- M.Alexander explained her views and opinion openly during her discussion of War On Drugs. In other words, people are sent to jail with no logical reasoning or evidence, and then the issue it’s turned around to make the individual look like an actual criminal. In the article, she stated that black communities were created to be seen like the only race that did crime and participated in illegal activities when in fact it’s not that way. President Ronald Reagan administration hired staff to publicize such ideas to the public as a part of a ” strategic plan to build public and legislative support.” In fact, the goal here was to fill the public with ideas that black communities were the issue as to why the crime rates and drug rates were at high peak at the moment. But many theories and also facts started knocking these ideas down, such as the one that the CIA admitted in 1998 which consisted of having Guerilla armies from Nicaragua actively smuggling drugs into the United States that made there way conveniently to only black communities when the drugs on war started. Also statistics and studies showed that white people often commit more crime than people of color, yet the only ones being hardly punished are people of color. Which brings the idea in that the justice system is based off racism which has shown throughout many decades, but they are trying to cover it.
- M. Alexander states that that racial disparities in the rates of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes” because studies show that people of every color sell and use illegal drugs at very similar rates. Crime does not have a color, if anything surveys have shown ” that whites, particularly white youth, are more likely to engage in drug crime than people of color.” This is something that majority of the country would be shock to know, but in fact it’s true. But Major cities with high crime rates or drug related crimes have made it their duty to convey 80% of young African American men and implant criminal records that are impossible to now remove.
- I understand this phrase this way, America does not want to minimize crime or cares about stopping it. America feeds off control and power, and that’s why they do things the way they do, no matter who it affects. As M.Alexander stated in the article ” Sociologists have frequently observed that governments use punishment primarily as a tool of social control, and thus the extent or severity of punishment is often unrelated to actual crime patterns.” This quote explains the bizarre punishments the government uses for things that do not even correlate or make sense. Now a days someone who murdered another person gets less time than someone who was arrested for possession of a drug, and probably not even a big amount to sell, only for consumption. The government loves the idea of having someone’s fate in their hand specially a person of color or latino person.
- Southern racists governors tried to hide their racism and their obvious feeling of superiority to people of color by using the language ” law and order “, which in their defense they used that ” arguing that Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of civil disobedience was a leading cause of crime. Civil rights protests were frequently depicted as criminal rather than political in nature.” They used this idea to be able to convince people that in fact they were not racist and that segregation was the best option, but this was just a cover up to their racist behavior and ideas. Segregation was just a way for the Southern governors to feel in power and superior to others.
- Southerns strategies definitely still influence America politics now a days because there is a lot of people in the government that are strong believers of the Jim Crow, and have adopted these ideas as the correct way and norms. Some show their racist feelings and thoughts and are very open, but there are others that are hiding their belief due to hoe advanced the world now is, and how strong and independent African Americans now are and the power they withheld within the country if everyone comes together. Race had become, yet again, a powerful wedge, breaking up what had been a solid liberal coalition based on economic interests of the poor and the working and lower-middle classes. In the 1968 election, race eclipsed class as the organizing principle of American politics, and by 1972, attitudes on racial issues rather than socioeconomic status were the primary determinant of voters’ political self-identification.” The same ideas were once again brought up again and tried to be the main influence on voters once again.
