CRIMINALIZATION
BY U.K.
Criminalization
of Latino-Americans can be seen as a type of racial profiling done by the
United States’ government. Latino-Americans, along with African-Americans and
other minorities are seen to be victims of mass imprisonment. With Hispanics
being the fastest growing group being imprisoned (Morin, 2008), it is almost as
if that instead of being innocent until proven guilty, Latino-Americans and
other minorities are guilty until proven innocent. Morin then elaborates how in
New York City, race has been used as a means to act along committed crimes done
by individuals in the city. This type of racial profiling created a disparity
of people being stopped by police officers. This again is proven to be the case
since in New York City, Latino Americans are stopped 39% more frequently than
white citizens. The reason I am writing this blog is to show how in today’s day
and age in New York City, racism is still built into the system. As our country
continues to progress and flourish, a problem still rises in that some aspects
of this country are not progressing and maybe in fact, regressing instead. Some
would say that there is no such thing as racial bias in our law enforcement. So
in order to perhaps put it in black and white, how is racism still predominate
in a city like New York City?
I would first
like to share more of Jose Luis Morin’s article about the trend of
Latino-Americans being imprisoned. From Morin’s article, history plays a role
in which it portrays initially African-Americans as inferior to white citizens
in the United States. This then spread to other minority groups. Race has
played a critical role in creating US laws and policies. With Latino-Americans,
one of the origins of discrimination for their race is when Anglo-Americans
gain territorial expansion after successfully projecting negative depictions of
Latinos during the era of the US-Mexican War. Fast forward to modern times
where this negative depiction is still present, where now it gives a sense of
validation to imprison Latino-Americans. It came a point where three of every
four inmates serving a sentence in New York were from seven specific black and
Latino neighborhoods in New York City, which coincidentally were the poorest
areas of Harlem, South Bronx, East New York and Brownsville. Morin concludes
about how to possibly overcoming the challenges Latino-Americans face by not
only hopefully see reform in the criminal justice system, but also create
educational and career opportunities in prison to strengthen family ties and
create productivity. But even in the realm of education and financial jobs do
Latino-Americans face hardship as well.
An article
from The Atlantic talks about how
schools feel like prison for some individuals. Public schools that serve
primarily to African-Americans and other minorities tend to have more
restrictive security, and is also common. Coming from a public school which had
a really high population of non-white students, not only was security more
predominant, but other security systems like metal detectors were also
implanted in my school. Schools with strict security creates an environment
where the students see themselves as “potential problems or threats”, rather
than just mere students. It is with this discrimination where education is
skewed for minorities, causing unfair treatment due to race. What’s ironic is
with this tight grip of surveillance is rampant in these minority rich public
schools, 62% of total school violence of the last 25 years were still from
white students. This then shows a perhaps greater problem of racial inequality,
where Latino-Americans and other minorities are just targeted and encaged
solely based on race. Another article from the Cosmopolitan address police brutality in the Latino community in
New York City. From their article, 68% of Latinos worry about police brutality
and 18% of Latinos have experienced police brutality. Some cases, police
brutality may be needed if certain criminals do not cooperate, but there is
absolutely no need of police brutality upon a family who were simply barbecuing
and listening to music from their boom box. The worst part is that these police
officers often face no penalty or punishment from their unneeded acts of
aggression. This and many more cases can serve as examples that show that
racism is therefore still relevant in a heavily progressive city. A case of
police brutality may come to end when in court, but for the Latino-Americans
targeted, will always go through the nightmare they have been swallowed in
which is also their reality.
Works Cited
Morin, Jose
Luis (2008), Latinas/os and US Prisons: Trends and Challenges, https://blackboard.albany.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2596874-dt-content-rid-12395604_1/courses/2173-ALCS-283-9097/latinos_US_prisons%20copy.pdf
(in class source)
Anderson,
Melinda D. (2016), When School Feels Like Prison,
Garcia,
Michelle (2015), Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About Police Brutality in the Latino
Community?
The idea you so clearly presented, that Latino Americans worry about being victims of police brutality just goes to show how deeply rooted systemic racism is entrenched in our society; where a population of citizens fears the law enforcement tasked at protecting them simply because crime has been linked to skin color.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think movements such as Black Lives Matter, or the increase in recording interactions with police officers have made headway in making minority population opinions heard and have gone about to make people of color feel respected and safer with law enforcement? Or has their only been a decline in the relationship between the law and minorities?