader to his story, while the strong diction and depressing tone make a strong emotional impact. Unlike most essays, the anti discrimination message can be applied to multiple minority groups and other social issues. As a whole, Brent Staples essay succeeds on all levels as it makes an impactful argument describing how society's view on African Americans as being dangerous violent criminals is truly