CRIMINALIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS
GENNARO DELLICARPINI
Throughout
the history of the United States, African Americans have faced racism and
prejudice. Many people showed prejudice against the black population of America
by saying that they are bad and different from others, even highlighting
genetic differences between whites and blacks. I agree with many anti-racism advocates,
such as Thorsten Sellin, who said that African Americans were unfairly
stigmatized by their criminality and made up to be a threat to white American
society (Muhammad 2011:2). There are a lot of crime statistics on African
Americans, which many sociologists such as Fredrick Hoffman, try to use and
claim, based off the data, that blacks are innately bad and nothing can be
changed about them. To counter, Sellin also even exposed the ‘unreliability’ of
racial crime statistics and the troubling ways in which blackness and
criminality shaped racial identity and racial oppression in America (Muhammad:
2). Whenever a black man is convicted of a crime in America, his race is always
advertised and the punishment may even be a harsher one because of that. Black
criminality is always brought up because of the many statistics they have on it
and also that even jail is composed of mainly African Americans. Can black
criminality and black’s overall health in the United States be explained by the
environment that they are placed in, or is it based off of the innate features
of the African American race itself?
Fredrick
Hoffman was a German immigrant to the United States, who came over in 1884
(Muhammad: 36). He moved down south and saw all of the racially conservative
views that the south had to offer, mostly after marrying the daughter of a
Confederate soldier and the southern family (Muhammad: 36). Most of Hoffman’s
arguments were based off of statistics of African Americans and their
criminality. He found that on average blacks died at nearly twice the rate as
whites, and there was clear data that more blacks then whites died of
tuberculosis. In all of the cases blacks and whites faced the same
environmental conditions, thus Hoffman stated it was the result of ‘a race
proclivity to disease and death’
(Muhammad: 39). Hoffman also stated that any white criminality that occurred
was just an unfortunate consequence of economic conditions, so there is an
excuse for whites but no excuse for the wrong doings of the African American
population.
While
there were many supporters of Hoffman’s point of view on African Americans, many
people went against his way of thinking and were in support of the black
population. W.E.B. Du Bois thought of black criminality in the way that Hoffman
thought about white criminality, in that it is all the consequence of bad
social and economic conditions (Muhammad: 69). Another advocate for African
Americans was Carroll D. Wright, who wrote a report on the national crime
situation. He argued that crime rose from the consequence of the transition of
feudalism to wage labor and from slavery to freedom (Muhammad: 47). Since
African Americans were slaves in the past they had to now become used to being
employed to make money for themselves and their families. Any reduction in work
results in the increased amount of crime since people still need money and food
for themselves. Harry Vrooman expressed similar views, in that the whole
problem of crime is summed up in the problem of poverty. He stated that we have
enough moral sentiment and it is only the bad social and economic conditions
that people are placed in that cause them to commit crime. Overall, I agree
that the criminality and high mortality rates of blacks are because of the
environment they are placed in. If they did not have to face racism and bad
social and economic conditions on a daily basis then they would be much better
off in society.
Great post, you did a nice job of weaving all of the segments you wanted from the book as well as incorporating your own opinion into the piece. Another explanation for the association between black people and crime can also be the inclusion of immigrants as "whites" while blacks were still the excluded minority shortly after World War II (Muhammad, 271). By creating a larger group of "whites" it allowed the majority to again gang up on a now even smaller black minority. The immigrants who had once been largely disliked were now on the other side, being allowed to dislike and disrespect the black people who now lived in their tenements and neighborhoods. The slums were inhabited by poor people, white and black alike, and yet the conditions of tenement housing were only brought up as a factor in black crime. When a white person was arrested it seemed to be because of a poor upbringing, but the reliance on blaming crime on the poor environment seem to be an excuse exclusive to the black community.
ReplyDeleteThis post is awesome- factual and well supported. I am curious about the "vicious cycle" of racism we discuss in class. There is this undoubted presence of racial profiling in crime against the black community that has persisted since their emancipation. The trend is slowing but still occurs. Does this trend relate directly to poverty? Or in other words has our society's understanding of the African American urban culture limited economic opportunity for the minority groups? I believe there is a correlation or perhaps causation here. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteRacial profiling has unfortunately been ubiquitous in the last century of our society. After the devastating September 11th attacks on our nation, criminal profiling of black individuals quickly transitioned to individuals who were perceived to be of Middle Eastern descent. But, after over one decade has passed, I strongly believe that criminal profiling of black individuals has become more prevalent over the past few years, occurring more often in individuals of African descent than those of Middle Eastern descent. In my opinion, I believe that criminal profiling has emerged out of a need for a scapegoat for the ills of our nation. As a result, individuals of typically poor backgrounds have been the victims, especially African Americans and Latinos. I agree with Jessica that there definitely is a correlation between poverty and racial profiling; however, I have concluded that another variable explains the reason why individuals of minority backgrounds are profiled. I believe this other variable is a larger police presence in these poverty-stricken. As a result, the likelihood of a prejudiced police officer in this area is greatly increased, and this accounts for the increased number of racial profiling incidents of African Americans. With Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial stop-and-frisk program, criminal profiling of the African American has actually increased, and without some reform, these unjustified stops will continue to occur.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. You bring up some very interesting points and I agree with what you had to say. Racial profiling has been around forever and it does not look like it will go away anytime soon. Why do you think that is the case? Why so many years later do you think that racial profiling is still playing a big part in people's day to day lives? It was very interesting to read about how people feel about the difference between white criminality and black criminality and you showed a great understanding of Muhammad's book.
ReplyDeleteThis a great post that addresses two key theories as to why African Americans are faced with prejudice, injustice, and discrimination. Although there might be statistics that prove that African Americans do commit more crimes, and are more likely to get involved in serious crimes. There are also statistics that prove that they also face harsher longer sentences, and are subject to these harsher penalties due to their race. In relation to this argument, a recent reading that we did for class by Gilmore called "The Prison Fix" pointed out that African Ameicans and Latinos experienced the most intensive criminalization (Gilmore 2007;110) which illustrate that those ethnic minority groups were more likely to purposely get arrested and blamed due to their race and ethnicity. I agree with the argument that Harry Vrooman states which emphasizes that African Americans are faced with such social, and economic inequalities which causes an increase in crime rate. If we took crime rate statistics from a poverty stricken white neighborhood, and from a wealthy African American neighborhood, and compared those statistics, we would most likely see that the poverty stricken white neighborhood experiences more crime. I think that crime rates relate more to economic, and social conditions rather than race and ethnicity, and because African Americans were subject to injustice, discrimination, and inequality throughout history, and whites were considered the superior race, it is now more likely for black to still face those same prejudices, and therefore more likely for them to commit more crimes.
ReplyDelete-Roi Ankawa