Prejudice and Incarceration of an Entire Population.
One of the largest problems in America today is that all black males are believed to be dangerous, and are often the primary suspect in all crimes whether a black man was reported at the scene or not. The reasons for this belief, and the many inaccurate accusations due to this belief, stem from the massive numbers of African Americans in prison, on parole, or otherwise involved in the court system in the United States today. The fact that in 1992, "Nearly half of America's one million prisoners were black,"" cannot be ignored, and is a major contributor to the American view that Black men commit the majority of violent crimes (Hutchinson, 420). Black men, however, do not commit the preponderance of these crimes, in fact in 1992, "White males committed 54% of violent crimes in America- (Hutchinson, 120). This is not merely a misunderstanding, or a harmless belief of the majority of America, it is, according to Revolutionary Worker, "An entire generation being criminalized, that is not rhetoric "it is reality. More than that "it signals a dangerous new twist in the twisted way that the system relates to the masses of Black people and other oppressed peoples (971)."" According to American Factfinder, African Americans in 1990 were only 12% of the population, whereas Caucasians made up 80%. This massive difference in population numbers added to the fact that in 1992 80% of America's drug users were White males proves statistically that the number of Black men in prison is an injustice (Hutchinson). The aim of this paper is to introduce the reasons that black males make up the majority of prisoners such as; the massive attack on drugs in primarily black cities, the inability of poor Black citizens to fight charges and unequal sentencing of Black vs. White criminals, while at the same time showing why this problem is important, and how it is detrimental, to the minority culture of black men in the United States.
