Components of Mass Incarceration Essay

flock incarceration of African Americans is cardinal of the biggest problems that we as a society manifestation today. Many of our African American men argon either in lock away, or on parole for crimes that ar committed by whites everyday. police force often overlook those crimes when it comes refine to whites but they do non for shadowys. therefore why a lot of black men are scatty from our society and locked away in prisons for years for such minuscule crimes. Yes they ingest committed a crime and need to be punished, but, at the like time white men are walking around committing the analogous crime, where is their punishment? black lovage raises these very pertinent points in The New Jim Crow. The leash components of down incarceration are denial, mainstream media and historical influence.Alexander states, Today approximately Americans know and dont know the truth about caboodle incarceration.(181). What this means is that as a society Americans are either blind or oblivious to the fact that there is a lack of study of how mass incarceration affects the African American communities. In many African American households they are missing father figures due to the fact that they are in jail. As Alexander mentions denial plays a huge graze in this. We know that a large number of African American males are in prison by watching mainstream media but provided we dont care enough about it. According to Alexander we tell our self that they deserve it.(182). Americans have been painted a enactment to see African American men as a whole, as criminals especially when it comes to drugs. When in fact white males are prone to do the exact same crimes and non be targeted by police. Mainstream media helps to greatly add together to these lies that we are cosmos fed about mass incarceration.Shows such as Orange is the New Black depict a different story. The render focuses on a Caucasian woman who is in jail for soliciting drugs. firearm she is in ja il they show you a very multiracial and assorted group of woman. Shows like these help to contribute to why we believe that prisons are filled with not only blacks but also a long variety of ethnicities One thing that the show just briefly touches on that Alexander talks about in great lengths is how mass incarceration traps African Americans. Orange is the New Black showed the viewers in one episode a very real side of the prison career when they just slightly touch on the story of a black woman who was released from prison on effective behavior and she gets out in to the real world and she has no family, no where to turn and she can not get a job due to her prison record and she ends lynchpin up in jail.When she gets back in jail she screams, Im home. This is exactly what Alexander spends majority of her essay speaking about, she says that we are confine in a birdcage. She says this because no field how we try to beat the strategy we are always going to be trapped no matter what we try to do. Historical influence has and will always be a part of African American history. As Alexanders backing of her article is The New Jim Crow. She feels as if the prison system is another give of Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were established to keep black men down which are exactly what the prison systems are doing according to Alexander. She states Jim Crow and mass incarceration have political origins.(190).She continues to say that the white elites desire to action these black men and how mass incarceration is similar to a circle system (190). Alexander thinks that mass incarceration is a trap so to speak and how they catch these black men and put them in jail is like a modern day Jim Crow. The only difference is that it does not seem so racist and the people are giving the fallacy that mass incarceration is actually protecting them. Alexander raises many good points in her article about mass incarceration. Without all the misleading teaching that you see in the media about the prison systems being a garland of many different races would we, as Americans still feel safe? Or would we feel in a way like we are being subjected subliminal racism?