The New Jim Crow Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The New Jim Crow - Essay ExampleAny statement that doesnt concide with what it implies is hypocrisy plain if it is in the form of a law. A law not implemented sincerely and judiciously is self negating. Spare the rod and spoil the child is not valid today as the contrary is more likely to spoil the child. This is in fact what is happening in our society today. Our laws target to prevent the offensive activity and through and through a vicious circle of incarceration end up in promoting it simply because of the real focus being upon segregation of those whom we dont lack to be in the mainsream of our society. How incarceration can be counter effective and promote discrimination is the point to ponder upon. This was the point that flashed across the brainiac of Michelle Alexander, an associate professor at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, while he happened to quickly glance at a roadside bill reading, The medicate War is the New Jim Crow. His reaction to this po ster, in his own words was, Yeah, the criminal-justice system is racist in many ways, but making such an absurd compare doesnt help. People will just think youre crazy. (Alexander) Right as he was, this supposition required thorough probe and research to establish what he thought was a fact. He did so and after a lapse of good enough time delivered an illuminating speech at Constitution Day, during an event hosted by the Constitution Project and the Georgetown Center on National Security. He stated conclusively, the system of mass incarceration is now immunized from judicial scrutiny for racial bias, much as slavery and Jim Crow laws were once protected from constitutional challenge. Jim Crow is iconic for laws pertaining to discrimination. In the early days of our history such laws were title openly like Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. It was a pro-slavery clause in the U. S. Constitution and provided that, persons held in service of labour in one state, escaping into other ... sha ll be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service of labor may be due.(Ronald and Davis) Further to it Those who refused could be fined and jailed. Slave catchers were paid a bounty for each slave captured. (Ronald and Davis). We do not have such harsh laws today because now we are better equipped with the use of sanctioned terms to express our illicit thoughts. Discrimination of colour and creed, not pronounced though, is embedded in the subconscious of our society and those at the helms of legal affairs do not spare any opportunity to imprison and reimprison the defaulters of color or creedon one or the other pretext. Crux of the thinking is that we want to keep some of the society, away from society on pretence of some legal ground, mostly prompted by political motives. Living in a genuinely free society, the black and white feel attracted towards one another like the opposite poles well known for their intrinsic affinity, when however constrained to live unitedly they act like similar poles and tend to repel one another. Imprisonment has been a favourite mode of punishment in the history of law. The stated objectives of gyves are to punish the criminals followed by their training and education to reintroduce them in the society as useful and respectable citizens. Facts that come in light through research do not approve the realization of these objectives, for example statistics show that most of the persons once charged and imprisoned are charged and