Prior to 2014, I insisted that our judicial system contained no racial biases. In truth, I remember before hearing about profiling and stop-and-frisk laws, asserting that people were making a fuss about race for no reason. A year later, I wrote a research paper for my advanced placement literature class about the problem of prison overcrowding. Then again, for my introductory sociology class last semester, I wrote a paper analyzing the effectiveness of varying methods proposed to decrease prison recidivism rates. While in both, I acknowledge the racialized condition of our prison system, I disregard the history of how this came to be and create connections between the institution (and logics) of slavery and of mass incarceration. As critical
…show more content…
With their implementation, slaves became further entrenched in between the realms of human and property. A profound example of this ascribed inbetween status of a slave was when Gouverneur Morris asked whether or not slaves should be counted towards a state’s population, thereby increasing the state’s political power (i.e. their number of representatives). Should the answer be yes, he then posed the question whether slaves should be considered human or property. If slaves were human, then the country would be obligated to free them and make them citizens; if they were property, then, in the spirit of fairness, all property should then count towards the population. His questions would later be resolved with the Three-fifths …show more content…
Secondly, I believe that there should be mandatory implicit bias training courses for police officers, prison officials and other purported “upholders of the law.” Moreover, I hope to witness a reduction on the privatization of prisons through tax disincentives and stricter regulations/legal oversight. Furthermore, I greatly anticipate minimizing sentences for nonviolent drug crimes and legalizing marijuana nationwide. Additionally, I would like to see the Supreme Court deem stop-and-frisk practices to be unconstitutional. While the Court maintains that racial profiling violates the constitutional requirement that all persons be accorded equal protection of the law, the Supreme Court has yet to take significant action against these laws. However, underneath a Trump presidency, I realize that these objectives may be too ambitious as, according to USA Today, his “21 potential court nominees are overwhelmingly white, male and from red states” (December 2, 2016) and as most of his platform is unfortunately built upon anti-black and pro-capitalist rhetoric. Perhaps, underneath his administration, we can focus on x the school-to-prison pipeline by
With their implementation, slaves became further entrenched in between the realms of human and property. A profound example of this ascribed inbetween status of a slave was when Gouverneur Morris asked whether or not slaves should be counted towards a state’s population, thereby increasing the state’s political power (i.e. their number of representatives). Should the answer be yes, he then posed the question whether slaves should be considered human or property. If slaves were human, then the country would be obligated to free them and make them citizens; if they were property, then, in the spirit of fairness, all property should then count towards the population. His questions would later be resolved with the Three-fifths …show more content…
Secondly, I believe that there should be mandatory implicit bias training courses for police officers, prison officials and other purported “upholders of the law.” Moreover, I hope to witness a reduction on the privatization of prisons through tax disincentives and stricter regulations/legal oversight. Furthermore, I greatly anticipate minimizing sentences for nonviolent drug crimes and legalizing marijuana nationwide. Additionally, I would like to see the Supreme Court deem stop-and-frisk practices to be unconstitutional. While the Court maintains that racial profiling violates the constitutional requirement that all persons be accorded equal protection of the law, the Supreme Court has yet to take significant action against these laws. However, underneath a Trump presidency, I realize that these objectives may be too ambitious as, according to USA Today, his “21 potential court nominees are overwhelmingly white, male and from red states” (December 2, 2016) and as most of his platform is unfortunately built upon anti-black and pro-capitalist rhetoric. Perhaps, underneath his administration, we can focus on x the school-to-prison pipeline by