DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND CRIMINALIZATION

CRIMINALIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS AND LATINOS

BY STUDENT

There has been a movement throughout the millennial generation of modern day America. This movement has pointed out many injustices in our judicial system and shined a light on systematic racism in our country. Unfortunately, African Americans/ Latinos are on the short end of the stick in terms of this systematic racism and this has been a trend throughout our country's history. Looking back towards the 19th/20th century, African Americans and Latinos were abused and used in order to benefit middle class, ethnic whites. In 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed which allowed African Americans to flee to the North to fight against the South. This was the start to the 13th-15th amendments, abolishing slavery and allowing African American men to vote, tipping the scale of socioeconomic America. Because a majority of ethnic whites in America at this time felt threatened by these amendments, lynching’s of African Americans because frequent throughout the country. At this point in history, the police became a combative force for racism, which was a central starting point for systematic racism in this country.

African Americans and Latinos all across America have been affected by this systematic racism. Jeff Guo of the Washington posted sparks a fact saying, “the prison population has quintupled. [Due to] disparities in arrests and sentencing, this eruption has disproportionately affected black communities. Black men are imprisoned at six times the rate of white men. … For some high-risk groups, the economic consequences have been staggering. According to Census data from 2014, there are more young black high school dropouts in prison than have jobs.” (Washington Post, Feb. 26). People have argued that many African Americans have been freed of “slavery” but are yet still slaves to the system we have in America. Law enforcement have served the capitalistic middle class interests’ which is a major reason why we have so many men of color being marginalized in prison to this day. These men that are already at higher risk of being marginalized in prisons would then be working for major corporations for basically slave wages.

As Muhammad points out in his book The Condemnation of Blackness, “police officers were often on the wrong side of the law.” (249). The racial inequality in the U.S. can also be seen in the unemployment rate of African Americans. Every socio-economic aspect of the criminalization of African Americans/Latinos play a part to criminalization. “Taking at least 2.2 million people out of society profoundly affects the rates of poverty and labor exploitation and further marginalizes large segments of the working class and poor by the U.S, ruling class.” (Abayomi Azikiwe). In order to make progress, everyone in America needs to fight the system and help every single American from discrimination. 

Works Cited:

"The racist criminalization of African Americans." Workers World. N.p., 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard U Press, 2011. Print.