1. Michelle Alexander offers a condensed history of shifting race relations and racism in the U.S., from slavery to Jim Crow to an era of "law and order" to the current era of incarceration. Alexander argues that, in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement, public discourses about "law and order" exploited fears of black crime, and linked poor people and neighborhoods to crime.
a. Which Perspective on Poverty does this remind you of?
b. Choose one example from the Alexander chapter and explain how it cracked down on crime and poverty at the same time.
2.•Institutional racism is rooted in social institutions - such as governmental organizations, schools, banks, policies, laws and legal practices that have the net effect of depriving a racially identified group equal access to education, medical care, law, politics, housing, criminal justice, etc. etc. - (Louis L. Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt, editors, Institutional Racism in America (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969).
•Institutional racism is generally long-term, cumulative and difficult to overturn.
•Institutional racism can be subtle and often manifests itself in seemingly indirect, innocuous ways.
•Individual racism is rooted in individual and personal biases against certain racial and/or ethnic groups.
For instance, the stop and frisk policy was an example of institutional racism because the policy targeted high crime neighborhoods. For historic and contemporary reasons we learned in class, these neighborhoods also tended to be racially segregated. Their populations were predominately African American and Hispanic. As a result, people of color were constantly under surveillance and far more likely to be stopped and frisked.
However, no neighborhood is 100% black, white, Hispanic, etc. So, a police officer's choice to stop and frisk a black person vs. a white person is an example of individual racism or bias.
Based on these definitions and your readings, please identify:
a) An example of institutional racism in the criminal justice system.
b) An example of individual racism in the criminal justice system.