Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Crime in the Media Fall 2020

This documentary is called “Slavery By Another Name”. It is directed by Sam Pollard, and created by Doug Blackmon and Catherine Allan. It was released February 13^th, 2012. This video explains how slavery was abolished in 1865 by Abraham Lincoln, but never really ended. During the civil war, the north was fighting against the south over mainly the issue of slavery. After the north won, the emancipation proclamation by the 13^th amendment declared that all former slaves were all free. Close to 4 million slaves could now call themselves as equal to white people. They could now own guns, own land, animals, houses etc. However, the freedom of slaves came with a cost, as the south was in economic ruins after the war. Owners needed more workers for labor. So, they passed “black codes” a series of codes intending to criminalize black folks (Stevenson 2018).  So small offenses, like vagrancy, and others were punishable with fines that black people could not pay. This is related to the “War on Drugs” where you could be locked up for low level offenses (Mauer 2018). They could be locked up just for not proving they were employed. They would pay fines with labor, for an extended amount of time. This resulted in millions of people working in labor prison camps across the south. The official term was “convict leasing” which is people being sold for to private areas for state income. “They utilized the criminal justice system for the economic exploitation and political disempowerment of black people” (Stevenson, 2018, pg.11).  Many slaves died as a result, and more were pushed to the brink. These types of extensive crimes on blacks would criminalize them as we know it today.

One related story is the story of Green Cottenham. His records are not complete. He was born to former slaves in the early 1880’s. He was wrongly arrested for vagrancy in 1908, a common occurrence with many citizens. Alabama rented Cottenham to work in a coal mine, where he late died. This was industrial slavery because people were sent to coal mines rather than the cotton fields. A lost of issues revolved around colored people being “criminals”. Many people, like Cottenham, were falsely accused of crimes with no evidence and sent to work in the coal mines. This ties in with what occurs today, as massive amounts of are convicted of crimes with no evidence. However today the truth can come out, and you can be let out after 30 years. Back then they did not have the technology that we did, so they mostly likely died working. This confirms our class discussion about why we criminalize colored people. The label they placed on them as criminals has expanded over time, and we have not confronted it, which is why things are as they are today. The perspective is seen as race affected how you were treated, even after the 13^th amendment. This can go into stories we discussed in class from Stevenson’s essay in the Davis book about police and the community. Such as the story of Emilio Mayfield, that was beaten by police when jaywalking, which was not an offense in the area. Also, Tremaine McMillian, who was put in a chokehold after playing around with a friend (Henning, 2018, pg. 57). These tie directly back to the perspectives that colored people are criminals, which was forced upon them after the civil war.

Society came to believe this social construct of former slaves being criminals. Another factor comes after the war when the south is in economic ruin. There is now incentive to pin small crimes and offenses on colored people, and when they could not pay the fines, they sent to work in the fields. Citizens saw this as a good reason to have forced labor. This continued of course for decades, until they were not able to use these methods. A big question needs to be asked? Why aren’t these issued being discussed, at school and at home? The common theme is that when slavery died out, everything was okay. It was not okay, as millions of formers were forced to work till there deaths. We need to focus on learning more about our nation’s history, good and bad. We should build more museums, more exhibits, teaching people about what happened (such as the Jim Crow Museum). We can learn from these terrible practices that were occurring, and make sure it does not happen in the future. The problem is that citizens do not pay attention because there are busy with their own lives. They have jobs, they attend school, they go here and there. When they do not realize everything, they know was built on slavery and forced labor.

This documentary overall helped me to understand a little more about how exactly colored people were criminalized in the justice system. To really understand what they went through would be impossible, but myself and others need to spread this knowledge so we can possibly prevent some event that occur today. The past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.

References

Henning, K. (2018) Boys to Men: The Roles of Policing in the socialization of Black Boys. In A.J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pp.57-94). Vintage Books.

Stevenson, B. (2018). A presumption of guilt: The legacy of America’s history of racial injustice. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pg. 11-26). Vintage Books.

Pollard, S. (2012). Slavery by Another Name (2012). Retrieved October 31, 2020, from https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/slavery-by-another-name/