-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
America's Racist Criminal Justice System
- Thread starter Mumei
- Start date
- Status
Probably, just a thought.
I think that a lot of it has to do with cultural stereotypes that are absorbed almost unconsciously. For instance:
A survey was conducted in 1995 asking the following question: "Would you close your eyes for a second, envision of drug user, and describe that person to me?" The startling results were published in the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education. Ninety-five percent of respondents pictured a black drug user, while only 5 percent imagined other racial groups. These results contrast sharply with the reality of drug crime in America. African Americans constituted only 15 percent of current drug users in 1995, and they constitute roughly the same percentage today. Whites constituted the vast majority of drug users then (and now), but almost no one pictured a white person when asked to imagine what a drug user looks like. The same group of respondents also perceived the typical drug trafficker as black
There is no reason to believe that the survey results would have been any different if police officers or prosecutors - rather than the general public - had been the respondents. Law enforcement officials, no less than the rest of us, have been exposed to the racially charged political rhetoric and media imagery associated with the drug war. In fact, for nearly three decades, news stories regarding virtually all street crime have disproportionately featured African American offenders. One study suggests that the standard crime news "script" is so prevalent and so thoroughly racialized that viewers imagined a black perpetrator even when none exists. In that study, 60 percent of viewers who saw a story with no image falsely recalled seeing one, and 70 percent of those viewers believed the perpetrator to be African American.
Decades of cognitive bias research demonstrates that both unconscious and conscious biases lead to discriminatory actions, even when an individual does not want to discriminate. The quotation commonly attributed to Nietzsche, that "there is no immaculate perception," perfectly captures how cognitive schemas - thought structures - influence what we notice and how things we notice get interpreted. Studies have shown that racial schemas operate not only as part of conscious, rational deliberations, but also automatically - without conscious awareness or intent. One study, for example, involved a video game that place photogrpahs of white and black individuals holding either a gun or other object (such as a wallet, soda can, or cell phone) into various photographic backgrounds. Participants were told to decide as quickly as possible whether to shoot the target. Consistent with earlier studies, participants were more likely to mistake a black target as armed when he was not, and mistake a white target as unarmed, when in fact he was armed. This pattern of discrimination reflected automatic, unconscious thought processes, not careful deliberations.
There is no reason to believe that the survey results would have been any different if police officers or prosecutors - rather than the general public - had been the respondents. Law enforcement officials, no less than the rest of us, have been exposed to the racially charged political rhetoric and media imagery associated with the drug war. In fact, for nearly three decades, news stories regarding virtually all street crime have disproportionately featured African American offenders. One study suggests that the standard crime news "script" is so prevalent and so thoroughly racialized that viewers imagined a black perpetrator even when none exists. In that study, 60 percent of viewers who saw a story with no image falsely recalled seeing one, and 70 percent of those viewers believed the perpetrator to be African American.
Decades of cognitive bias research demonstrates that both unconscious and conscious biases lead to discriminatory actions, even when an individual does not want to discriminate. The quotation commonly attributed to Nietzsche, that "there is no immaculate perception," perfectly captures how cognitive schemas - thought structures - influence what we notice and how things we notice get interpreted. Studies have shown that racial schemas operate not only as part of conscious, rational deliberations, but also automatically - without conscious awareness or intent. One study, for example, involved a video game that place photogrpahs of white and black individuals holding either a gun or other object (such as a wallet, soda can, or cell phone) into various photographic backgrounds. Participants were told to decide as quickly as possible whether to shoot the target. Consistent with earlier studies, participants were more likely to mistake a black target as armed when he was not, and mistake a white target as unarmed, when in fact he was armed. This pattern of discrimination reflected automatic, unconscious thought processes, not careful deliberations.
heliosRAzi
Banned
I've seen things with the parole/probation situation. You have to make a payment to your PO every month of so. If you don't pay, you go to jail. The thing is is that if you are convicted of a crime, it's difficult to get a job, especially one that pays good. So if you take too long to find a job, you'd go to jail because you can't pay. Once you get a job - which will most likely be minimum wage - you have to decide on being able to survive or jail. It's no wonder why so many go back to dealing drugs.
Shit is fucked up and bullshit.
Shit is fucked up and bullshit.
HocusPocus
Member
If people could just be content with what they have and not what they don't... none of this shit these people buy that makes them commit robberies, sell drugs, etc. ever fill them up with happeness in their life. Black, white, asian, whatever... it is the same old story of wanting something quick and easy. I only understand crime if it is for one thing... hunger or survival (literally).
Dominican Power
Member
Aren't there more poor White people than Black/Latino? Whites are still the majority.
Devolution
Member
This is a weird aside that really has nothing to do with what we're talking about. We're not talking about the impetus to commit crime but what happens in the justice system.
Bay Maximus
Banned
No, you really can't. Outside of the dirt-poor ghetto, it's not easy to tell unless you're really big into brand names and all that. Many of my dad's work buddies (150,000+ salaries) walk around in some pretty dingy shit when not at work or an event of some sort. If they were strangers walking down the street, I couldn't pick them apart from the people I work with (40,000+ salaries). Cars are an indicator but they can be hit or miss too, for obvious reasons.
Devolution
Member
Even harder to tell when everything is so easily disseminated across media too. Trends can overlap class.
What other things are you thinking about?
And it's not just lop sided prosecution. It's lop sided arrests as well as lop sided checks (like traffic stops.)
heliosRAzi
Banned
Why should the way you dress, talk, walk, or drive even lead to them being arrested? They not an indication of anything except that's the style they want to convey to others.
Anecdotal, but my white nephew and 4 of his white friends went to the federal pen for drug trafficking. He spent 7 years there plus 5 more on some pretty strict parole. IIRC he got no opportunity for early release. Something about the Federal pen doesn't credit you half your time served for good behavior and you have no opportunity to get out early. When the feds sentence you to 7 years, you're going to jail for 7 years.
Devolution
Member
And black people are sent to those courts/prisons more often.
kame-sennin
Member
It's not "simply because they're black". It's because a lot of people make money off of incarcerations (primarily the private prison industry) which creates a lot of incentives to prosecute and convict more people. When deciding who should bare the brunt of this drive, it falls to African Americans and Latinos because they have less money, fewer advocates in government, and there is a large percentage of white Americans who - due to media and culture - already view people of color as dangerous and criminal.
The United States economy has always depended on the exploitation of people of color; the taking of Native American land, an agricultural industry powered by African slaves, the destruction of black and Latino communities to make way for interstate highways which enabled white flight and the explosion of suburban middle-class America, ect. This is nothing new, the system is merely adapting itself to changing social norms.
If we're just talking about law enforcement people picking out those to arrest/prosecute, I think the problem is that the image of a lawbreaker has been tied so strongly to minorities. I don't think a lot of the people in the system are deliberately racist, but when they see people with a certain kind of image on the street, which unfortunately includes race, they are more likely to assume criminality and act upon it.
What I'm trying to figure out is where that crap started somewhere between the 60's and today.
What I'm trying to figure out is where that crap started somewhere between the 60's and today.
Gentleman Jack
Member
Reading this will probably cement a not guilty vote every time I serve on a jury about drug possession (like the last time I was on a jury), won't it?
Yep.
And the author mentioned that the modern stereotypes of blacks as potentially criminal / indolent got its start around Reconstruction - basically part of the "Oh no, they aren't slaves, the sky will fall" stuff. And she also mentioned how shortly after the Reagan Administration began its campaign for a new war on drugs, the media started covering the phenomenon of inner city crack, which was a vast media campaign of coverage that effectively combined with almost a century of criminal stereotypes of black men helped to cement the idea of a black person as the ur-drug user / seller and why 95 percent of respondents when asked imagined a black person, despite them only making up 15 percent of the population.
And yep.
Devolution
Member
Furthering the discussion and pervasiveness of issues is how you get them to change. More awareness is never a bad thing. It might not be new and surprising to you, then you aren't the person they're trying to reach. Not everyone is actually aware of how pervasive this is, they just assume, like so many others without the proper knowledge or education, that certain minorities are just more violent and more criminal. And then their stereotypes are backed up by institutionalized racism such as this.
kame-sennin
Member
The KKK was founded after the end of slavery to "protect" whites from dangerous free blacks. The idea of black criminality goes back at least that far. But if you want a recent example, the media's coverage of the crack epidemic in the 1980's was definitely a major influence on the current image of black criminality.
Indeed. This is why the phrase "denying racism is the new racism" has become so popular. It's because racists know that the discussion of racism - the exposure of illogical and unjust practices to rational debate - is the best means of eroding racial discrimination. The best means of preventing that erosion and maintaining white male privilege is to obstruct the conversation from the beginning. By denying that racism exists, or denying its role in a specific event, and condemning those who would "play the race card" as trouble makers, one prevents the necessary debate about racism from taking place and nothing changes.
empty vessel
Member
We didn't get "tough on crime" until after the civil rights movement for a reason. It used to be that politicians were lenient on crime to gain popularity. It's unfathomable to most people today, but until just a few decades ago, the maximum term of confinement for any criminal offense was 20 years, even for murder. That was considered a "life" sentence, and even then most people did not serve that full time. If you really stop and think about it, free from modern hysteria about crime, 20 years imprisonment is a ridiculously harsh sentence. How did it come to be perceived as inadequate? Well, the need to preserve white supremacy in the South, for one.
you think its bad now wait till private prisons keep spreading and spreading and then we will have a system where people will be getting arrested at even higher rates just to meet quotas for the shareholders of those private prison corporations.
I think that's true to a point but I think you may overestimate what people do when faced with the truth. A lot feign anger but at the end of the day most are more concerned with their next car purchase or what their weekend plans are or what they're going to do with their next paycheck. Mess with that and you may have a better chance of getting people's attention.
empty vessel
Member
I do think future generations will look back on this era as incredibly oppressive. Private, for-profit prisons are just so incredibly asinine and beyond the pale that I have a hard time even believing they really exist. Yet, they are completely uncontroversial to the entire political elite and even most Americans.
yep, the kid driving the bmw is clearly going to break the law less than the kid driving the beat up on corolla
The Faceless Master
Member
Wow, really? I didn't even know about this.
The Faceless Master
Member
minority in a cheap car? probably out to rob someone or already did...
minority in a not cheap car? drug dealer...
either way, pull 'em over!
tough on crime pandering always made my stomach churn but origins in a racial strategy is new to me. Thank you for the increased churning of my stomach.
But I thought the free market of capitalism represented the best interests of society by increasing efficiency. somehow.
But I thought the free market of capitalism represented the best interests of society by increasing efficiency. somehow.
kame-sennin
Member
Not to get into too much of a derail, but America's view of welfare changed at the same time. Prior to the civil rights era, most working class whites were for welfare programs. Social programs declined in popularity around the same time that blacks gained equal access to those programs. The reason I bring this up is to point out that most Americans had a much more liberal view of both criminal justice and the welfare state when those instituions affected/benefited only whites. But when formal white supremacy in the form of Jim Crow came to an end, new, informal methods of oppression emerged.
More to the point:
Nevertheless, harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders have been consistently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1982, the Supreme Court upheld forty years of imprisonment for possession and an attempt to sell 9 ounces of marijuana. Several years later, in Harmelin v. Michigan, the Court upheld a sentence of life imprisonment for a defendant with no prior convictions who attempted to sell 672 grams (approximately 23 ounces) of crack cocaine. The Court found the sentences in those cases "reasonably proportionate" to the offenses committed - and not "cruel and unusual" in violation of the Eighth Amendment. This ruling was remarkable given that, prior to the Drug Reform Act of 1986, the longest sentence Congress had imposed for possession of any drug in any amount was one year.
Devolution
Member
Foxy Fox 39
Banned
ugh.
don't forget making the minority clean up the giant mess the cops make in their car after they are done and give some shitty excuse as to why they pulled you over after they find nothing.
Mammoth Jones
Member
Yep.
kame-sennin
Member
Time Wise :bow
What I like about his speeches is that he really pulls everything together in a clear historical narrative that takes us from slavery to the present day.
Devolution
Member
Ugh. Those assholes.
I love this quote because it should be true but unfortunately for certain people even not breaking the law doesn't mean the law won't go after you, such as this case from Hearne, Texas.
http://www.aclu.org/drug-law-reform...discrimination-second-texas-drug-bust-scandal
Actually, no. It's also about innocent people who have to rely on an absurdly overworked public defense system and having to register a guilty plea from inadequate representation and advice.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
Great video, thanks for linking.
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Remember that scene from season 1 of The Wire, where they don't know yet who Barksdale is, but they find a record of a person with that name who's obviously white? They just kind of laugh and dismiss the evidence. Despite that it turned out it really was a wrong person, I could help but think, is it really that impossible for police to believe that a white person could be a drug seller, have they never seen one in their whole career there?
I find it funny that a lot of people dismiss all of his speeches and material because they say he's a white guy looking to make money off of talking about how white people have privilege.
Damage control
Really? I don't doubt the rest of your post, but this seems really unlikely.
- Status