Who is Benjamin Jealous? Benjamin Jealous was the NAACP leader from 2008 until 2013. Ben also was the youngest NAACP leader in history and under his leadership, NAACP grew into the largest civil rights group in the US. Before Jealous was the leader of NAACP, he was a journalist for 15 years, and had a passion to fight for people’s rights. He grants his 99 year old grandma credit for pushing him over the edge to pursue human rights as a whole. Jealous has accomplished many feats, but he’s most famous for his push in Mississippi. He was sent down to Mississippi on a mission to save a black college from being turned into a prison. After months of organizing protesters, he and others led the second largest civil rights protest in Mississippi history. The protest turned out to be a success and the black college was never transformed into a prison. Overall, Jealous has many credentials that make him a reliable source. What roles do the Government and the Educational system play in Mass Incarceration? The Government and the Educational system are both institutions through sociology and play major roles in Mass Incarceration. According to Jealous’s lecture, in 1973 11 percent of funding was going towards public universities, while three percent was going towards prisons. Fast forward 37 years and it nearly …show more content…
When talking about prisons, race is always talked about because it’s assumed that more black people are in prison than white people. When in all actuality, it’s pretty close to even between white and black prisoners. When the police crews were told to surprise certain neighborhoods, majority of the neighborhoods were black. On the flip side, as a police officer it must have been functional to assume the black neighborhoods would have more drug dealers because they’re black right? Overall, race does play a major factor in Mass Incarceration that simply will not change for many years to