Racism Is Hardly a Thing of the Past HuffingtonPost / Rev Jesse Jackson / 11,15,2010 Is Jim Crow back? Are African Americans, particularly African American men, once more suffering systematic discrimination on the basis of race -- a discrimination that locks them out of equal rights and basic citizenship? The question is incendiary -- and seems unreal. This is the post-racial America, where an African American can be elected president. Overt expression of racism is no longer socially acceptable. So, how could anyone allege the revival of Jim Crow laws, the laws that locked blacks into a permanent underclass under segregation? Listen to the hard logic offered by Michelle Alexander, a law professor and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness. Professor Alexander makes the following points: • More African Americans are under correctional control today -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole -- than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. • More black men were disenfranchised in 2004 than in 1870, the year the 15th Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race. • More than half of working-age African-American men in major urban areas -- according to one report, as much as 80 percent in Chicago -- have criminal records and are thus subject to legalized discrimination. These staggering figures aren't because African Americans are more prone to violence and crime. As Alexander points out, incarceration rates are not related to the rate of criminal activity. Crime is at a relatively low level in recent years, but incarceration has remained high. The primary reason for our high rates of incarceration is the war on drugs. The courts have given police a virtual exemption from the Fourth Amendment in the war on drugs. This freedom to stop, search, seize and arrest clearly has discriminatory effects. This drug war has been waged intensively almost completely in communities of color, even though studies show that drug use is remarkably similar across racial lines. The use of drugs isn't much different, but young African American men are stopped more often, searched more often, arrested more often and prosecuted more often. This isn't about drug-related violence or even about major traffickers. Alexander cites studies that in 2005, for example, four out of five drug arrests were for possession, while only one out of five were for sales. Most people in state prison for drug offenses have no history of violence or significant selling activity. Most of the increase in incarcerated drug offenders came from marijuana use, a drug widely available on campuses across America. These are stunning facts. The U.S. has developed a prison-industrial complex -- with private prison companies listed on the stock exchange -- that, in Professor Alexander's words, "locks an extraordinary percentage of our population -- a group largely defined by race -- into permanent, second-class status for life." Yet, this system is largely immune from constitutional challenge. The courts have decided that overwhelming evidence of the discriminatory effect of policies -- the fact that African Americans are deprived of their rights for life in disproportionate numbers -- is not sufficient. Proof of conscious, intentional racial bias in intent and action must be shown. The result is shocking -- yet is accepted largely in silence. The drug war, the court system, the privatized prison-industrial complex have provided the means of disenfranchising African Americans in large number. This has implications in elections, in juries, and in school and poverty subsidies. Clearly it is time to end the silence -- and confront the reality. I wonder if Obama will listen to JJ or will he laugh it off as a bad idea to cut off one of law enforcement's tools for racial profiling?
These videos relate to your topic, if you are interested please watch these videos I was flabbergasted. Part 1: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRLu_9h-2ks]YouTube - ABC What Would You Do Racism In America Vandals Pt 1[/ame] Part 2: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSkeIdFdifY&feature=related]YouTube - ABC 20/20 What Would You Do Vandals Racism In America Pt 2[/ame]
I have to force myself sometimes to not be prejudiced. Calling it ingrained due to my upbringing or social conditioning is not good enough. I have come a long ways since the 70's,when I was old enough and experienced enough in lifes trials and tribulations,to start recognizing when my opinoins were racially based or if they were based on unbiased information but the main thing is,I am trying. Hell,America has come a long way since the 70's but we still have so far to go,as evidenced in the shift from public discrimination(whites only restrooms,etc)to hidden discrimination such as the drug law enforcement.
i was raised not to care about a person's race... and it's really effing simple. every time i see someone like that i just facepalm for humanity being satisfied with ignorance.
i think that as long as people exist, racism will exist. It's just a part of human nature, as unfortunate as it is. People will always want to seem or feel like they're superior to another group of people and as horrible as it sounds, I don't think that this can ever be stopped. I mean, both my parents are kind racist, especially my dad, but I'm the most 'un-racist' motherfucker you'll ever meet hahah. that just goes to show it doesn't matter who raised you but your own beliefs.
Yeah it isn't a thing of the past,an it's mostly white people who seen to have the need for superiority(nothing personal).It just always seems like it's white vs every other race just my 2 cents,(please don't negative rep me for this xD)
I would agree that racism is not completely gone and there is still is a lot of prejuduice out there but it has deffineatly gotten better. Every generation today seems to be getting more tolerant as time goes on.
I believe there will always be racism. There will always be ignorant people in the world. This country has come a LONG way- we probably have less problems with racism than just about every nation.
I see your point and I partially agree with you, hence the term 'white supremacy'. However, there is racism all over the world. I went to Jamaica and met certain racist individuals, or people who had a very narrow-minded and ill-informed view on a different race. It is though, as Pac said, a white man's world, and thats simply because white people have the consolidation of wealth/power. It's all very horrible as a reality I must say, sometimes when I was in Jamaica and I saw the economic and social problems caused by the oppression of poorer, developing countries by predominantly 'white' nations like the US and UK I was ashamed to be white. Even though it's not me that has caused the hardship of those people. I sometimes hear one of my friends perpetuating the view that immigration into the UK should stop(such an opinion is racist, in its nature), and it makes you realise that those viewpoints are always inherited from someones situation(ie their family, their friends, the media). Fuck racism, is all I can say. Respect your brother or sister, whether they're white, black, yellow or purple or any other fuckin colour. I think it is worth pointing out that racism is more of a minority-held view than a majority's view. PS weednotcrack I'm actually gonna plus rep you for having the balls to say something that controversial
What a bunch of rhetorical bullshit. Im sick of it. You can put ANY scenerio in ANY atmosphere and have results that are shocking to some AND completely opposite of each other....... The exact same video that could be a motivational inspiration to one person be completely out of line and even prejudice to that very same person's next door neighbor.... Come on poeple. Think for yourself. What are your views and very first impressins of the people and things you see? Just sayin....
You're right, it's taught, but isn't it true that sooner or later, this thought is engrained in your head if your parents follow the same train of thought? of course it's completely normal and possible to be born tolerant, but think about kids that are born like, in the ghetto or someplace similar. They're going to be taught, less or more, that white people don't like them, even though that's not even true on a massive scale. Racism is perpetuated upon every race, by every race. I agree that racism IS taught, but I also think it's got kind of a instinctual factor to it too.
One simple solution. Stop committing crime. They can't keep putting people in for things they have not done. And don't give me that bullshit excuse that " poverty leads to crime" My mother was dead broke with two children, and she made it through without committing crime for financial support. Racism is not only taught, its learned. You know they only time my car has ever broken into was when i moved into a predominantly black neighborhood? Twice in a month they broke into our car, and i had to replace the windows. Based on simple logic, would you in the same situation not get the idea that "hey, maybe somethings you hear about the hood ARE true." As an intelligent person i know it has nothing to do with the color of their skin, instead it has to do with their upbringing and weakness of character. You would have to be an idiot to not believe that many of the poor black people you see sitting on the street selling drugs are NOT the same a working class people. They wallow in self pity, and thrive on their own deluded thoughts of " The white man is bringing me down, fuck the law im going to do whatever it takes to get what i want, even if it hurts other people." They take the easy "criminal" way out, and they pretend they cannot do anything to help it. Who do i blame in reality? The parents that birthed 4 kids into welfare and never offered them a single example of how to live an honorable, succesful, self sustained lifestyle. Blaming it all on racism is probably the most ignorant unrealistic view you can have on this situation. For the record, "civil liberties" Is most often used as reparation rather than equality. Affirmative action does nothing to make sure the best candidates are taken for jobs/schooling. Instead it exists to give opportunity to people based on race, rather than merit. Sounds pretty racist if you ask me.
But the whole point of the original post is that there is not a big difference between the number of crimes committed by blacks and crimes committed by whites. It's just that the incarceration rate of black people is much higher. They are a demonised group of the population
I don't see how the simple solution of refraining from a life of crime does not apply? If your demonized by the authorities and you KNOW they are specifically looking to put you away, why would you not be extra careful to not violate the laws? Or at least be more careful to not get caught. Would someone care to share where this statistic came from? IM not believing it just based on copy pasta from some "law professors" Article. Does that law professor even cite where he got that stat from? Or does he exect you to take it as truth because a "law professor" is saying it? I'm not saying racism does not still exist. It always will. I'm saying that blaming your woes or the problems of a whole race, on racism, is a bullshit excuse.
kindergarteners all play together they have no idea what black or white is and crime etc. as they get older they are conformed to believe either, black = crime are lesser etc stupid things like that. Im white, 23, and i have ABSOLUTELY been racist before towards people other than blacks. Its just something that ticks in your brain that u gotta slap and say "NO! not right" especially when u were brought up to believe things. I told my parents about a black girl i was dating and they werent too happy about it but ive brought some trashy white hoes home and they havent said a word...whats up with that...anyways i think i rambled. racism is wrong but alot of its is only there cuz its true. JJ was sayin theres more blacks in jail than slaves? maybe they shouldnt rob or evade the IRS or whatever got them in there.
Then what about blacks having lower IQs? And yes, blacks do commit more crimes. HOWEVER, if I do state you those two facts, does that make me automatically racist? Or does it make reality racist? Therefore, is racism just part of reality? No. It's in your heads. You can take any easily identifiable group of people and find simple correlations. And those facts do not make a black person any less valuable than a white person, just like Asians' or Jews' far higher IQ and smaller crime rate does not make them inherently better than whites. Affirmative action, which was mentioned in this thread already, tries to be anti-racist but ironically ends up more racist. What it's saying is: "hey, you're not qualified for this position, but since you're black, it means that you are somehow less able than a person of another race, so we'll give it to you instead of that far more qualified Asian guy over there."