Blacks Prison And Institutional Racism Essay Research

Blacks, Prison, And Institutional Racism Essay, Research Paper

Blacks, Prison, And Institutional Racism

Description: The title pretty much says it all in this one. This paper addresses

the issue of blacks in prison and explores the socio-economic causes and

solutions. This paper uses many govermentally commissioned reports.

Blacks, Prison, and Institutional Racism

Introduction Criminal justice and security is one of the largest industries in

the United States. Such a statistic is (and rightly so) of great concern to

Afro-Americans because a disproportionate percentage of individuals under the

control of the US Criminal Justice System are from the Black community. This

paper will look at the alarming statistics and attempt to trace the roots of the

disparity. It will then consider the affects and explore possible solutions to

the expanding problem.

The Imprisoned Black Youth Black communities throughout the U.S. are witnessing

the institutionalization of their youth. Of course institutionalization is

nothing new to Afro-Americans, it is something Blacks have faced since their

existence in this country. In the beginning Blacks were forced into the

institution of slavery. After the abolition of slavery Blacks faced

institutional racism, that is, racism legitimated by the whole of society

directed against the few of society. As a facet of that institutional racism

Blacks are now forced to persevere the increasing trend of control by the US

Criminal Justice System. Control by the USCJS includes the probation, parole,

imprisonment, and death of Blacks. A study conducted by the Sentencing Project

in 1989 found tat more than one-fourth of all Blacks between the age of 20 and

29 are under the control of the USCJS . This alarming figure becomes more so

when you consider their are more Blacks in prison in this age group than their

are all Blacks in college . This clearly reveals what is meant by the

institutionalization of our Black youth. Black communities are being legally

robbed of their youth by a system that locks up those who pose a threat to the

status quo of institutional racism. The consequences of this are detrimental

indeed. The children are the future, but what future does a community have whose

children are all locked up. By virtue of robbing the Black community of their

youth, the USCJS robs Black communities of their future leaders and role models .

With such a condition at hand entire communities are lost and the ills of the

urban ghettos are augmented. To help explain why Blacks are being locked up, and

what part of imprisonment plays in institutional racism it would be helpful to

first look at the roots of institutional racism.

Institutional Racism And It’s Roots Institutional racism was a term first coined

by Stokley Carmichael in his book Black Power. Concerning racism, Carmichael and

co-author Charles V. Hamilton made the following observation:

Racism is both overt and covert. It takes two, closely related forms; individual

Whites acting against individual Blacks, and acts by the total of White

community against the Black community. We call these individual racism and

institutional racism.

The authors go on to state that it is the covertness of the second type, the

institutional racism, that makes it so dangerous. Because institutional racism

is less obvious and it is less apparent were it is emanating from (and it is

emanating from everywhere) creeps up on you and overwhelms you when you are not

looking . Institutional racism, though coined by Carmichael, existed long before

it was conceived of in Black Power. As I have stated it has existed since Blacks

were first brought to this country. The leaders of early America sought

intentionally to oppress Blacks and do so legally. Of course back then they did

not bother with probation, parole or even long prison sentences. Back then

Blacks who went against the grain and objected to his treatment in even the

slightest was simply killed. Public lynching were a crowd drawer and a crowd

pleaser in the early American South. Blacks were not imprisoned as much because

they were seen as either useful our useless. A good "field hands" or

"house niggers" tended to their chores, did as they were told, and

never caused a problem, and were therefore worth their weight in gold. An

"uppity nigger" was no good to anyone and was either beaten into

submission or put to death . This reveals a very important aspect about the

imprisonment of Blacks today. During the period of slavery in the US Blacks were

needed as workers and were therefore used as so . What are Blacks needed for

now. Despite the many accomplishments of such great inventors as Granville T.

Woods and Benjamin Bannicker, it would seem that White society would have no use

for Blacks. During the period of slavery Blacks deemed us

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