This graph displays the number of African American CEO’s Fortune 500 companies in comparison to other racial groups and it is clear that women of Caucasian descent dominate totaling nearly 25. They are only second to white males due to racial discrimination within the corporate world (Zweigenhaft and Dombhoff 136). Correspondingly, black students feel that they are not equally superior to those that are of Caucasian descent. Racial stereotypes have made them feel that they are inferior to their counterparts and has affected their views of school and education. “ Ogbu 's oppositional cultural theory suggests that that low expectations lead minority students to feel ambivalent about school, and to disengage academically in the belief that academic
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Since this country was established, African Americans have been disadvantaged pertaining to the judicial sector. One of the oldest instances would be Dred Scott v. Sanford in which slave Dred Scott thought he could be considered a free slave, considering he lived in a free state at the time; however, the Supreme Court upheld that a slave could not be a U.S. citizen, thus not giving them the jurisdiction to appeal to federal courts (McBride). In this case, African Americans could not expect to be protected by the law when they were not even considered citizens of the very country they lived in. Then in 1896, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson set the precedent for separate but equal, giving rise to segregation. However, the doctrine of separate but equal was fictional in nature as all facilities were actually inferior to those of Caucasian Americans . It wouldn’t be until 1954 with the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that the doctrine of separate but equal would be overturned, as no facility was actually equal. Aforementioned, the killer of Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman pleaded not guilty at the final verdict (CNN). Despite the fact that Martin was shot and killed unarmed, Zimmerman was able to walk free. Had the situation been turned around Martin would have likely been quickly sentenced and charged with murder. Which relates back to …show more content…
A new racial caste has been invented to essentially keep African Americans from experiencing the judicial equality that they desire. This new caste system is most commonly known as mass incarceration, the large number of African American male, and increasingly female that are imprisoned, or to put it simply, jailed. This phenomenon arose from Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs, which was declared at a time when drug use was on a decline (Alexander 10). The rhetoric that has developed is “law and order” instead of “slavery forever.” Because an increasingly number of convicts are black, or African American, is has not only become a judicial problem but also a social problem. Bryan Stevenson, the winner of the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in social justice, has taken this issue to the Supreme Court as the “United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but imprisons a quarter of the world’s inmates” (Hedges). Not only is imprisonment an issue, but also the fact that there is a disproportionate use of the death penalty against people of color, and the use of life sentences against minors. Stevenson got the courts to agree that children are wholeheartedly products of where they grew up, leading them to do criminal acts that are too advanced for their psychological
Since this country was established, African Americans have been disadvantaged pertaining to the judicial sector. One of the oldest instances would be Dred Scott v. Sanford in which slave Dred Scott thought he could be considered a free slave, considering he lived in a free state at the time; however, the Supreme Court upheld that a slave could not be a U.S. citizen, thus not giving them the jurisdiction to appeal to federal courts (McBride). In this case, African Americans could not expect to be protected by the law when they were not even considered citizens of the very country they lived in. Then in 1896, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson set the precedent for separate but equal, giving rise to segregation. However, the doctrine of separate but equal was fictional in nature as all facilities were actually inferior to those of Caucasian Americans . It wouldn’t be until 1954 with the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that the doctrine of separate but equal would be overturned, as no facility was actually equal. Aforementioned, the killer of Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman pleaded not guilty at the final verdict (CNN). Despite the fact that Martin was shot and killed unarmed, Zimmerman was able to walk free. Had the situation been turned around Martin would have likely been quickly sentenced and charged with murder. Which relates back to …show more content…
A new racial caste has been invented to essentially keep African Americans from experiencing the judicial equality that they desire. This new caste system is most commonly known as mass incarceration, the large number of African American male, and increasingly female that are imprisoned, or to put it simply, jailed. This phenomenon arose from Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs, which was declared at a time when drug use was on a decline (Alexander 10). The rhetoric that has developed is “law and order” instead of “slavery forever.” Because an increasingly number of convicts are black, or African American, is has not only become a judicial problem but also a social problem. Bryan Stevenson, the winner of the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in social justice, has taken this issue to the Supreme Court as the “United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but imprisons a quarter of the world’s inmates” (Hedges). Not only is imprisonment an issue, but also the fact that there is a disproportionate use of the death penalty against people of color, and the use of life sentences against minors. Stevenson got the courts to agree that children are wholeheartedly products of where they grew up, leading them to do criminal acts that are too advanced for their psychological