Stigma Against The Black Community Essay - 1593 Words

There is a negative stigma against the Black Community as a whole embedded into the American penal system. Stories about police officers shooting young, unarmed black men flood television screens and social media timelines while young black boys are left to wonder if they are next, left to wonder if they will be the next news headline or trending hashtag. In A Question of Freedom, a young Dwayne Betts faces the injustices of prison as a young, black male who was treated as an adult in the eyes of the law. He is forced to grow up in jail and was stripped of his childhood the minute he committed a crime. Black men are not always given a fair chance but Betts uses his time both behind bars and within the years to follow them in order to educate himself as well as others on the realities of life in prison as a growing boy. One could argue that there is an apparent thugification of the black male. Black men are seen are more aggressive and intimidating than their white counterparts by the masses. This could be used to explain why an unarmed black boy who commits a minor crime can see years behind bars, while a young white boy can commit a similar crime and mass media will say that he simply needs help or was a troubled child as he receives no jail time. This is not to say that the system (the American Criminal Justice System) is inherently racist but, simply to say, that it is flawed and needs to enact some major changes. Betts memoir does a good job of highlightingShow MoreRelatedMental Illness And The Black Community Essay1180 Words   |  5 Pagesnot always been taken as serious in the black community. From my research, scholars and medical professionals in the field of mental health spoke on the fact that mental illness is a stigma in the black community and the conversation of this is not happening. There are many factors that contributed to this. Factors such as the distrust of medical professionals, mis-diagnosis, socio-economical factors and so much more contribute to the reason the black community is missed when it comes to mental healthRead MoreHIV and African Americans Essay1578 Words   |  7 PagesThe term Human Immunodeficiency Virus is commonly known as (HIV), which is a virus that attacks the immune system of humans by destroying the amount of CD4 cells in their bodies. Without CD4 the human body is unable to fight against diseases, which can lead to Acquired Immune deficiency syndr ome known as AIDS for short. The first case of the HIV/AIDS virus in the U.S. occurred in the early 1980’s. The first spark of the virus was found in San Francisco with couple of homosexual Caucasian AmericanRead MoreThe Two Articles I Have Chosen For This Assignment Both1605 Words   |  7 Pagesarticles I have chosen for this assignment both focus on the stigma about mental illness in the black community and how to overcome it. The first article I will talk about does not use the rhetorical appeals in an effective way; whereas, article ii use the rhetorical appeals more successfully in order to persuade the audience to support his viewpoint. Article 1 The first article â€Å"The Truth About Overcoming Mental Illness in the Black Community† was written by Tamiya King. I believe the author wrote theRead MoreBlack Men And Public Space968 Words   |  4 Pagesin the future. Due to the stigma that black men are all thieves, robbers , and criminals, they are more likely to be targeted by the police. If that stigma was magically erased and people stopped viewing Blacks as criminals, the world would be much more peaceful. This can be done merely through education,telling the truth about blacks and less assumptions. 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Prejudice: Discrimination, stereotype against other groups of people/individuals; mindset Racial, Homophobia, Gender, Religious Ever: Absolute term Eliminated: Removed completely The idea of prejudice has been present for several decades now, and is so deeply rooted in our society today. They can be defined as a set of negative and irrational feelings, beliefs, and actions that are directed towards those of a different race, culture and religion. In theRead MoreHistorical And Contemporary Of Ghetto1582 Words   |  7 Pagesenclosed group is ridiculed for something they have no control over. Effectively, the lack of information contributes to mindsets and behaviors that instill a prejudicial behavior against the affected group. As a means to deconstruct the definition of the word ghetto, four characteristics are attached to its makeup, â€Å"stigma, constraint, spatial confinement, and institutional encasement† (Wacquant). Although the ideology about ghettos are negative and irrefutably misinformed, the seclusion actually hasRead MoreHoward Zinn s Development Of Slavery1574 Words   |  7 PagesFurthermore, slaves were taken away, against their will, from their families, homes and countries. The conditions that they were expected to endure during the journey in the Middle Passage were horrendous. However, beginning around the 1860’s many people, blacks and whites included, worked to undermine and abolish slavery. They did so because slavery was inhumane and a crime against humanity. Efforts to undermine slavery were not limited to only blacks, as both blacks and whites contributed to the movementsRead MoreWhite Male Patriarchy1027 Words   |  4 Pagesdefined by White male patriarchy that sanctions Black males to convey the way in which they have been socialized and institutionalized to think, perform, and behave when self- identifying as male. However, the social order of society is structured by a historical system centered among race-based superiority. This notion impedes the development of a true independent identity. Consequently, a struggle arises for distinctiveness, respect, and power. For Black men there becomes a conflict with who he isRead MoreCrime And Imprisonment : The Higher Chance Of Recidivism1569 Words   |  7 Pagesis different. Younger offenders are more likely to recidivate than older offenders (Benedict, Huff-Corzine, Corzine, 1998; Hepburn Albonetti 1994). Male’s recidivate more than female, (BJS). Both male and female prisoners come from different communities, families, but in the male population alone the criminals are sentenced differently. African Americans (63.9 months) were given longer sentences on average, followed by Caucasian s (58.0 months) and Hispanics (52.8 months) (McGovern, 319). Since