We must ask ourselves, who gets to be a “real” victim? Race, gender, and class all play into this question. People of color are often seen more on the criminal side due to our white supremacy society and displayed clearly in the Central Park 5 case. Women are often blamed when they are the victim due to our patriarchal society as shown through the act of victim blaming and questioning what they were wearing to promote cat-calls or other unwanted attention. Lower class people are often not allowed to be the victim either as we, as a society, often look down on them and make judgements about them in regards to their behavior and morals. These characteristics all culminate into the criminalization of these individuals, often using them to past
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The fact that race and class can provide evidence about the amount of crime a society will have shows how deeply racialized and classist our society is. There is little class movement as first explored with economic inequality and little opportunities for higher education as discussed with educational inequalities. These add up to creating a biased system, a system that sets people up for a predetermined destiny of crime and criminal activity. All the historical, geographical, and racial contexts we have seen with the previous issues has lead this issue of …show more content…
The likelihood of a black man being sent to prison is ten times than whites for drug crimes (The House I Live In). Justice is racialized, gendered, and classed because it upholds the structures in place in society, such as white supremacy and patriarchy. This explains why rape is punished different than drug users as those who are involved in drugs are people of color. Colored bodies are seen as more criminal in our society through the different social structures we have in place. In regards to how exactly the laws are biased towards individuals, there is a 100:1 ration for the punishment of crack versus cocaine. That means that the possession of 5 grams of crack is punished as harshly as 500 grams of the powdered form, cocaine. And who are the groups most associated with these two groups? Blacks with crack, the more harshly punished, and whites with cocaine (The House I Live In). This is a clear example of just how race is a crucial component in
The fact that race and class can provide evidence about the amount of crime a society will have shows how deeply racialized and classist our society is. There is little class movement as first explored with economic inequality and little opportunities for higher education as discussed with educational inequalities. These add up to creating a biased system, a system that sets people up for a predetermined destiny of crime and criminal activity. All the historical, geographical, and racial contexts we have seen with the previous issues has lead this issue of …show more content…
The likelihood of a black man being sent to prison is ten times than whites for drug crimes (The House I Live In). Justice is racialized, gendered, and classed because it upholds the structures in place in society, such as white supremacy and patriarchy. This explains why rape is punished different than drug users as those who are involved in drugs are people of color. Colored bodies are seen as more criminal in our society through the different social structures we have in place. In regards to how exactly the laws are biased towards individuals, there is a 100:1 ration for the punishment of crack versus cocaine. That means that the possession of 5 grams of crack is punished as harshly as 500 grams of the powdered form, cocaine. And who are the groups most associated with these two groups? Blacks with crack, the more harshly punished, and whites with cocaine (The House I Live In). This is a clear example of just how race is a crucial component in