Table of Contents
Introduction
Race and racism has continued to be a thorny issue in the US for a long time, and the evidence of its practice is outright and open, amid denials by the European Americans (whites). African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and Asian Americans (people of color) are forced to live with either individual and/or institutional racism (Randall, 2007 para.2). Institutions have recently been participating in the racism behavior either directly or indirectly.
They can either seclude people of color from working or offering services, or they can have policies that are not aimed at racism. However, they end up exempting the people of color, by responding to people of color and the whites differently – a show of discrimination and prejudice. As much as people would like to denounce the occurrence of this evil in the society, it finds its root causes in beliefs of certain individuals, who compare themselves supreme than others. The people of color especially blacks have been associated with crime and other social vices to some extent that they are unfairly subjected to certain judicial systems with unfounded evidence.
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The signs and statistics of racism
Stereotypes have been common and they are general race based conclusions. Some people say blacks are uneducated, poor, and are acquittal prone. In their report, Bonczar & Beck (1997) claim that the level of people of color going to state or federal prisons is higher that that of the whites. This is a report that has already separated people and racism is evident in their analysis. Wise (2005, para. 4) in his article describes how the judicial systems contribute to the blacks going to jail; there are discriminative aspects in the education, housing and employment. In addition, Wise (para.5) quotes statistics that can be good evidence of the US drug search campaign and why most blacks go to jail for drugs possession or use.
Discrimination is more evident according to Wise (2005) to the extent that “Police are more than twice as likely to search vehicles driven by blacks, although whites, when search are more than twice as likely to be found in possession of illegal items and drugs.” This explains the high implications on the people of color; they concentrate on searching the blacks, Hispanics, Asian, and Natives than they do the whites hence more of these go to jail. The report further adds that in New York, searches by police have indicated that in stop and frisks unfair treatment are subjected to the people of color. Blacks and Latinos are also likely to be stopped while in the residential neighborhoods. In areas where whites are the majority, blacks 2.25 times more likely to be search for suspicion of possessing weapons, or 3 times more likely to be stopped for suspicion of having committed a violent crime. All this is discrimination and racism in the highest degree, the judicial system is subjecting the people of color to in order to spoil their image.
The stereotypes of blacks being hooligans are just a making and they try to fix it by implicating most blacks to suit their needs. Wise (2005 para.9) quotes a report that indicated that for every 4.6 whites stopped an arrest was made, which was about double that of the blacks at a rate of 7.3 before any arrest was made. Whites stopped were more likely to be guilty of an offence but the police continue to hold on the blacks because they are the few minority. Crime rates may be higher in the blacks but this may be due to socioeconomic situations disproportionately faced by blacks. They include housing, poverty, and community disintegration. This is a clear picture of how the US criminal justice system targets the minorities.
The search conducted by the police on racial bases increases the mass imprisonment of minorities, who are the people of color. When the white are not targeted yet they are the majority in society and highest crime committers, race is seen to take precedence over justice. Recently, two Supreme Court appointments affirmed the race base exclusion. White are the majority in the Supreme Court which makes the appointments racial. In the current world, the culture of racial supremacy should be abolished no matter its manifestation. Many people of color are subjected to very racial inhumane acts just because their skin color is not the same. The US drug policy has continued to exceed the race creed by implicating more Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Natives in their quest to taint and implicate the people of color.
Conclusion
The general believe is that the US is a democratic country but the happenings of race prove otherwise. Many Africans Americans are in jails for their mistakes but the whites should be more there since research shows that they are the one who have more involvement in drugs, it is only that the judicial system favors them. Most people of color are in drugs or crime not due to liking or nature but they are forced by circumstances. The US government should do more to empower the mass minority in the country in order to reduce crime and drugs. The policies that are seen to be discriminative should be abolished and the biased practices stopped. The people of color should be empowered in order to reduce their involvement in drugs and other crimes. It is time to judge a person by character and not by the color of his/her skin.