Is the Criminal Justice System Color Blind
The range in which racial discrimination
still exhibits itself in interracial nations such as the US implies that the
matter is deeply rooted within the society and getting rid of it proves
impossible. Racial prejudice or racism is the unfair treatment of people who
belong to a particular race or ethnicity. Alternatively, the term race is
defined as the grouping of individuals based on their physical or social attributes.
The physical qualities include the color of the skin, the condition of the
hair, and the body structure. On the other hand, the social difference is
primarily caused by the diverse cultures existing among people of the same
area. Therefore, it is perceptible that racism has established itself in
societies and is infiltrating most organizations. The criminal justice system,
consequently, is no exception to the intrusive racial bias (Neville, Miguel
& Derald 3). However, some people disagree that the criminal justice system
is discriminatory as they believe it is a color-blind institution where race
does not play a significant role in people’s life. On the contrary, there have
been cases of racism within the system due to the instance of having more African-American
and Hispanic prisoners than the white Americans. Hence, I tend to disagree with
the ideology which renders the criminal justice system fair with regards to
racial equality. In this context, the paper will discuss some of the arguments
and statistics provided to illustrate the racial disparity that pervades the
criminal justice system.
When I hear someone mentioning the word
color-blind, I conclude that they meant the inability of a person to
distinguish the difference between certain colors. Therefore, people who
indicate that the criminal justice institution exercises color-blindness, they
regard the system to be non-racists. In this case, such personalities believe
that the today society has moved beyond racial prejudice and the color of a person
does not matter anymore. Nonetheless, the ideology is up for debate since there
is a remarkable difference in how black and white folks perceive this agency
that was established by the government to control and impose penalties to those
who violates laws. Conducted research shows that there is still a considerable
gap that separates the black and white viewpoints on justice. When the black
person is skeptical about the exercise of fairness within the system, the white
people, on the contrary, believes the criminal justice institution is
essentially color blind.
Also, some statistics provided by implies
that approximately twenty-five percent of the white Americans compared to the
sixty percent of African Americans disagreed with the notion that courts always
give a fair trial to all persons. In this case, it is apparent that few white
people doubted the bias in the justice system, while a high number of black
people illustrated their skepticism on the same. The difference in the
viewpoints is because most people draw their perceptions from either personal
or vicarious experiences with the police and courts. Besides, those who think
that race does not matter in a person’s life usually associate the statement
with a vague reference to the famous Martin Luther King’s speeches.
Mounting data are illustrating how racial
inequality evidently occurs in all aspects of criminal justice. This is
attributed to the fact that more black individuals than whites are likely to be
incarcerated for a crime committed by both parties. As a result, most African
Americans especially the youth are likely to be arrested or harassed by police
who already conclude that they have committed the offense even before accessing
the situation. Reason being that the justice system and more so the whites
assume that blacks are more inclined to do a crime or are unlikely to abide by
the state rules and regulations. Consequently, the white individuals rarely
undergo this kind of unfair treatment and thus, the reason for their
acknowledgment on the criminal justice system being color blind.
According to Neville, a survey indicates
that in the United States, the criminal justice system distinctively works on three
different groups and that is, for the wealthy, the poor and the people of
color. Due to the social gaps, the rich people are mostly protected by the
system while the minorities become disadvantaged by the institution that does
not favor them. Therefore, the African Americans who are not only black but
also contributes mainly to the group that is seen to be poor, are
overrepresented within the criminal justice system. The occurrence of such
incidents implies that the disparity is more extensive and systemic than the
obviously discerned racial discrimination. Moreover, when people begin to adopt
the power-evasion perspective of color blindness on the reality of racism, they
are merely ignoring the issues surrounding the people of color. Furthermore, they
continue to support the social injustice that continues to create racial
problems.
In conclusion, it is evident that racism
continues to occur in societies. The criminal justice is one of the many
institutions in the United States that still depicts racial inequality.
However, the white people believe that the current trends do not judge people
by the color of their skin and thus, they find the justice system to be color
blind. On the contrary, the blank individuals disagree with the statement since
they still affected by the racial disparities within the criminal justice
system.
Work Cited
Neville,
Helen A., Miguel E. Gallardo, and Derald Wing Ed Sue. The myth of
racial color blindness: Manifestations, dynamics, and impact. American
Psychological Association, (2016): 3-19.
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