By Cristobal Villegas
Introduction
The United States of America in 2021 is the result of the decisions of past political leaders, resurgent social movements, and the creation and interpretation of laws. Whether you prefer the starting line to be 1619 or 1776, the nation the United States is today is greatly influenced by those of yesterday.
In 1789, James Madison proposed the Bill of Rights the the House of Representatives. Although the pivotal events that the United States would eventually face in the coming decades and centuries was most likely not in the mind of James Madison, he spoke to those in attendance with much vigor and compassion, especially to the Representatives in the room from the hesitant states that showed reluctance in supporting the proposed Constitution, "We ought not to disregard their (the gentlemen from the reluctant states) inclination, but, on principles of amity and moderation,... declare the the great rights of mankind secured under this constitution." [1] Although Madison expresses the equal benefit that all parties will receive from the passing of the Amendments, Madison emphasizes the need "to provide those securities for liberty which are required by a part of the community" as the "stronger motive" in persuading the hesitant. [2] By ensuring those with different interests are heard and included in the inception of the United States, the part of the community that was reluctant would eventually reunite.
Such a commitment in ensuring that a part of the community is recognized and given their chosen liberties feels lost in 2021.
Statistic
According to The Sentencing Project, in 2019 there were 2,185,008 people in prison and jail. For every one (1) white person imprisoned, there are about five (5) (4.8 to be exact) black people along with them. In Utah, there are about eight (8) black people imprisoned to one (1) white person. [3] The over-representation of incarcerated black folk must be put into context, as it is anything but a coincidence that the present racial disparities within the criminal justice system are the way they are. A 2018 publication by The Sentencing Project reports on the racial disparities in the American criminal justice system, "African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, and they are more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences." [4]
One can seek to blame the racially minoritized people and their actions for their respective predicament, however such an explanation is devoid of actual evidence and data, historical context, and social factors such as class. Although a concrete cause of the present racial and socioeconomic inequalities have not been solidified, black defendants are treated more harshly throughout the criminal justice system, including key points such as arrest, plea bargaining, jury verdicts, sentencing, and death penalties. [5]
Real-World Consequences
This takes us to the exoneration of the Groveland Four that occurred this week, as Florida officially cleared the four young black men wrongfully accused of raping a 17-year-old white girl in 1949, more than 70 years later. [6] Although none of the four men are living, the living family members and their attorneys share the racial bias against the men by stating that "the evidence strongly suggests that the sheriff, the judge and the prosecutor all but ensured guilty verdicts in this case." [7]
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| From left, Vivian Shepherd, a niece of Samuel Shepherd; Gerald Threat, a nephew of Walter Irvin; and Carol Greenlee, Charles Greenlee’s daughter, at a monument at the Old Lake County courthouse in Tavares, Fla., in 2020. |
Another story with a timely update is the pardoning of the “Martinsville Seven.” Seven young black men were executed in 1951, all by electrocution. Although the pardons were not necessarily for the placement of culpability, the Governor of Virginia gave the reasoning behind the pardon by explaining that the men “were tried without adequate due process and received a racially biased death sentence not similarly applied to white defendants.” [8]
Although these unfortunate applications of US law occurred over 70 years ago, racial disparities in death sentences and executions continue to persist into 2019. [9] Back in 1987, even the United States Supreme Court at the time recognized the harsher application of death penalties and death sentences toward black defendants. [10] (Check out number 4 in the "Further Readings and Resources" to learn more about the national and regional repercussions of the McCleskey v. Kemp case)
Optional Questions:
How can the concerns of a racialized "part" of the community be reconciled with a judicial system shaped, in-part, by racial bigotry?
Race is a social construct with real-world consequences, how can the criminal justice system be more fair to a person regardless of phenotypical characteristics?
Should justice be color-blind?How have you witnessed the criminal justice system be race-neutral? How have you seen it race-conscious?
How can existing social structures perpetuate unequal and unjust treatment of racialized people?
What can you do to reduce the harm caused by negative bias based on race?
Sources:
Further Readings and Resources:
2. Race and the Jury: Illegal Discrimination in Jury Selection (website) (pdf)
3. Racial Representativeness of Juries: An Analysis of Source List and Administrative Effects on the Jury Pool (pdf)
4. RACE AND PROPORTIONALITY SINCE MCCLESKEY V. KEMP (1987): DIFFERENT ACTORS WITH MIXED STRATEGIES OF DENIAL AND AVOIDANCE. David C. Baldus et. al., Race and Proportionality Since Mccleskey v. Kemp (1987): Different Actors with Mixed Strategies of Denial and Avoidance, 39 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 143 (2007)
5. Comparative Review of Death Sentences: An Empirical Study of the Georgia Experience, Baldus, D. Pulaski, C. Woodworth, G. Fall 1983. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Vol 74 Issue 3 Fall Article 2. (link to pdf)
"Wʜᴀᴛ ᴄᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴅᴜᴄᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴀʀᴍ ᴄᴀᴜsᴇᴅ ʙʏ ɴᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ ʙɪᴀs ʙᴀsᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ʀᴀᴄᴇ?"
ReplyDeleteTᴏ sᴜᴍᴍᴀʀɪᴢᴇ: Participate in, and encourage Bias Sensitivity Trainings in your workplace.
As a ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟ sᴛᴏʀʏ - Last week my lab prioritized watching the "Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Town Hall hosted by HCI's Office of EDI" for our team meeting. After we watched the whole Townhall together, we discussed ways to continue the conversation. It was decided the lab manager would schedule presentations from HCI's Office of EDI on a consistent basis.
Cᴏɴᴄʟᴜsɪᴏɴ: As individuals, we can recognize the moments to speak up and the moments to listen. Participate in initiatives like HCI's townhall to 1) learn and 2) encourage leadership to continue investing in elevating marginalized voices.
Thank you for your response, Jessica. I am happy to hear about HCI's Town Hall.
DeleteYou stated that "as individuals, we can recognize the moments to speak up and the moments to listen." How can such individuals reform/reformat a system laden with discriminatory action toward particular immutable appearances?
Institutions and systems have the capacity to insulate themselves with power-saving machinations. Although workshops and trainings are beneficial to the individual, what tactics can be implemented to improve an institution/system?
Thanks, Cristobal, for your thoughtful post. These are tough questions without concrete answers. And, you are right--they have been grappled with for centuries. I sometimes wonder why those who came to America in the quest for freedom chose to turn around and marginalize the freedom of others; why the rights in the U.S. Constitution have required so many laws to uphold them.
ReplyDeleteI remember the 60's. We seem to be on a repeat cycle. That disturbs me. Jessica, hats off to your group for taking action. I agree, we support and promote steps forward.
Cristobal, would like to hear your comments on the outcome of the Ahmaud Arbery case.
The last sentence in your first paragraph stuck out to me. Why does it take so many amendments, laws, rulings, etc. to uphold rights that were stated?
DeleteI personally think the reason behind the ever-growing clarification and deliberation of such rights is the allocation of power-- who has power, who does not have power, who can have power, who can lose power, who can...
Well, to be frank, I think it was a clear cut case. I think the evidence proposed by the prosecution was solid and that the correct verdict was made. I didn't really celebrate rather took a deep breath of relief. I had some friends celebrate, however.
Although they have all the reason in the world to rejoice, such excitement also underscores the sad state of affairs we live in. I do believe that many black folx do not receive justice because of the aforementioned reasons and inasmuch as I would like to revel in the verdict, there are many, many cases that have not met such an ending.
Cristobal, first off, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for talking about this. My life was forever changed by my experience with the justice system, and it was because of that experience that I was able to really learn how deep the institutional bias is and how our entire country and justice system was built on the backs of people of color. My eyes were opened, and I haven’t looked back ever since.
ReplyDeleteQ. How have you witnessed the criminal justice system be race-neutral? How have you seen it race-conscious?
Black bodies are policed differently than white bodies and are more likely to be arrested and sentenced to jails and prisons. Michelle Alexander (2012) explains: “The racial dimension of mass incarceration is its most striking feature. No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison (p. 6).”
A system that set up an entire community to fail in the passing of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, introducing mandatory minimum sentencing and the war on drugs is one that cannot be trusted with these Black children’s lives. How can our society even justify this, if not for blatant white supremacy and racism? Yes, I realize that our little prison was nothing compared to places within state systems and large maximum-security men’s prisons, but our little women’s prison still had more Black, Latina, Pacific Islander, Native American, and Asian women than it did white women and the disparities in sentences really did seem to depend on race.
Interestingly though, these white women seemed to not have to worry as much about being treated poorly by prison staff which lead to a distrust of those in charge of us. I cannot count how many times some officer would treat a white woman differently than they would anyone else there. I learned from experience something that scholars have done studies on regarding the perception of protection of inmates by the officers. Wooldredge and Steiner (2012) found that while inmates’ perceptions of bias were based on their race with white inmates feeling like the officers were there to protect them and all other races, Black inmates especially, felt cynical about the officers urge to protect them.
Continued...
You quoted M. Alexander and I could not agree more. The legal system of 2021 and subsequently, the criminal justice system, have been shaped by circumstances and attitudes by those in power. Although attempts to "reform" such systems have taken place, both by direct legislative actions and case law, the racialized consequence for some reason keeps falling on the marginalized and neglected.
DeleteThank you for sharing your experience with this oppressive system, as such knowledge is often underutilized and undervalued. The actions of those in power, although individually based, are propagated by policies and cultures based on supremacy of those with titles and those without. Rase, gender, class, ability, sexuality, etc. are used to reinforce such structures and to sow division within a certain collective, in your case the women that were incarcerated.
So much of our biases are shaped by the present environments and past experiences.
Q. What can you do to reduce the harm caused by negative bias based on race?
ReplyDeleteI am a white passing Mexican American who has absolutely benefited from my whiteness and the privilege that comes with it. I knew this before prison, and it was cemented into my mind while I was there. Here’s the thing; people who claim to understand racism and white privilege yet fail to admit their own whiteness, are part of the system and therefore, part of the problem. Newell (2015) uses a great metaphor about coins to explain it. In this metaphor, society has classes to teach people ways to open doors to get coins, yet many are born with those coins and do not have to take those classes. Everyone has the opportunity to get through the doors, but the rewards are distributed differently. White people are born with coins and no matter what they look like, say, or the actions they take, those coins will always allow them to open doors that others have to work to do.
When I got to prison, I thought speaking for others who were marginalized and discriminated against was what it took, not understanding that the very thought of ME speaking for others was my inherent bias coming through, displaying my privileged sense of superiority. I learned that I need to let people speak for themselves and to back them up in their stances. I need to use my privilege to speak to others in that same privilege and convince them to use theirs to help others. I learned that my experiences are not equivalent to others’ experiences, and I should not treat them as such.
Alexander, M. (2012). The new Jim Crow—Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.
Newell, B. M. (2015). Being a White problem and feeling it. In G. Yancy (Ed.), White self-criticality beyond anti-racism (pp. 121-137). Lexington Books.
Wooldredge, J., & Steiner, B. (2012). Race group differences in prison victimization experiences. Journal of Criminal Justice, 40(5), 358–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2012.06.011.
Great analogy! It is interesting. Thank you for sharing more about your identity, do you speak Spanish?
DeleteI do think that colorism within ethnic groups (and I am including European ethnicities) is a contributing factor to systematic and institutional oppression toward darker-colored skin folx. Whiteness is not monopolized by "white" people, rather it is a narrative that thrives from division and status quo and can be implemented by any person that is more light-skinned than the next.
Everyone does experience a form of oppression. Quantifying such experiences to delineate who is experiencing more is often not productive to the overall conversation of liberation. However, it is important to understand the diversity of experiences that are the consequence of living under a profit-seeking, power-hungry, and divisive society.
I don't speak Spanish but I really wish I did. My Grandmother used to tell a story about moving to Utah from Colorado when her two oldest boys were very young. They sent them to the local elementary school only to have the school send the boys back home until the boys could speak English. My grandparents were so angry this school treated their boys in this way, that they decided then and there that Spanish would no longer be spoken in the home. This meant that as they had more children, they would not teach them Spanish. I know my mother has some very negative feelings about the fact that she does not know the language but not because she feels she is missing out on something. It is the opposite. Her parents engrained in her that knowing Spanish was a bad thing and that if people assumed she did, they were looking down on her. To this day, if someone assumes she speaks Spanish, she gets offended.
DeleteThank you for sharing this blog. I want to share my experience that I went to Harlem, NY to visit my family friend a few years ago. Netflix released the "When They See Us" tv series, and I learned about "The Central Park Jogger" case in Harlem that year. Social media and politics gave a huge stigma that Harlem is the most dangerous city in Manhattan because it is a majority BIPOC. Police are everywhere in Harlem, and I feel like I can't breathe because I am not White.
ReplyDeleteShould justice be color-blind?
Firstly, I am truly proud that I am Mexican, but people see me as a White person because my skin isn't dark enough to be part of a Black group. I hate to see people mistreatment my dark friends, and I feel like the system's race is all based on White and Black without shade. This racial system needs to be changed to any race without targeting dark skins like "The Central Park Jogger." Five teenagers are innocent, yet the race system destroyed their life.
That was such a great series. Although, it was very difficult for me to watch. I definitely had to take breaks in watching it. As a Latino, I also benefit from a social-narrative that associates my skin color to affirmative qualities and "positive" stereotypes, although there are also negative sides.
DeleteNevertheless, I do not think we can ever get to a justice system that is color-blind, classless, agender, and fully accessible regardless of disability.
"What can you do to reduce the harm caused by negative bias based on race?"
ReplyDeleteI am a white, privileged, middle-class, middle-aged male human being. I have issues just like any other human. But I was born with fewer issues and obstacles than my non-white sisters and brothers or, in other words, most of my human family. A question for me is... how do I reconcile my certain advantages with the disadvantages of people of color, (plus, I might add, other classes of marginalized groups that face unfair and discriminatory practices)? Or perhaps, more importantly, how can I assist my human family members who face multiple unjust and inequitable systems no matter where those systems came from, or how they continue to evolve.
I say brothers and sisters and/or human family, because I honestly believe we are all intrinsically linked by blood, humanity and ancestry.
It's likely that this may all sound a little too altruistic, if not naïve. But where else can I start?
I'll do what I can in my work, among my family and elsewhere to enhance the positive opportunity of those less with few ad vantages than myself.
Thank you for sharing this sentiment. I hear a version of this thinking from people that outwardly-present and self-identify their race as white. I do think it is a step toward a direction that is full of hope and desire to uplift.
ReplyDeleteWhen conversing with such people about privilege, I ask, "what privileges, opportunities, and entitlements are you willing to risk for the liberation of others?" There are many answers to this question, but it is important for everyone, including myself, to continuously struggle in the pursuit of total liberation. Risking "small" privileges and building upon them can have last effect on the person and those in their inner circle. I would caution, however, that merely focusing on one social identity can obscure the multi-dimensional reality we all inhabit.
I encourage anyone to write out what they are willing to do, it can look something like this:
I am willing to risk my perception of reality. I will risk it by seeking out narratives, viewpoints, and experiences of others who are not like me and then, will ask questions to get to the root of issues that I perceive.