Race, Crime, and Punishment

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Present Day

Many people attribute the passing of the Civil Rights Act with the end of the Jim Crow Era however, as during Reconstruction, more systemic measures were put into place. Jim Crow laws take on different forms in the present day. We are now a colorblind society, in which we take policies at face value without looking at the application of them. Laws put into place are designed to specifically target people of color, without explicitly saying so. Things like the War on Drugs and mass incarceration especially disproportionately affect people of color, as well as brutality at the hands of police officers.

The War on Drugs was put into effect by President Nixon and continued with President Reagan, starting in 1971. Mandatory minimum sentences were put into place for certain drugs, with the greatest disparities placed between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The two are the same drug in different forms, however one is much cheaper and the other is more expensive. People of color systematically earn less money than their white counterparts, and since crack cocaine is much cheaper, people of color buy it more. Powder cocaine is referred to as a white drug. The sentencing disparity between the two is 100-1, meaning 5 grams of crack cocaine receives the same sentence as 500 grams of powder cocaine, as established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. An article published by the ACLU details the sentencing disparity and the implications it holds for people of color (https://www.aclu.org/other/cracks-system-20-years-unjust-federal-crack-cocaine-law). These harsh disparities leads to the mass incarceration of black people because it takes so little of the drug to receive a minimum of 5 years in prison. What the War on Drugs does is ignore the underlying issues behind addiction and simply seeks to punish the offender instead of rehabilitation. According to the ACLU, black people make up 74% of those in prison on a drug sentence.

In the years following Nixon’s original coining of the term, audio recordings of a close official of his has been released stating the reasoning for declaring the War on Drugs was to disrupt “hippie and black communities.” They associated marijuana with hippies and heroin with black people. Because of that association made, there is always a reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk people of color. The stop and frisk policy has been going on since around the 1960’s, however in the 1980’s the courts allowed officers to “stop-and-question” as long as there was probable cause, whereas before the person had to have been arrested before or have a warrant out. This was amended to “stop-and-frisk” in the 90’s. This, along with broken windows policing, allows for the disproportionate searches and arrests of people of color for low level drug offenses. Under the guise of colorblindness, race cannot explicitly be used as a justification of criminalization so more systemic measures, like the War on Drugs, had to be put into place in order to maintain the supremacy.

Cases of police brutality seem to come up everyday, which each being different than the last. The case of Michael Brown sparked outrage and prompted protests nationwide. Michael Brown was an 18 year old who was stopped by officer Darren Wilson because he matched the description of a robber in the area. Regardless of what Brown did prior to being stopped, his murder is absolutely not justified. Brown was unarmed, and subsequently shot at least 7 times by the officer. Police are supposed to be trained in de-escalation, not shooting as soon as they feel threatened. If they are not adequately trained in how to handle situations that could turn violent, then they should not be police officers. This case is a prime example of the colorblind society we live in today. White people everyday are being arrested by police officers, but there are not nearly as many cases of police brutality. With people of color the answer seems to be shoot first, ask questions later. A study from the University of California concluded unarmed black people have a 3.49 times higher chance of being killed by police than white people do, unrelated to the crime committed. Because of this, there is very little confidence between police and people of color. How are people supposed to feel safe when those committed to protecting and serving them are doing the opposite? This lack of confidence also stems from the lack of accountability when a person of color is killed by an officer. Darren Wilson did not receive an indictment, the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King were found not guilty, the officer who killed Eric Garner was not indicted, and the list goes on. 

In Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, she writes about this new system of colorblindness and how it plays into the current criminal justice system. She writes “The genius of the current caste system, and what most distinguishes it from its predecessors, is that it appears voluntary. People choose to commit crimes, and that's why they are locked up or locked out, we are told... Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something virtually unheard of anywhere else in the world.” She details that while it appears voluntary, everybody makes mistakes. White people, more often than not, get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to that. Drug offenders should not be sitting in prison, serving mandatory minimum sentences for these non-violent offenses. The system is extremely flawed and systemically set up in a way in which it is very difficult for people of color to succeed. The only way to have some kind of hope in fixing this broken system is to completely take it down and restructure it, from the ground up.

[racecrimepunishment]

Reconstruction/Jim Crow Era

Following the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, people were scrambling to restore the supremacy between blacks and whites. More systemic practices were put into place. The entire point of the Jim Crow laws was to find legal ways of subjugating blacks to the same oppression they faced during slavery. Immediately following the abolition of slavery, freed blacks were forced to work on plantations once again for very low wages due to the vagrancy laws put into place during Reconstruction. The Southern economy and social order needed to be restored and officials, like Andrew Johnson, made sure it would happen.

Some of the laws that came out of the Jim Crow period were restrictions on voting, in the form of literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses. This website https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_start.html walks people though an interactive voting experience that a black person would have faced during this time period. People can take the literacy test and go on to the other restrictions imposed on voting. The literacy test made it so only those who could pass this very difficult and specific test could vote. It was illegal for black people to be educated or to have access to education during slavery, so the entire purpose was to disenfranchise minorities. The test was given to racial minorities much more than it was administered to whites, even though the initial claim was that it was applicable to both blacks and whites. Getting one question wrong meant that person could not vote. Scoring was up to the discretion of the grader, who could decide if a question was wrong or not. Even if a black person happened to pass the literacy test, there were many more tests and statutes required in order to vote.

Poll taxes forced people of color to pay a fee before being allowed to vote, which was often much higher than anyone could afford. Black people were not allowed to own property and had a very difficult time earning a substantial amount of money, most being forced to work on fields once again in order to get basic necessities like food and housing. If people could afford the poll tax, they would also be met with grandfather clauses. These made it so only those whose fathers or grandfathers had voted in an election before were eligible to vote. Since these were imposed so soon after the abolition of slavery, majority of black people had not had a family member vote before, thus barring them from voting once again.

During Reconstruction, Andrew Johnson allowed for the black codes to be put in place. These effectively controlled newly freed slaves in 1865/66 by forcing them to work for low wages. The Southern economy was in shambles following the abolition of slavery, as slaves were their main source of income. The Black Codes were aimed at restoring the economy and keeping race relations the same. The codes also barred blacks from owning property and criminalized those who were not working.

Social etiquette laws also became prevalent during Reconstruction, controlling every aspect of life for newly freed blacks. Blacks were referred to by their first names, while whites had a proper title. In terms of introductions, blacks were always introduced to whites, whites were not introduced to blacks. Black people couldn’t even touch white women, as black men were associated with having this uncontrollable sexual urgency for white women. Anything that implied social equality was prohibited--such as a black man reaching out to shake a white man’s hand. These etiquette laws controlled every aspect of life. A poem by Langston Hughes entitled “Merry-Go-Round” emphasizes the segregation imposed by Jim Crow etiquette, as he writes “On the bus we're put in the back--/ But there ain't no back/ To a merry-go-round!/ Where's the horse/ For a kid that's black?” He takes an innocent ride intended for children and applies the Jim Crow laws to that to emphasize how unjust it truly is.

A prime example of the danger of social etiquette laws is the case of Emmett Till, a 14 year old boy who was lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Accounts vary of what happened, with some saying Till was dared to flirt with a white woman and some stating the opposite. Regardless of what actually happened, a 14 year old boy should not have been savagely murdered and lynched. Till was beaten so brutally that his face was barely recognizable when they discovered his body. An all white jury acquitted the men who murdered him after only an hour of deliberation.

The rise of lynchings throughout the United States directly attributes to punishment, as it was seen as the proper way to punish criminals. Since black people were criminalized for doing almost anything, including attempting to vote, shaking hands with a white person, or even looking at a white woman the wrong way, they were disproportionately subjugated to lynchings by mobs. Immediately following the sentencing by a court, officers aided in transferring the prisoner to the mob. Lynching was extremely grotesque and horrific, as crowds of people stood around and made a public spectacle of it. Overall, the abolition of slavery did not end oppression but merely found legal ways to keep the old systems in place.

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Slavery

Slavery in the United States was legal until 1865, when it was abolished by President Lincoln. The brutality and absolute disregard for human life during that time period was astonishing, and still continues in different forms today. Black people were seen as property, allowed very limited freedoms, if any at all. The absolute hatred was much more obvious during this time period, as today everything is systemic and carefully planned out.

There was no hidden agendas during that time period. Black people were enslaved and considered property. Slaves were subject to capital offenses, even while not being considered humans. 73 capital offenses were applicable to black slaves while only one applied to whites, which was first degree murder. Anything slaves did outside of the very rigid caste system was considered a crime--social etiquette laws dictated black people couldn’t talk too loudly, light a white woman’s cigarette, hold meetings without a white supervisor present, etc. Punishment for breaking any of these laws was severe, resulting in beatings or death. Slave owners often paid for attorneys for their slaves, as it was seen as protecting an investment. Slaves were their property and the owners secured their investments so the work could continue.

The movie 12 Years A Slave depicts the horrors of slavery as told through the lense of Solomon, a free man in the North who was subsequently sold into slavery. One scene in particular shows Patsey, a female slave who is repeatedly raped by the plantation owner, get caught trying to get soap as the plantation owner’s wife won’t let her have any. As a punishment, Solomon is ordered to whip her close to death. That is the type of brutality slaves were forced to endure, for things as simple as trying to be clean. Another particularly brutal scene shows the sexual abuse Patsey was forced to endure at the hands of the owner. Slave women were often forcibly raped by the plantation owners, the ultimate act of dehumanization. The case of Celia especially pertains to this. She was a teenager in 1855 when she was pregnant for the third time with her owner’s baby. She warned him that she would protect herself if he tried to assault her again and, as a result, killed him the next time he tried to rape her. The judge in that Mississippi courtroom would not allow her to claim self defense, instead insisting that if she killed him she is guilty. Celia was sentenced to death after she gave birth to her baby. The rape of a woman in general was very difficult to prosecute, unless it was a black man raping a white woman. Because slaves were looked at as property, raping a slave woman was not regarded as a rape but as a man exercising his right over his property. Any child born with either parents being a slave was also considered a slave, so all of those children born as a result of rape were used to increase the slave population without having to buy more. The importation of slaves was also banned in 1808, so breeding with existing slaves was a financial move. 

The slave codes were established, varying state by state, to maintain the caste system put into place. The restrictions placed on to slaves were different based on region, with some laws banning slaves from leaving their plantations without consent from the owners. Breaching any of these laws was a capital offense. Runaway slaves who refused to surrender were killed without any consequences. Slave codes also enforced the slave patrols, which people were volunteered into in order to make sure slaves were adhering to the laws. It became the foundation for the modern day police force, as it was a form of policing. Patrols were to discipline slaves and find those who escaped. Slaves who were returned after being caught were at risk for being auctioned off to a different plantation. That threat meant being separated from their families, because owners did not want to deal with a slave who was constantly running away or being disobedient. 

This website http://www.understandingslavery.com/ provides an in-depth look at slavery not just within the United States but the entire world, along with the true horrors that slaves faced everyday. Those who want to learn more about this time period should look into all of the resources it has to offer. The physical abuse slaves endured at the hands of the plantation owners was to establish fear and maintain the superiority between the two populations.