Minorities in America’s Prisons Renita Redding ENG 122 Instructor: Sharon Linne November 23, 2014 Since the 18th century imprisonment has been the method of punishing crime in America. Today there are about two million people incarcerated in federal and state prison institutions in the United States (Page, Whetstone, 2014). The most alarming statistic associated with America’s prison population is the disproportionate number of minorities that are represented. According to Page and Whetstone, “the United States’ unprecedented expansion of imprisonment since the late 1970’s has disproportionately affected African Americans, intensifying inequality and transferring the way some people look at race issues”. Even though, there is an array
Breadwinners are lost, families destroyed, more kids grow up without fathers or mothers, welfare costs increase, the entire sex ratio is thrown out of balance and prisoners face grim prospects when released. The hyper-incarceration statistics for African-American males are much worse. We incarcerate one in nine African-Americans between the ages of 20 and 34. In 2003, it was calculated that "At current levels of incarceration newborn black males in this country have a greater than a 1 in 4 chance of going to prison during their lifetimes, while Hispanic males have a 1 in 6 chance, and white males have a 1 in 23 chance of serving time." By 2007, just four years later, the U.S. Department of Justice
His idea was that if enough blacks were to become doctors, lawyers, businessman, and become successful in general that they could not be considered anything other than equal. “…Ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races be… essential to mutual progress.” This quote, taken from Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Address, is a perfect example of how Washington went about this. He was willing to wait, and with the hard work of many generations, reach equality sometime during the future. This was the exact opposite of W.E.B. Dubois.
(Acknowledgment, Notes, Reference, Index, About the Author) $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8077-5407-8 David Kirkland wanted people to understand what African American are going through on a daily base. Most blacks are seen going into school and often to prison. They are suspend from school more often than a white student and for longer period of time. David voice how in 2003 70 percent of Black 4th grade boys read below the level, compared to 27 percent of White children. Black males perform more poorly on literacy test than do other students.
In 2008, a black man was elected the President of the United States. African Americans have come a long way and made a lot of progress in society. It seems as if the movement is over, yet there are still subtle inequalities all around in education and the workforce. Black people still have the problem of stereotyping and racial profiling. Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was gunned down and murdered by a neighbor as he walked home from the store in February 2012 because of racial profiling (Martin).
Deirdre A. Royster is Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of William and Mary. Throughout Race and the Invisible Hand, Royster tries to discover why black men are somewhat less desirable as workers than their white peers. With extensive research and conductions of her own studies Royster seeks an answer in the experiences or 25 black men and 25 white men who graduated from the same vocational school and sought out jobs in the same blue-collar labor market in the early 1990s. Since the time of Booker T. Washington to today, black men have long been advised to “Get a trade.” But it is not as easy as it sounds. Royster seeks to expose the discrepancies of a workplace that favors the white job-seeker over the black by trying to understand
Even though Harlem was mostly populated by the African-American community they could still not escape the racial segregation that the white Landlords showed them. During this time the white landlords would charge African Americans significantly more rent then they would to a white renter. However throughout the 1920’s, 118 792 white people left the area of Harlem and 87 417. This was due to the Jim Crow Laws being passed and an uprising of the Klu Klux Klan in the south. Even though being a slum, Harlem was considered the spiritual home for African Americans alike, all over
They returned home to find that racism was part of everyday life. Between 1915-1922 more than 430 black Africans where lynched. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965 .These where laws discriminating the black Americans. The laws segregated blacks in schools, parks, hospitals, swimming pools, libraries and other public places, Black found it extremely hard to get fair treatment. They were also denied access to good jobs and a reasonable education and where even banned from voting.
Without the push and leadership displayed from these leaders who dedicated their lives to ending the horrors of slavery, segregation and unfair treatment the United States of America would not be living a fair life of equality and privilege. These 3 civil rights leaders and activists changed the way black Americans were treated and gained respect and acknowledgement of their lifetime of struggle with the white society. The civil rights movement of 1964 changed the laws regarding black Americans but of course it is impossible to change everybody’s state of mind on the issue. So as of today the coloured people still are fighting for acceptance from some people and are still waiting for the day when they can have total acceptance, as Rosa Parks quotes “I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is any such thing as complete happiness. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything you need and everything you want, and nothing more to wish for.
Shannon Wynne Advanced Placement Literature Dr. Power 14 December 2011 Achieving Manhood through Literature, Not Violence Louisiana in the 1970’s was a hard place to live for African Americans due to the lingering racism and black codes that were still prominent in society. During this time, blacks only had a few options on how to respond to the black codes. They could either accept the codes or passively react to the white men or they could reject the codes and either escape from the south and racist communities or die at the hands of the white men (Mallon). The characters in A Gathering of Old Men had to choose between these two options for most of their lives. The novel describes the day that they reject passivity and embrace bravery and courage through Ernest Gaines, who grew up in a situation similar to one in