Justification of racial inequality using poverty and criminal stereotypes in the US

The stereotyping of the Black as criminals in the American society is prevalent throughout. The use of “criminal predators” in reference to young Black Americans is common. The criminal and poverty stereotyping of Blackness has never been a new phenomenon in America since historical accounts have proved through the use of myths and racial ideologies to fuel for mass incarceration of Black community at the present. The media has played the greatest role in stereotyping Black Americans as poor. As result, the Blacks in the medial such as network TVs, newspaper and weekly magazines have dominated with the image of poverty. ” This has been primarily fuelled by the media channels which are the manufacturers of misconceptions and prejudices of the “brute” image of Blackness.

For instance, during the Obama era, the term “thug” was widely spread throughout America after reference was made by the former president Barrack Obama in 2015 terming a collection of citizens from Baltimore as “thugs. ” As result, this term has been prevalent and has been used to characterize the Black males. Tragic police shooting of innocent Black individuals in the recent years while being assumed to be violent and criminals has been on the rise (Oliver 3). It is not possible for the police to mistakenly assume that a person is violent or threatening in anyway. Consequently, stereotyping African-Americans as criminals has been deeply rooted in the American’s society collective consciousness notwithstanding the personal beliefs and prejudice levels. To this end, there are two perspectives of viewing criminality stereotypes in America.

One view indicates that the stereotype is an accurate characteristic representation. However, others argue that stereotype is primarily influenced by biases as well as cognitive distortions rendering them inaccurate (Quillian & Pager 722). Moreover, the persistence of African-Americans criminality stereotype is also portrayed in the language that has been used by the media and individuals in reference to Black people. Further research shows that African-American share common themes which are used to label them as criminals by the law enforcement. The themes include; one, focus on their physical features (such as large stature), reliance on the victims past criminal behaviour, great emphasis on the place of the victim’s killing and the stereotypical rudiments that comprised with the lifestyle of the victim (Dukes & Gaither 791).

The correlation between Black and criminality has been subjected to various justification of racial inequality. Schuck, Martin & Glaser pose an important question that causes most of the individuals and criminal justice commentators to justify the relation between criminality and racial inequality. For instance, due to the increased and widespread perception that most of the drug dealers are male African-Americans the law has been disproportionally applied with greatest number of incarceration doing to African-Americans (Schuck et al’ 495). The reason ascribed to this justification of racial inequality is that criminality stereotype acts guidance towards the mobility decisions which are made by the general public and the law enforcement thus contributing to a large racial segregation (Quillian & Pager 749). According to Tonry (274), the differential between the crime arrests among the Blacks being higher than that of Whites has diminished over the years.

However, the main cause of racial inequality in the American society is rooted among the legislative authority and the practices of the police which tend to treat the Black offenders more harshly in a similar criminal act compared to Whites. For instance, the actions of the policy working through specific policies established by the legislature requires them to focus more of their efforts in minorities neighbourhoods and inner-cities which are in fact highly occupied by Blacks thus resulting to majority of the arrested criminals being Blacks. In addition, the policies established in 1980s to 1990s by the both the administrative and legislatures mandated sentences that were more severe for violence and drugs related crimes thus disproportionately subjecting the Blacks to high number of arrests and prosecutions.

In one of the surveys carried in 1990s, by the U. S Bureau of Census, African-Americans comprised 29% of the total percentage of the America’s poor (Gilens 516). However, the figures have been overrepresented over the years substantially among the African-Americans. In another survey to obtain the public perceptions of relation of poverty and African-American in 1991 showed that the median number of the survey indicated that African-Americans attributed 50% of the American poverty. Therefore, this negative perception of the general public in regards to African-American triggers the racial stereotypes. In the recent years, there has been a shift in regards to how people view the correlation between race and racial inequality with 55% of the Americans indicating that they were satisfied with the representations of race relations as at 2014 and a decline to 30% as at 2015 (The Opportunity Agenda).

The main factor attributed to the decline is considered to have resulted to the Black Lives Matters movement as well as the subjection of African-Americans to shootings by the police thus pushing the issue of racial inequality within the national realm (The Opportunity Agenda). In the Whites justification of racial inequality resulting from poverty stereotype, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center indicates that in 2009, 47% of the respondents were confident that the government has provided measures of equal rights to everyone. However, changes in the respondents’ views declined from 49% in 2014 to 32% in 2015 (The Opportunity Agenda). Moreover, in 2015, more people were in agreement that adoption of more changes for equal rights is needed. On the other hand, poverty has been associated with African-Americans with the realities of its estimation being wrongly depicted among the general population and the media.