TOPIC: Caste
SOURCE: The last assignment that I
had to do in my history class brought up an interesting radio program with a
Dr. Michelle Alexander on how the prison industrial system in the US is our own
form of a caste system.
RELATION: “The population is stratified by a caste system, in which
individuals are assigned at birth to the ranked social and occupational groups
of their parents (Anthro 156).”
DESCRIPTION: I believe that Dr. Alexander’s main
thesis in both her book, “A New Era of Jim Crow”, and the radio discussion was
that our present idea that young black men have to be dealt with emerges from
our penal system; the penal system is a redesigned caste system for racial
segregation in the United States that is similar to the way Jim Crow laws were
enforced. The way that our penal system
is set up now is once you are in it becomes increasingly harder to ever get
out, especially if you are a male of color.
Once someone has been branded a felon, it becomes nearly impossible for
them to find legitimate employment because they have a criminal record. Statistics that Dr. Alexander shared in her
book stated that a white man with a criminal record is more likely to be hired
than a black man without a criminal record.
COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS: So imagine if you are a black male trying to
find work with a record? When someone is
released from prison, more often than not they have no money and nothing to go
to. What kind of an opportunity is that
to start your life over on a fresh track? It becomes very very difficult, and many
people have to return to their old habits just to make a livelihood. I support Dr. Alexander’s thesis because I too have personally
dealt with the preferences of the legal system, I just happened to fall on the
right side of the line being a white female college student. If a black or Latino man had been in the same
situation that I had been in, they probably still would have been incarcerated,
while I got off with 6 months of informal probation. I believe that there is a huge discrepancy in
our legal system and that it does not have its priorities in the right places
at all.
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