Racial Discrimination
Name
Institution
Racial Discrimination
Introduction
According to a study by Stewart et al. (2009), 40% of the US population still believes that racial discrimination has not been eliminated. The concept of racial discrimination refers to undermining people based on the color of their skin. Law enforcement officers have racially discriminated the black society in America. To prove this statement, a study by Katznelson (2005), found that one in a thousand black boys and men get killed by police. The study goes on to explain that black people have a high chance of getting killed as compared with white people. This paper will discuss the history, causes, and effects of racial segregation in the United States. I will also include the current state of racial discrimination in the country. Stop Killing Black people.
Racial discrimination has been witnessed for a long time in the United States. The criminal justice department in America has been on the light for their racial profiling against the black community. In 1910 Black Americans who composed about 12% of the united states population were found to be in prison more than 32% of them. Black Americans made up most of the executions concerning rape between the 1930s and 1970s(Katznelson,2005).
The execution rules in the early 19th century were discriminatory to the Blacks who were found to have victimized the white people. Police officers were principal propagators of this racial discrimination as they failed to control the riots (Stewart et al.,2009). The police were the leading causes of most riots as they were hostile to the blacks, making the black people more violent.
The United States supreme court has been listening to cases regarding racial discrimination. The arguments presented by the Civil rights groups prompted the court to declare discrimination as illegal and against the constitution. The court’s declaration was found to have influenced a lot of changes in many courts. The blacks were now allowed to pay bail; they stopped being discriminated in court and were allowed to have a lawyer to represent them (Stewart et al.,2009).
Statistics about crime have been seen to discriminate the black people as most statistics focus on the street crimes committed by blacks but not all the crimes that are conducted by the whites. Thus, the statistics portray a picture of bias on the offenders. This statistic is said to be profiling that black people are more likely to be involved in crime (Weitzer,1996). Most researchers view that racial discrimination has been implanted in the criminology system, while some feel that there is no evidence of discrimination by law enforcers on any race.
Most black people believe that the problem of racism against them by the criminal justice system dates back to the slavery days. According to a study by Alpert et al. (2007), it is found that black people’s position is affected by the slavery legacy. Black Americans think that the government has done little in making the black peoples a priority by equating them with the whites. Most scholars view the racial discrimination in the United States un ending languish, which will never leave the country.
Minorities in America are the victims and perpetrators. According to Katznelson (2005), Black Americans were arrested for violent criminal activities as compared to whites. Police stop Blacks for violent crimes while their counterparts the whites are arrested for break-ins and property crimes.
There is a lot of proof of racial segregation by police officers, for example, in traffic stops and searches, use of force on blacks by police. The root of this problem is not clear to scholars (Rowe,2012). The case of police brutality on the Black Community has been put in the spotlight. White police officers have been seen to kill black citizens. The tension between the African American society and police has been on the rise.
A study by Katznelson (2005) concludes that the evidence of racial discrimination by police is very substantial. The study had found out that unarmed black people had a higher chance of being shot at by white policemen than their counterparts who were unarmed. Some scholars dispute this claim by Coty and claim that blacks do not face discrimination from police but are likely to encounter the use of excessive force, e.g., being cuffed, being pushed to the ground.
This ideological difference between the two scholars, don’t come up due to the notion of Blacks being more likely to commit crimes. A recent study by Rowe (2012) found out that black people were frequently exposed to the police force as compared to white people. Black people are likely to have their vehicles stopped by law enforcement officers. Most searches and stops are seen to have many back people searched even if no drugs or illegal stuff may be recovered.
The law enforcement agencies are the most perpetrators of the racial discrimination’s issue of racial discrimination has been witnessed from the slavery days. Police officers are seen to have a racial bias on blacks by their actions of brutality during the arrest, during interrogations searches. Many police officers target blacks during this search even if the person doesn’t have any illegal stuff in the vehicle (Rowe,2012).
The numerous protests by blacks in the United States have seen many departments implement new policies in a bid to eradicate this racial profiling. The police have killed many black men and boys in the United States. The riots have been on the rise based on the use of excessive by police to quell the protestors.
US criminal justice defense has been trying to eradicate this social problem through the implementation of policies in the Criminal Justice Department (Weitzer,1996). This problem is a critical issue. Some departments have set up training for police on implicit bias. The problem with this bias training is that we have no evidence to conclude that it has impacted the law enforcers.
The other method being used is the change of attitude by police on the black people. This involves changing a police officer’s view of the Black race. This change is said to only work for a short period, and they are forgotten. Some departments have laid down policies that police officers who are in the chase to arrest a criminal should not be involved in the interrogation process or booking.
The creation of checklists and protocols are also good ways of reducing and eradication racial discrimination by police officers (Weitzer,1996). For example, for detectives to conduct a search for drugs in an airline have to ask several questions before proceeding. They should ask questions like, did the suspects use nicknames, how they paid for the ticket, etc.
Changes needed to be implemented in the criminal justice system of the United States for the community to accept that racial discrimination is a thing of the past. Many black people continue to be arrested or killed by law enforcement officers. This has seen the increase of violence from the Black Americans who, in return, retaliate this force used against them.
Conclusion
Racial discrimination is a social evil that needs to be eradicated if we need a conscious society. Many policies have been implemented but only work for some time before failing again. The Criminal Justice Department has to do more if it wants to reduce the cases of racial bias among the officers as they relate with the blacks and minority groups in the United States.
References
Alpert, G. P., Dunham, R. G., & Smith, M. R. (2007). Investigating racial profiling by the
Miami‐Dade Police Department: A multimethod approach. Criminology & Public
Policy, 6(1), 25-55.
Katznelson, I. (2005). When affirmative action was white: An untold history of racial inequality
in twentieth-century America. WW Norton & Company.
Rowe, M. (2012). Policing, race and racism. Routledge.
Stewart, E. A., Baumer, E. P., Brunson, R. K., & Simons, R. L. (2009). Neighborhood racial
context and perceptions of police‐based racial discrimination among black
youth. Criminology, 47(3), 847-887.
Weitzer, R. (1996). Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system: Findings and problems
in the literature. Journal of Criminal Justice, 24(4), 309-322.