RACIALIZING CRIME AND THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE

RACIAL DISPARITY: THE PLIGHT OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

BY P.G.

In todays United States 120 years after the publication of Frederick L. Hoffman’s Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, the effects are still felt. Blacks have been systematically discriminated against and targeted in the criminal justice system. “Crime, pauperism, and sexual immortality are without question” (Muhammed 35). These words, along with his absurd statistical analysis of black criminality, helped lay the groundwork for the racialization of black crime. They would also later help dawn the age of Jim Crow. Thankfully the sun has set on that time, sort of. We are lingering in the twilight of Jim Crow, where the racialization of crime is not so blunt, and in your face. There are no strange fruits hanging from the poplar trees, but instead a discriminatory justice system that has lead to African-Americans being incarcerate at nearly six times the rate of whites. How, through all of the reform and change this country has seen, can this system successfully do this?

One of the first steps in this process was America constructing black ghettos. Through denying home loans and insurance along with other key financial assistance to blacks, the foundation for ghettos was laid. African-Americans were forced into specific geographical areas, and those neighborhoods were then “redlined,” or labeled as ineligible for finance. Citizens of these neighborhoods also faced widespread job discrimination that kept them from public employment, forcing them to stay in the ghetto constructed just for them. Working low-wage and labor intensive jobs, these redlined neighborhoods were systematically impoverished. With a 93% black population Chicago’s South Side is an example of this in modern day. For decades this has created an environment that police can easily target and discriminate against. Either consciously or subconsciously, the lingering social stereotypes laid out by Hoffman that African-Americans are more susceptible to violence, drugs and alcohol, along with other criminal behavior are still there. Examples of this can be seen as recently as in December, where 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times while running away from officer Jason Van Dyke. One of the more recent cases in the long history of police brutality directed at blacks in Chicago, this agonizingly illustrates how judgement based off of a person’s skin can lead to terrible mistakes by police. Before this tragedy Officer Van Dyke had had 20 complaints for misconduct filed against him by citizens residing in Chicago’s South Side, a grand total of zero of these complaints were sustained by investigators. Most of these complaints were made by black citizens, who coincidentally have their allegations of police misconduct dismissed at four times the rate of whites.

Sometimes however it’s not just the people enforcing the laws that are being discriminatory, but the laws themselves. One particular law that seemed to target blacks was the mandatory drug-sentencing related laws regarding crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. Up until President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010, one gram of crack cocaine garnered the same sentence as 100 grams of powder cocaine. Despite 12% of adults admitting to powdered coke use and only 4% of adults admitting to crack coke use, the punishments were much more heavy on that 4%. It may be completely coincidental (doubt it), but of the 5,669 crack convictions in 2009 nearly 80% of them were blacks, while only 10% were white. Of the powdered coke convictions however only 28% were black, and 17% were white. Obama reduced the disparity in the penalties from 100:1 to 18:1 in regards to grams needed for the same conviction. The Smarter Sentencing Act, a bill that would compliment the Fair Sentencing Act, would reduce the minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. Of the 8,800 crack offenders currently in federal prison that would benefit from this bill 87% are black, and currently held under sentences handed out under the 100:1 law. These 7,656 current prisoners are examples of how one law can target a certain community. Even in todays United States law enforcement and even laws themselves discriminate against certain communities or ethnicities. There have been many steps taken to try and end this racialization of crime, and yet the black community is still very susceptible to it. The stereotypes of violence and crime have damned many since Frederick Hoffman wrote them in his book, one that “had more to do with white control than black crime” (Muhammed 35). Until the lingering racism has been diminished from our society, the plight of black’s association with crime will not end. “African Americans were inferior human beings whose predicament was three parts their own making and two parts the consequence of misguided philanthropy” (Muhammad 52). Yeah, sure.

Work Cited

Muhammad, Khalil. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Print.

Bouie, Jamelle. "How We Built the Ghettos." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.

Kulze, Elizabeth. "How Crack Vs. Coke Sentencing Unfairly Targets Poor People." Vocativ. N.p., 22 Feb. 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

Bellware, Kim. "Police Abuse Complaints by Black Chicagoans Dismissed Nearly 99 Percent of The Time." The Huffington Post. N.p., 06 May 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.