People of Colour and Systematicall Injustice

For generations people of color have been put into a system caste of injustice. From slavery, to the Jim Crow era, and now in today’s society. Today in the United States the incarceration rate has nearly tripled over the years. With the significant increase in the incarceration rates, it leads you to wonder what the cause may be. The government has found a way to indirectly create another system caste, which we live in today. That system caste is called the mass incarceration, also known as the New Jim Crow.

In the mass incarceration one term can describe the whole system of injustice; The Prison Industrial Complex. The Prison Industrial Complex is the overlapping interests of government and industry. It uses surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to what are, in actuality, economic, social, and political issues (What is the PIC). Although there are many influences that contributes to the Prison Industrial Complex, violence against women, people of color, hatred and fear of immigrants are the secondary influences that primary influences, such as, the War on Drugs, the Stop and Frisk policy, etc.

target. The term violence against women encompasses a multitude of abuse directed at women and girls over the life p. Violence against women is any gender-based violence that results in physical, sexual, and/or psychological harm or suffering Violence against Women). Rape is the most common example of violence against women. Rape and sexual assault of women by prison guards is common in the U. S. prisons and jails, with frequent retaliation by officials for those who protest and complain. Majority of women who have been physically abused haven’t been treated properly.

Those women tend to cope with their pain by using and abusing drugs, which is why the Prison Industrial complex targets women. There are many ways the government targets immigrants, but it all started September 11, 2001. Since 9/11 the government made it their priority to target immigrant. More specifically those immigrants of color. By using the media to spread their message to the public, that immigrants pose a threat to the United States, immigrants became one of the racial groups targeted by the Prison Industrial Complex (Public Attitudes of Immigrants in the United State, France and Germany).

With the attitudes Americans have that all immigrants are terrorist law enforcement, and the government deems it necessary to mistreat them by stripping them of their rights and holding them in detention centers which they are being treated inhumanely (Corrupting Justice). From the War on Drugs, to the Stop and Frisk policy, to the three strike law, etc. these indirectly targets people of color. Stop and Frisk policy is mainly known in the state of New York.

Research shows that the stop and frisk policy is of racial bias and unconstitutional. People of African and Spanish descent are stopped and frisk more than Caucasians (An Analysis of the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias). It was deemed unconstitutional by a judge named Shira A. Scheindlin stating that the stop and frisk policy violates the 4th Amendment and the 14th Amendment. It also states that law enforcement are racially profiling their suspects.

The War on Drugs was initiated in 1980 by the former President Nixon. Since the War on Drugs was enforced sixty percent of people of color have been incarcerated for drug offenses. Some might say that it is a coincidence that such acts are happening to people of color, immigrants, and women. That they aren’t being targeted by the government and law enforcement. Some might even say that by cleaning the streets of the drug abuser or people who pose a threat to the American society, is a good thing.

That the law enforcement are doing their jobs. They are creating public safety into communities. That the only reason it seems like the government are targeting these people is because they are mainly doing the crimes, but can you really back those suggestions up with the facts. The media is one of the main reason why the American people are ignorant to the facts. The media is funded by the government. The media portrays, African Americans, Spanish people, Caucasians, and others differently in music, movies, and in the news.

In movies you will see that majority of black roles are being ghetto, loud, gangsters, and baby mama, as opposed to few roles of them actually being intelligent and successful. In the news you majority hear how African Americans are being arrested for drugs and violent acts, and justified as their nature as oppose to Caucasian people who were in the news for school shootings, but justify their act of violence as a psychological problem. Different influences in the Prison Industrial Complex are being used to target women, people of color and immigrants.

When the government uses the media to make Americans fear a certain race it causes these problems of injustice. When you look at the incarceration rate and the reason they are incarcerated you will understand that the government are not trying help but to profit. Arresting drug users, aren’t solving an issue of their drug problems. Resolving the issues of drugs is finding the reasons people are using drugs. The Prison Industrial Complex is a business between industries and the government.

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People of Colour and Systematicall Injustice. (2016, Aug 18). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/people-of-colour-and-systematicall-injustice/

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