Racial Disparity in the Justice System
The media I chose to look at for racial disparity was two different TED Talks. One of them was by Michelle Alexander who focused on how discrimination never really went away, it was merely altered so that those it focused on were criminals. She compares the criminal justice system to a newer version of Jim Crow as once you are incarcerated, you will be discriminated against for the rest of your life. African American kids grow up worrying about when they are going to get arrested and end up in jail. Most of the time, when they do, they go to jail for minor charges such as drugs, but by the time they get out it is on their record and they will have a harder time getting jobs or an education from then on out. Furthermore, the reason for so many of them being arrested and thus having their lives ruined was not even really something that was their fault. They are being arrested and convicted because the police get paid more the more they put people behind bars, and it is easier to catch black youths doing drugs than it is to catch white youths. There are so many laws against drugs that police can take advantage of simply because those they are using them against have no idea what they are or how to follow them. Schools are typically drug free zones, but the zone itself could extend for miles outside of the school, and what happens to those black youth who live within that area and do drugs? They go straight to jail (Mauer, 2018, p. 49). These youths are practically conditioned into believing that if they are not perfect one hundred percent of the time they will be going to jail, and even then, there is still an element of risk. Henning described this mistrust of police and authority figures as there being a lack of good legal socialization, and if these kids grow up with the idea that if they go to jail they lose all options for their life, it is no wonder they have such a deep distrust of police. However, even if people do desire to try and break this cycle of jailing people for minor offenses just to send them back into the system once they get out, there is no guarantee that it will even work due to the vast number of jobs that are supported by the mass incarceration of criminals.
The other TED Talk was by Baratunde Thurston and was also regarding race and how it affects those who are criminalized by the masses. His opening was a story of how he was dating a white girl and she had a little too much to drink when they were visiting her parents’ house, so he was driving her home in her parent’s car. While he was driving her home, they were pulled over and he signaled he was cooperating before pulling up under the brightest streetlight there was so he could use dashboard footage and had all the information necessary pulled out before the officer even left the car. He was lucky as the officer was nice and the only issue was that the registration was expired, but it could have turned out so much worse. He then begins to analyze different headlines and points out how many of them are regarding white people calling the cops on black people for issues that do not even necessarily need cops to resolve them.
I felt that these two TED Talks were good to watch together because both of them discussed the same issue and both argued that something was wrong with the racial injustice society shows. However, they share different opinions on what can be done about it. Alexander was of the belief that a complete overhaul of the system is impossible and the best we can do is to try and alter it little by little. In contrast, Thurston did not even mention changing the system from the law enforcement aspect. Instead, he argues that it would be more beneficial if people were to consider what exactly they were calling the police for and whether it is really necessary for the situation. Originally, I was of a similar opinion to Alexander that the system needs an overhaul but that the odds of that occurring are miniscule when you consider just how many jobs are gotten through the criminal justice system. However, Thurston has an optimistic look on the situation and if it were possible to get even a majority of people to agree to go along with the idea of considering whether or not police were even needed to handle the situation it would be a good first step. I would recommend watching these if you want to get another perspective on how the racial disparity in the justice system effects people and for what we can do about it.
References
Mauer, M. (2018). The endurance of racial disparity in the criminal justice system. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pp. 31-56). Vintage Books