Study Settles It: Shocking Black & Latino Imprisonment Rates the Result of Racist, Punitive Impulse

AlterNet

How racist attitudes barely hide beneath the surface of 'tough on crime' policies.
April 21, 2010

For decades, journalists, scholars and activists seeking to understand the soaring number of people locked up in U.S. prisons over the past 40 years have uncovered -- or just looked clearly enough to see -- overwhelming evidence of systemic racism at every level of the criminal justice system. Yet, there has been a wide reluctance to name racism as one of the primary factors fueling the prison boom; as sentences have gotten longer and parole granted less often, even the starkest racial statistics -- like the fact that African Americans and Latinos make up 70 percent of the incarcerated population -- have often been treated as an unfortunate byproduct of the war on drugs.

Now, two criminologists have concluded, in a new study investigating public attitudes behind harsh sentencing, that the warehousing of African Americans and other minorities is no accident. Rather, "racial resentments are inextricably entwined in public punitiveness." In other words, racism and the rise of "tough on crime" policies go hand in hand.

James Unnever of the University of South Florida-Sarasota and Francis Cullen of the University of Cincinnati acknowledge the "lengthy roster" of previous studies on race and the U.S. prison system; yet theirs manages to contribute something crucial to the current debate: "… [G]iven the large body of research that documents a substantive association between punitiveness and racial animus," they write, "it is somewhat disconcerting that theories of the mass-incarceration movement do not place race and racism at the center of their explanation for why the United States imprisons so many of its citizens."

This conclusion echoes the work of civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander, who, in the introduction to her new book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, admits that even she was once skeptical of how central racism was to the rise of the modern American prison system. "Quite belatedly, I came to see that mass incarceration in the United States had, in fact, emerged as a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow."

Alexander argues that the U.S. prison system has so sweepingly and consistently targeted African American men that it has effectively created a new racial caste system. That most Americans would deny such a caste system exists speaks to how insidious it is. "Like an optical illusion," she writes, "one in which the embedded image is impossible to see until its outline is identified -- the new caste system lurks invisibly within the maze of rationalizations we have developed for persistent racial inequality."

Unnever and Cullen's study makes it that much easier to see what Alexander describes.

A very good article from AlterNet and definitely an important one.
Especially these days because racial and cultural sentiment are often used to fuel extremism.

And it's not just a matter of racism but also cultural clash, between the muslim culture and the western culture. The current economic condition is certainly not helping either. The seeds of conflicts are everywhere, inside and outside, and it's possible that someone out there wants to take advantage of this situation.

In before all the denunciation. I for one agree wholeheartedly, the system has always been set up this way. It doesn't mean that you can't avoid it as a minority it just means you have to be a lot more careful to avoid it.

People always want to make light of slavery, the Holocaust, and the genocide of the native American when these are all still relevant to what's going on now. The implications of hundreds of years of horror cannot be so easily dismissed, it still affects peoples concious behavior today.

"400 years of history, could not be wiped so easily"
Bob Marley

Actually the high number of Latinos and Blacks in prison can be explained simply, they are the ones committing the crimes, sorry the Race Card just doesn't play like it used to before the democrats decided to use it as their number one ploy when dealing with the American people.

reply to post by Eagleheart56


I agree. Crime is a result of economic condition and the minority groups are in a recursive downward economic spiral. They commit more crimes because of their condition and that condition then propagates to their children. The parties enjoy their continued servitude and loyalty and have no interest in helping them out of that condition. The more they get pushed on to government programs and the more they are dependent on the government for their survival the better it is for the parties and for the wealthy. I don't see any conspiracy in the courts. Its a conspiracy out of D.C.

Originally posted by Eagleheart56
Actually the high number of Latinos and Blacks in prison can be explained simply, they are the ones committing the crimes, sorry the Race Card just doesn't play like it used to before the democrats decided to use it as their number one ploy when dealing with the American people.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best.

I don't see too many White people flooding the prisons of countries with predominately Black populations. I wonder why?

[edit on 22/4/2010 by Dark Ghost]

Originally posted by Dark Ghost

Originally posted by Eagleheart56
Actually the high number of Latinos and Blacks in prison can be explained simply, they are the ones committing the crimes, sorry the Race Card just doesn't play like it used to before the democrats decided to use it as their number one ploy when dealing with the American people.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best.

I don't see too many White people flooding the prisons of countries with predominately Black populations. I wonder why?

[edit on 22/4/2010 by Dark Ghost]

Because typically white people don't live in predominately black populations. How many white people do you think are citizens of a country like Ghana?

reply to post by Eagleheart56


No offense but you do not know what you are talking about. You are ignorant.

Edit: Rather than use murky recollected figures I couldn't source, here are some I found in another Alternet article from 2007:

According to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African Americans make up an estimated 15% of drug users, but they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Or consider this: The U.S. has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70%) of them are black or Latino.

This could be partly explained by the fact that blacks tend to be poorer and live in highly populated urban areas and therefore their activities would be subject to more police patrols and they would lack the financial means to fight a court battle. This is only part of the reason though, blacks are specifically profiled by police who pull them over at higher rates, demand intrusive searches more with them, etc.

It also does not explain why blacks are then prosecuted at higher rates for drug crimes among their own race compared to whites and convicted at higher rates for drug crimes compared to whites.


Our "justice" system is racist. If you couldn't see that before then you were just ignorant. If you can't see that now and you are unwilling to follow up on what I have written then you are either lazy and/or a racist.

Need I remind you that marijuana was initially demonized and made illegal through racist attacks on its users Mexicans and Blacks who would steal white women...

[edit on 22-4-2010 by Bobbox1980]

[edit on 22-4-2010 by Bobbox1980]

Originally posted by UncivilCivilian
Because typically white people don't live in predominately black populations. How many white people do you think are citizens of a country like Ghana?

Yes, that is true. But White people that do are more likely to be victims of crime in a predominately Black population, compared to the number of Black people who fall victim to crimes in predominantly White populations.

I guess one should also factor in that some countries are Developed while others are Underdeveloped. Data coming from a Developed country is likely more reliable. There are not too many Developed countries where White people are minorities, so it is hard to judge and compare really.

[edit on 23/4/2010 by Dark Ghost]

Thank goodness SOMEONE is making peoplez aware of this American atrocity. It's so painfully obvious for so long that only the most inured racists can't see it. I remember studying criminal justice waaay back in undergraduate school, and my professor was pointing that out to us and this was the early 90's! Some really relevant statistcs on this is the FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR). It's the primary statistical indicator for crime and punishment in the US....not so good on crimes, because it only counts reported crimes and no one can really figure out how to "guess" how many crimes go unreported, but they do have the most accurate conviction and imprisonment count of any reporting instrument in the country.

www.fbi.gov...

What a pile of it! Let's see...you commit murder, armed robbery, sell significant volumes of drugs, repeatedly beat people up, commit extortion, steal cars or whatever is not nailed down, and you want to blame whitey because you are in jail or prison? Oh, and we're also responsible for black on black, asian on asian, and latin on latin crime. Eat my shorts.

Don't you think it is a bit of both? Don't you think blacks and hispanics committing more crimes intensifies racism, which affects sentencing, which breeds more crime in their communities? It clearly is a self perpetuating system of repression, albeit one that could be broken by better behavior from the repressed. Why do we have to polarize this issue? Why can't we just examine it intelligently instead of playing it as a right/left thing?

reply to post by deadred

What a pile of it! Let's see...you commit murder, armed robbery, sell significant volumes of drugs, repeatedly beat people up, commit extortion, steal cars or whatever is not nailed down, and you want to blame whitey because you are in jail or prison? Oh, and we're also responsible for black on black, asian on asian, and latin on latin crime. Eat my shorts.

Then tell me why selling crack carries a stiffer and longer prison sentence than regular coc aine? Or how how fast the gov put out regulations on ingredients to make meth? Heh, i didn't need a study to know this...i can just go by the word on the street..

While there are [were?] laws with racial overtones,

is it not also possible that it is, in large part, a factor of economics

a bifurcating economics that does itself stem from racism?

Both in terms of economic & educational opportunity as well as not being able to hire good/better lawyers.

The drug laws by the way are communist laws that have the government treating your body & what you do with it as central planning government communism property.

The drug laws are inherently anti-capitalist.
They should be repealed both on ethical grounds as well as economic grounds.

As long as you are not trespassing or infringing someone else's rights, person or property, you are free to do as you please,

or at least you would be if the USA was actually a freedom loving liberated nation.

[edit on 23-4-2010 by slank]

reply to post by Eagleheart56


There may be some truth to your statement. Minorities may be more likely statistically to commit crimes like robbery, murder, and assault.

However, many of those people are in prison for drug offenses. Police tend to focus their resources on busting young minorities in the inner city for drug offenses. They tend to ignore well to do whites. If the police put as much resources toward busting trust fund brats for coc aine possession as they did towards busting minorities for crack possession, you might not see as many minorities in the prisons.

reply to post by hotpinkurinalmint

If the police put as much resources toward busting trust fund brats for coc aine possession as they did towards busting minorities for crack possession, you might not see as many minorities in the prisons.

Or, perhaps Congress and the state legislatures could get a clue and repeal most of these stupid statutes designed to fight a "war on drugs". An article from the Washington Post dated February 29, 2008 had this to report:

More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year and the federal government $5 billion more, according to a report released yesterday.

Continuing with this:

With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving far-more-populous China a distant second, according to a study by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.

Why not save several billion each year and get over our prudish attitudes about drugs? Just a thought.

Study: East Haven Police Ticket More Hispanics

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Students at Yale Law School on Friday released an analysis showing that more than half of the tickets East Haven police issued along two main roads went to Hispanic drivers, even though Hispanics make up less than 6 percent of the population.

Their report comes as the police department faces a federal investigation into bias allegations.

The report, aided by Yale statisticians, also said East Haven police officers substantially underreported the number of tickets issued to Hispanic drivers by reporting most of them as white. It cited one officer as reporting virtually all of his tickets were issued to white drivers and none to Hispanics, although nearly 80 percent of his tickets were issued to Hispanic drivers.

Immigration reform is definitely on their way. National ID might also be in the works.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Yeah well the Secret Heartbeat of America exposes why they're not "saving" money:

CIA deals the drugs.

Prison slave labor provides free production for CIA front companies:

video.google.com...#

Originally posted by Eagleheart56
Actually the high number of Latinos and Blacks in prison can be explained simply, they are the ones committing the crimes, sorry the Race Card just doesn't play like it used to before the democrats decided to use it as their number one ploy when dealing with the American people.

It isn't that simple.
Especially when it comes to drugs.

There are just as many White drug users (lots more in fact) in this country than Black or Latino according to Federal government studies in the past. They just aren't being regularly searched, questioned, or harassed.

Since you wanted to throw in the Democrats, I'm going to just quote Conservative champion Rush Limbaugh on this one, since it was one of the most surprisingly honest moments dealing with the obvious disparity...and from such an unlikely source:

"What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too."

-- Rush Limbaugh show, Oct. 5, 1995

So many conservatives take his words as the gospel, well listen to him on this one too!

He's right.

You're kidding yourself if you think there aren't many recreational or habitual drug users in the suburbs that just aren't having their houses staked out and raided on a daily basis. If they searched everyone equally we'd have plenty of people sitting in jail on the same charges all across the racial spectrum.

I've come across plenty of White people that casually used or sold drugs and there is no difference between what they are doing or that guy the cops shake down in the ghetto and find a dime bag or a joint he planned on lighting up. Most of the time, they just simply wanted to get high. I'm not going into judging these people but in terms of the law they were all breaking it too.

It's funny though, after so long ago when people were shocked about the expose of crackheads on Wall Street, so many Americans live under the delusion of having it all figured out.

Denial ain't a river in Egypt.

- Lee

[edit on 23-4-2010 by lee anoma]

Originally posted by Dark Ghost

Originally posted by Eagleheart56
Actually the high number of Latinos and Blacks in prison can be explained simply, they are the ones committing the crimes, sorry the Race Card just doesn't play like it used to before the democrats decided to use it as their number one ploy when dealing with the American people.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best.

Even when it's the wrong answer?

Such a general statement is bound to be full of errors and there are Federal studies that already poke holes in it.

The simple answer is usually the one being fed to us.

- Lee

Originally posted by lee anoma
Even when it's the wrong answer?

Such a general statement is bound to be full of errors and there are Federal studies that already poke holes in it.

The simple answer is usually the one being fed to us.

- Lee

Actually, I have to disagree. Most people in this thread are advocating a simple answer to explain this issue (i.e. because we are racists and that is why!). That answer is not only simple, it also discourages debate on the issue. After all, if you do not agree that it is because of racism that these statistics exist, then you are inherently very racist yourself!

Simple reasons are fine when they are politically correct, but unacceptable when they are not. The media is full of simple explanations that are politically correct, so I would agree with that part of your reply.

[edit on 24/4/2010 by Dark Ghost]