One of the other significant issues facing the African-American, and our community as a whole, and is brought up in the New Jim Crow is: the myth of color-blindness of our Criminal Justice system. Michelle Alexander reiterates, that despite the popular belief, our Criminal Justice system is not color-blind after all. She proves this argument by illustrating case after cases where our criminal justice system has treated exactly the same scenarios differently. The only noticeable difference in such similar situations has been the color and race of the defendants.
This points out to a very serious yet on-going harsh and bitter reality of our society that was pointed out by Martin Luther King in his “I have a Dream” speech. Dr. King said that, …show more content…
It has been seen that race is not the sole factor for stopping and searching a black man, but a determinative cause. When the federal agents raided Christopher Armstrong’s apartment back in 1992 and arrested him and his friends for drug charges, he had one thing in common with all of them: he was also black. In fact, when the public defenders who were assigned to Armstrong’s case, said that out of 53 cases their office had handled in last 3 years, 48 were black and 5 were Latinos. White drug dealers must have been invisible. What does seem visible is an invisible, virtual filter that is preset by our Criminal Justice system to catch only blacks.
It gets even more disturbing when we look at the next step of such convictions: going to jail and coming out of it. As John Irwin has pointed out in his book, The Jail, “..we must keep in mind that it [the jail] is intended to hold the rabble, not other persons”. When any of these offenders go to jail and by the time they get out, they fall into a cycle. A cycle which produces both intended and unintended …show more content…
His car is towed to a parking garage. The parking charges start to accumulate from the very same day. And as John Irwin has rightly pointed out, it doesn’t take long in some cases that the person owes more to the parking authority than the worth of the car. Further, he starts losing social ties as he is disconnected from the outside world; this could include friends, employer, creditors etc.
Once the prisoner is out of jail or prison, he has to start from zero again. This time it could be even more challenging, as he could be a felon. And being a felon, he now has two titles: a black and a felon. Some of the very basic everyday luxuries and benefits that are available to others may not be available to him: employment – even at places like McDonald’s -, welfare benefits such as food stamps or even public housing. Since he doesn’t have a start-up capital, he can’t start his own business. Hundreds of professional licenses are off limit to felons. In Ohio, for example, felons can’t even become
This points out to a very serious yet on-going harsh and bitter reality of our society that was pointed out by Martin Luther King in his “I have a Dream” speech. Dr. King said that, …show more content…
It has been seen that race is not the sole factor for stopping and searching a black man, but a determinative cause. When the federal agents raided Christopher Armstrong’s apartment back in 1992 and arrested him and his friends for drug charges, he had one thing in common with all of them: he was also black. In fact, when the public defenders who were assigned to Armstrong’s case, said that out of 53 cases their office had handled in last 3 years, 48 were black and 5 were Latinos. White drug dealers must have been invisible. What does seem visible is an invisible, virtual filter that is preset by our Criminal Justice system to catch only blacks.
It gets even more disturbing when we look at the next step of such convictions: going to jail and coming out of it. As John Irwin has pointed out in his book, The Jail, “..we must keep in mind that it [the jail] is intended to hold the rabble, not other persons”. When any of these offenders go to jail and by the time they get out, they fall into a cycle. A cycle which produces both intended and unintended …show more content…
His car is towed to a parking garage. The parking charges start to accumulate from the very same day. And as John Irwin has rightly pointed out, it doesn’t take long in some cases that the person owes more to the parking authority than the worth of the car. Further, he starts losing social ties as he is disconnected from the outside world; this could include friends, employer, creditors etc.
Once the prisoner is out of jail or prison, he has to start from zero again. This time it could be even more challenging, as he could be a felon. And being a felon, he now has two titles: a black and a felon. Some of the very basic everyday luxuries and benefits that are available to others may not be available to him: employment – even at places like McDonald’s -, welfare benefits such as food stamps or even public housing. Since he doesn’t have a start-up capital, he can’t start his own business. Hundreds of professional licenses are off limit to felons. In Ohio, for example, felons can’t even become