Racial Hierarchy Maintained By Dominance and Power

If conflict theory states that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity, American history and our political climate certainly support that idea. Contrary to popular opinion, I do not think that the privileged (celebrity, wealthy, elite) shape or define the law, rather the penalization of criminal infractions are not evenly distributed. Therefore, it is within the realm of rationality to assert that law and the implementation of policy is subjective. The basis of this subjectivity, though abundant, racism and socioeconomics remain at the forefront. The question no longer becomes what is criminality, but how do we as a collective society define criminal. Empirical evidence shows us that if you are a black man, the probability you will experience stop and frisk, get arrested and serve jail time is significantly higher than that of your white counterpart. This same evidence also debunks the perception that blacks are more likely to commit crimes, which is in direct contradiction to the narrative of black criminality; they are however, more likely to get penalized. What does this truly say about how “criminality” is defined not only by our law but by society? Why is it that Brock Turner can serve a 30-day jail sentence for the rape of an unconscious woman and not a single officer served time for the death of Freddie Gray? The criminal justice inequality in America has fueled groups like the Black Lives Matter movement in the same way it did for the Black Panther Party during the Black Power Movement in the late 60s. These resistance groups erupted and gained notoriety as a direct response to this perpetuation of state violence against black and brown communities. Ta-Nehisi Coates believes that if there is an answer to contemporary racism, it lies in confronting the past. If we are to understand the significant of his statement we must look towards Michelle Alexander, as she thoroughly researched mass incarceration in her book, The New Jim Crow, and found that there are more black men under correctional control than there were under slavery. Let that sink in. It is difficult to see the criminal justice system as anything other than a tool used to systematically disenfranchise, marginalize and render citizens, disproportionately people of color, to permanent 2^nd class citizens. Mass incarceration and policies enforced against communities of color are used to create and maintain racial subordination. We continue to impose this racial hierarchy, when we prosecute former convicts once they have served time. We see this in the form of limited employment, which requires acknowledgement of a previous felony on job application. We see this by restricting and in some states outright banning their right to participate in elections. If we remove a citizen’s right to participate in a core function of our democracy, what purpose or contribution can they serve when the law has stamped their being as expendable? James Baldwin warned that, “the most dangerous creation of any society is that a man has nothing to lose.” History shows us that the subjugation of racial subordination is a necessary function of our economic structure. Mass incarceration continues to perpetuate the trend of free labor under the verbiage of the 13^th amendment that outlawed slavery, “except as punishment for a crime.” The privatization of our prison industrial complex, ensures a social order by domination, just as chattel slavery did at inception of this country. The system of caste, specifically by race, has not disappeared from the American conscious, but has become more effective in terms of oppression.