The black man has been stereotyped in society from the ancient time period to present day. The physical attraction and the actions pursued by some black males have been used against the specific population as a form of ridicule and humiliation. How have the black men in society been portrayed over the last decades? The answer is negative. These stereotypes are not set in stone facts but only assumptions throughout society that the media substantiates and worsens the brighter picture.
The State Police in Oklahoma humiliated an Army General Gerald for two hours and his son because they were African American. They were told to get out of their car and they were handcuffed without the police having a reason to. The police also asked if they can search Gerald’s car and Gerald said no. The police didn’t respect what Gerald had said and they searched his car anyway. The police brought drug-sniffing dogs since they were African American they expected them to have drugs in the car.
I did a little extra research over the movie just to get some of the other facts maybe they couldn’t put in the movie because of length. Clarence Brandley is an African-American who, in 1981, while a janitor at a high school in Conroe, Texas, was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of Cheryl Dee Ferguson, a 16 year-old student. Brandley was held for nine years on death row. After lengthy legal proceedings that ended in the Supreme Court of the United States, Clarence Brandley was freed in 1990. Suspicion immediately fell on two of the custodians, Brandley and Henry (Icky) Peace, who had found the body.
Furman, a black male, while robbing a house was caught by someone in the house. When Furman tried to leave he tripped and the loaded firearm he was carrying went off killing one individual in the house. Furman went to trial and was found guilty of murder and sentenced to the death penalty. Furman appealed and took the ruling to the Supreme Court. Furman’s case was combined with two other black males when it went to the Supreme Court.
Great Depression & New Deal Supreme Court cases 1. Powell v. Alabama (1932) a. Facts of the Case: Nine illiterate, young black men accused of raping two white women. Rape was punishable by death in the state of Alabama. The defendants’ attorney withdrew from the case, and the judge appointed members of the local bar, many of which withdrew from the case as well.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird harsh injustices are endowed upon the Negro race. This is because it is placed in the south, before many civil rights acts were fully respected. The Negro with the biggest injustice in the novel is Tom Robinson. Robinson is put on a trial for a crime that he clearly did not commit. Because the color of Robinson’s skin he is given an unfair trial and is found to be guilty by the jury.
The presiding judge during trial found out that Apprendi fired shots to a neighboring house as threats to leave the neighborhood. As the judge’s final decision and consideration of Apprendi’s actions to be a hate crime gave the judge notion of a severe sentence in prison. The high court’s decision to overturn the sentence was in favor of Apprendi’s Sixth Amendment right of due process to trial by jury and evidence has to be admitted in court through process to the jurors. A judge imposing sentencing must not consider facts unable to provide to the jury is against the federal
This use of power by white people over black individuals has caused numerous black individuals to view themselves as trapped in their own skin, which is a concept Fanon defines as “blackness”. In Frantz Fanon’s article, The Fact of Blackness, he speaks about how black people do not feel the weight of their “blackness” until they are under the scrutiny of white counterparts and viewed as objects. Fanon states, “A feeling of inferiority? No, a feeling of nonexistence. Sin is Negro as virtue is white.
Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor, used Tom’s race and physical strength to imply that Tom was just another stereotypical black man who targeted a fair skinned female. Mr. Gilmer hinted that because Tom was strong and coloured, Tom would rape and beat a white woman. Not only was Tom discriminated against on the stand, but after Tom was sent to the slammer, Tom was killed and shot at multiple times after he was already dead. “ ‘Seventeen bullet holes in him. They [the police] didn’t have to shoot him that much.’ ” (235).
The Arian Brotherhood believes whites should be above all of races and or ethnicities. The Arian Brotherhood is still posing threats against other various races and is a great example of racial discrimination still existing in America Today. Another form of discrimination provided by the Caucasian race is racial profiling, racial profiling is a term used to describe when police or other various law enforcement officials single out a person or group of people as “potential suspects” based on their race or ethnicity. Racial profiling continues to be a prevalent form of discrimination in the United States today. Said by Aclu, “Since September 11, 2001, new forms of racial profiling have affected a growing number of people of color in the U.S., including members of Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities.” For example, if an African American man standing on a corner waiting for a bus he is more likely stopped and questioned why he is standing there and where he is going.