“Slangin’ Rocks” Objective Summary “Slangin’ Rocks” by Robin D.G. Kelley, is an opinion essay about the treatment of “people of color” by United States law enforcement, in a historical and modern sense. The purpose of the essay is to persuade the reader to agree with the belief of the author, that U.S law enforcement treats “people of color” unfairly, and that the system itself needs to be changed. The essay begins with the author describing his own experience with law enforcement, which provides him with credibility on the topic and provides insight into why the essay was written (Kelley 21-23). The author’s personal story provides the reader with a specific example of how “people of color” are treated unfairly by law enforcement, and that …show more content…
Kelley, is an opinion essay about the treatment of “people of color” by United States law enforcement, in a historical and modern sense. This essay was very eye opening to me personally, because I have been somewhat sheltered to this in school and at home. The author’s experience showed me how awful police treatment can be, even if no crime was committed. The historical perspective of the essay showed me that we as a nation have progressed, in terms of race relations, but we still have a long way to go. The essay often discusses how bad things were in the south, which made me think about my family history, coming from a small town in the southeast corner of Tennessee. The essay also talks of lynching and “vigilante justice”, which can be very easily connected to “To Kill a Mockingbird”. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, there is an attempted lynching of Tom Robinson, on the sole basis of his race. The essay also discussed law enforcement branding black men as rapist, much like the brute stereotype in “Ethnic Notions”, and our need to protect white women from black men. I found this extremely hypocritical, as most interracial relationships were between a white man, and a black woman, and were not consensual. Kelley also discusses the systematic racism, and political corruptness within law enforcement, which shows how bad racism is. I found it particularly disgusting when the L.A. police chief tried to blame the deaths of black men on their anatomy, and how if they were normal they would’ve been fine. This essay was very eye opening for me, and will change the way I look at law enforcement, and even my own family
Buehler, J. W. (2017). Racial/ethnic disparities in the use of lethal force by US police, 2010-2014. American Journal of Public Health, 107 (2), 295-297. In Buehler’s article, he attempts to disprove a study that found no racial disparities in killings that law enforcement were responsible for.
Introduction Theoretical assumptions about diversity and contact theory inform the view that a more ethnically diverse criminal justice system will reveal a broader range of voices that can shape and influence policy and attitudinal changes for the better. The focal point of this essay is on the law enforcement branch of the criminal justice system. It makes the argument that diversity in the police force can help reduce levels of racial and ethnic bias as well as disproportionality to the extent that diversity is able to change or influence the occupational and institutional structures that create these disproportionalities. To make this claim, this essay will first show that there are indeed disproportionate outcomes in policing and attempt
Jason Ke ENG2D1 Ms.Doak 11 March 2022 Racism and police brutality As humanity progresses, we become more inclusive of those who are different from us, but there are still many communities around the world that hold heavy discrimination, and if you add some police corruption on top of that, you end up with Starr’s life from "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas. Have you ever heard of racism? Or uncontrollable police violence? Have you ever witnessed racism?
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.
We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way
In her book, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander who was a civil rights lawyer and legal scholar, reveals many of America’s harsh truths regarding race within the criminal justice system. Though the Jim Crow laws have long been abolished, a new form has surfaced, a contemporary system of racial control through mass incarceration. In this book, mass incarceration not only refers to the criminal justice system, but also a bigger picture, which controls criminals both in and out of prison through laws, rules, policies and customs. The New Jim Crow that Alexander speaks of has redesigned the racial caste system, by putting millions of mainly blacks, as well as Hispanics and some whites, behind bars
The abrupt increase in unarmed African American police brutality is cause for concern. Race is an uncomfortable topic. However, despite gradual, punctuated improvements
One of the oldest topics of unrest concerning equality and justice is race. The recent spike in racially discriminatory actions taken by law enforcement agents in the United States has caused much controversy (Von Drehle 29). For the sake of establishing solid grounds for discussion, it is of utmost importance
Throughout history, disputes and tensions between law enforcement officials and communities of minorities have endured hostility and violence between each other. Racial profiling has become a “hot topic” for researchers as well as for politicians and by now it is likely that most citizens are at least aware of the common accusations of racial bias pitted against law enforcement (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Communities of color are being discriminated against and racially profiled by white police officers for any suspicion of criminal activities. It has been widely assumed by policy makers and citizens alike that allegations of racial profiling are mostly associated with the policing practices of white officers and their treatment of racial and ethnic minorities (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Also, individuals of minority descent will certainly recognize that they are being racially profiled during a stop that is being conducted by a white police officer.
These questions theorize that Knighton was wrongfully executed because he a different pigment than the victim and the jury. Bruck further delineates with an analogy about how it did not matter who paid for the crime, “Knighton was picked out to die the way a fisherman takes a cricket out of a bait jar. No one cares which cricket gets impaled on the hook.” The cricket analogy exemplifies that the government’s legal system is random and chaotic thus presenting that citizens cannot trust a system that is arbitrary and unjust. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman.
One of the greatest challenges law enforcement are facing is providing effective policing for minority communities. Some factors that prevent minorities from gaining access to justice or being taken advantage of certain criminal justice services are language barriers, racial stereotyping, and cultural differences. Since the 30 's and 40 's, and even during the 60 's, civil rights activists damaged the police-minority relations in the United States, believing that police only interest are protecting white communities. A big explanation of why there 's a poor police-minority relations in the United States is racism on the part of the individual officers. Many minorities in the United States have continued to complain about being treated more harshly than whites and the Department of Justice believes that racial profiling and police discrimination will continue to be a big problem.
The revolutionary Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, once described discrimination as “a hellbound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.” His point being that African Americans face racial discrimination on a daily basis. Brent Staples, being an African American living in America, expresses his view on the subject in his essay “Just Walk on By”, where he conveys the message of how fear is influenced by society's stereotypical and discriminating views of certain groups of people; his point is made clear through his sympathetic persona, descriptive diction, depressing tone, and many analogies. Staples sympathetic persona helps the reader feel and understand the racial problems that he experiences daily.
Synthesis Research Paper Everyday growing up as a young black male we have a target on our back. Society was set out for black males not to succeed in life. I would always hear my dad talk about how police in his younger days would roam around the town looking for people to arrest or get into an altercation with. As a young boy growing up I couldn’t believe some of the things he said was happening. However as I got older I would frequently hear about someone getting killed by the police force.
An occurrence observed by the population of Los Angeles, California conveys the existence of racism and police brutality. According to The Polls-Trends: Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward the Police, “…three quarters of blacks, but only 38 percent of whites, continued to view police brutality as a common occurrence” (Tuch and Weitzer
The rise in violent conflicts between the citizens of the United States and the police is the issue that I want to solve. Due to my own age, race and gender, I am very well aware that I may be personally and directly impacted by this issue. The interaction between people of color and law enforcement in America is a key aspect of this larger issue. This issue has two main viewpoints: (1) that of people of color and, (2) that of law enforcement. While these two viewpoints overlap and intersect at several points, I believe them to be separate problems, each caused by different things.