Reflective Essay: Gentleness And Life

Assurance in equal justice remains as an overwhelming political principle of American culture. Yet withstanding unbelief exists among numerous racial and ethnic minorities. Their doubt comes as no surprise, given a past filled with differential treatment in the arrangement of criminal equity, an issue particularly clear in police misconduct. Researchers have investigated police responses to racial and ethnic minorities for quite some time, offering sufficient confirmation of minority burden on account of police. These examinations raise doubt about different police techniques of coercive control, maybe none more so than police brutality. Its use exemplifies the pressures between police and minorities that exist in America today.

For those who haven’t experienced racial profiling, or know someone that has been a victim of it, the issue may seem nothing more than annoying noise in their ears. However, the reality is that racial profiling has consequences, which results in emotional, physiological, and physical damage. The ones that are the most at risk are the youth of color. Racial profiling is harmful because it creates mistrust in law enforcement, hostile environment in the educational system, and social tension in communities.

There are numerous issues that deal with the American criminal justice system, but the two I found most prominant that occur on a daily basis is the abuse from police officers and clear racism shown by the American criminal justice system. To begin, racism as we know is a prejudice directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. In the criminal justice system African Americans are directly targeted and punished in a higher more aggressive way, than say someone who is caucasian and committed the same exact crime. Racism is more often than not, the motive for official misconduct. There are examples of racism from every known region in the United States, spanning across centuries from slavery to

Addressing police brutality must be done with empathy for and awareness of the plight of the African-American community. Historically speaking, there has not been a period wherein the African-American community was not inhibited by institutionalized barriers. American enslavement provided the foundation for later oppressive provisions that are especially prevalent within inner-city, predominantly Black communities, which, incidentally, many of the prominent instances of police brutality have taken place. Political regimes like the “war on drugs,” “school to prison pipeline,” and mass incarceration criminalize and dehumanize the African-American community, and thus affect the collective mindset of the population. I believe that an imperative first step that has not been taken is acknowledging the effects these may have on the Black community. In order to move forward, the African-American community must heal. As an activist and aspiring social worker, I

Brent Staples’s essay is still relevant today because of the fear that lives inside people who don’t understand or accept others, which often leads to authorities abusing their power so that they can feel safe while others live their lives cautiously. This relates to how both African Americans and the police live their lives in fear and with caution. The police fear African Americans due to their own prejudice reasons which causes them to abuse their authority by acting more aggressive which helps themselves feel safer and stronger. This forces African Americans to live their lives with caution and patience because if they don’t, they put themselves at a higher risk of endangering themselves. Brent Staples wrote the article “Black Men in Public

The author seeks to bring to light the unfair treatment of the Negros by the whites in the places they live in. He also seeks to show that leaders only make empty promises to their people. Brutal cases are most among the Negros as they are attacked and their cases go unnoticed or ignored. Moreover the author wishes to show that the Negros are not treated equally as other residents of Birmingham.

To understand the author, is to take a walk in his shoes. In the reading “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehesi Coates, he explains the experiences and traumas that have psychologically impacted him. Portrayal of racism in the United States influencing how our society function; institutional, systematic, explicit and implicit racism.

Throughout African American history , the police force has been accountable for numerous detrimental deaths in the African American community due to racial discrimination. In 1960s, African American protesters were targeted by the police force because of the their desire to be be deemed as equal. Likewise, in today’s society African Americans are still experiencing active racial discrimination and injustices from the police force. African Americans have expressed their level of frustration with the inhumane actions of the police force. Police brutality of African American protesters has been rebirthed into 21st century by ongoing racial injustices through Henry Louis Gates Jr. and victims of the detrimental equality marches , evidence is presented.

“In countries with a properly functioning legal system, the mob continues to exist, but it is rarely called upon to mete out capital punishment. The right to take human life belongs to the state. Not so in societies where weak courts and poor law enforcement are combined with intractable structural injustices. “In our present day society we as Americans have the cognitive dissonance that what the courts say are final, but also hold to the fact that the majority’s opinion rules. In recent news we have seen massive riots following the killings of African American men by caucasian police officers. These all follow after one of the most prominent not guilty verdicts of the 21st century on the Rodney King beating. With these riots we see the words of Teju Cole begin to take life.

Everyday growing up as a young black male we have a target on our back. Society was set out for black males not to succeed in life. I would always hear my dad talk about how police in his younger days would roam around the town looking for people to arrest or get into an altercation with. As a young boy growing up I couldn’t believe some of the things he said was happening. However as I got older I would frequently hear about someone getting killed by the police force. It still didn’t click but I knew what was happening. Growing up police brutality wasn’t broadcasted as much as it should’ve have been. This then made me think about how to improve police brutality not only dealing with African Americans but also with other colored skinned people.

An American Baptist Minister, Al Sharpton once said, “Many in our community have to live in fear of both the cops and the robbers. What concrete steps would you take to end police brutality and racial profiling.” Racial profiling by police has been an ongoing problem for many years and is still continuing. This is a problem because innocent African Americans are dying everyday from it. Police are still showing racial inequality.

Community organizing doesn’t seem like an accessible task to undertake, but Saul Alinsky made his movements seem effortless and possible for the common person to initiate. One of his tactics that I truly admired was his ability to blend in with the crowd. Alinsky grew up in the an underprivileged neighborhood and was fortunate to finish his graduate degree in criminal justice. All his graduate research was valuable, but his real education came from his work with the mob in the streets known as “back of the yards”. His tactic was to ingratiate leaders on the streets because they would know more about the habitat than he would. This is a great tactic because not only did he study criminal justice from the outside perspective, he had the opportunity

Recently, there are many assaulting events in the United States. It make police’s relationship became nervous. Some analysts said that the property of current assaulting events are mostly "ambush", it make the problem has become particularly serious. It have a connection with protest movement, which is “black lives matter”.

Experts argue that cultural biases and stereotypes have been reflected through the increasing number of incidents of Caucasian law enforcement abuse towards African Americans. Examples of this are the killings of African Americans which occurred in Ferguson and Baltimore. A peer-reviewed New York Times article entitled “What Happened in Ferguson?” discussed the death of Ferguson resident Michael Brown. Brown, an unarmed black teenager, robbed a convenience store of its cigars minutes before being fatally wounded and shot an additional six times by young white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri during August of 2014 (Buchanan et al. 2). After the unnecessary, portrayed as “defensive” actions of Wilson, protests rattled the country regarding Caucasian police brutality towards African American men. Following Ferguson, police brutality was exemplified later in Baltimore. In “Nonviolence as Compliance,” Ta Nehisi Coates, a cultural and social journalist for The Atlantic, a well known developing cultural and literary commenting American Magazine, described the Baltimore events. Freddie Gray, a young African American from South Baltimore, was found with a switchblade walking on the street and was relentlessly beat into the ground by officers until his spinal cord was fatally fractured (Ta-Nehisi 7). Despite the loss of innocent Gray and overwhelming evidence against the officers, a white dominated Baltimore courtroom released the police officers accused with

The rise in violent conflicts between the citizens of the United States and the police is the issue that I want to solve. Due to my own age, race and gender, I am very well aware that I may be personally and directly impacted by this issue. The interaction between people of color and law enforcement in America is a key aspect of this larger issue. This issue has two main viewpoints: (1) that of people of color and, (2) that of law enforcement. While these two viewpoints overlap and intersect at several points, I believe them to be separate problems, each caused by different things. However, I do believe the problem needs to be addressed from a broader perspective.