Institutional Racism and Mass Incarceration: Revised

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Written By: Tori Palmberg

            Growing up in a predominantly white community, I did not have the opportunity to develop many friendships with those of color. However, as a young woman in my 20’s, I did become very close to a young black boy in our community when I was working at a preschool in our town. He became an important part of my life, though his struggle has been very painful to watch. At 4 years old, Joe was full of energy and was already getting into trouble. He had been sent home repeatedly for hitting his playmates, yelling, and defying authority. As this young boy grew, his teachers branded him as too much trouble and the boy found himself repeatedly suspended from school and eventually expelled. By age 13, he found himself in trouble with the law and incarcerated in an out of town juvenile hall in French Camp, California. Out on probation, the juvenile continued to get into trouble. By age 18, he had committed a burglary and was charged with his first felony. Now, at age 20, he is still on probation trying to make better choices, but still having difficulty. Sadly, Joe has been incarcerated for more than three years of his adolescence and has been to adult jail twice.

            Throughout his life, Joe was repeatedly labeled, ostracized, called names, stereotyped and even physically attacked because of his race. He had no real family in the area and there were few families of color for him to identify with. Joe’s barriers to success in life, are due in part to the individual and structural racism he has experienced throughout his life. 2013 statistics from Kiddata.org, on juvenile felony arrest rates, shows that African American youth in California disproportionately have the highest arrest rate at 30.3 per 1,000 compared to the next highest group which is Hispanics at 7.7. Whites have the lowest arrest rate at 5.5 per 1,000. Sadly, Joe’s story is all too common as the issue of mass incarceration and the number of young black men incarcerated in the United States is without parallel.

            When comparing US incarceration rates in terms of race, the statistics are quite unsettling. According to data published by Sociology Professor, Tonya Golash-Boza in her book Race and

U.S. Census Bureau 2008

Racisms: A Critical Approach, in 2009, the imprisonment rate of white males was 487 per 100,000 of the population, as compared to 1,193 per 100,000 Latino males and 3,110 per 100,000 black males. In fact, by the end of the twentieth century, black men were seven times more likely than white men to go to prison (Golash-Boza, 2015). This data suggests that race and a pervasive system of inequality are direct correlates of the disproportionate number of young black men and other men of color we see behind bars.

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            In today’s society, we can still see the persistence of racism in spite of laws that no longer allow it. The current system of laws and policies governing our states do not explicitly mention race, but are designed to benefit whites over blacks nonetheless, all the while preserving the possessive investment in whiteness. Statistics show that Blacks and minorities have higher arrest rates and receive harsher sentences for their crimes as opposed to whites. In addition, we can see the persistence of racism in our urban schools which are racially segregated with lower standards and a severe lack in funding (Golash-Boza, 2015). Stereotypes and individual racism including daily micro aggressions also demonstrate how racial discrimination is pervasive in every day society. Judging others by the color of one's skin only serves to perpetuate the current racial ideologies. Furthermore, the covert nature of today’s colorblind racism, as opposed to the overt nature of racism during the Jim Crow Era makes racism more convoluted and sometimes harder to recognize. If you don’t explicitly know that you are being outright discriminated against, how can one be sure that they are the target of racial inequality? Current events surrounding the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner have thrust racism into the spotlight as blacks and minorities struggle to find justice in a Neoliberal society that refuses to acknowledge its transgressions.