The Fair Sentencing Act, which aims to reduce the disparity in sentencing between crimes involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine had gained approve from the Congress and signed by President Obama. “This bill would help right a long-standing wrong by narrowing sentence disparities between those convicted of crack cocaine and powder.” Stated by President Obama. According to the statistics provided by US Sentencing figures, the Controlled Substances act established a minimum mandatory sentence of five years for a first-time trafficking offense involving only over 5 grams of crack cocaine, as opposed to 500 grams of powder cocaine. Furthermore, more than 79 percent of 5,669 sentenced crack offenders in 2009 were African American, whereas White and Hispanic only counts 10 percent respectively for the crack cocaine offender.This form of disparity can also be shown from the length of incarceration: 115-month average imprisonment for crack offenses versus an average of 87 months for powder cocaine offenses.This kind of variation directly ended up with African-Americans spending far more time in the prison system.
When we talk about racially division and discrimination, people usually blame it for individual’s imperfections and unconsciousnesses; few of them would look at the state and institutional structure as a whole. As Charles Mills revealed in his book The Racial Contract, racism was formed as the core of the social contract, racial problem is deep and institutional; society itself is structured on racism. Mills theory here had helped to explain why there has been a long appearance of mass incarceration in the United States that targeted specifically at African Americans. One reason was because of the disparities that deeply rooted within the legal system; African Americans endure more frequent and longer imprison compared to offenders of other races on average. Racism is still the de facto practice and ideology among political and economic institutions in the world. Moreover, the report also tells that it is so much harder to change the institutional racism, which requires more time and efforts. In order to vary the current situation, people need to begin from the bottom of the society and all the way up to the top— the houses and executive office; this also further added to the prevalence of racism in the current world.
News Link: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/08/03/data-show-racial-disparity-in-crack-sentencing
When we talk about racially division and discrimination, people usually blame it for individual’s imperfections and unconsciousnesses; few of them would look at the state and institutional structure as a whole. As Charles Mills revealed in his book The Racial Contract, racism was formed as the core of the social contract, racial problem is deep and institutional; society itself is structured on racism. Mills theory here had helped to explain why there has been a long appearance of mass incarceration in the United States that targeted specifically at African Americans. One reason was because of the disparities that deeply rooted within the legal system; African Americans endure more frequent and longer imprison compared to offenders of other races on average. Racism is still the de facto practice and ideology among political and economic institutions in the world. Moreover, the report also tells that it is so much harder to change the institutional racism, which requires more time and efforts. In order to vary the current situation, people need to begin from the bottom of the society and all the way up to the top— the houses and executive office; this also further added to the prevalence of racism in the current world.
News Link: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/08/03/data-show-racial-disparity-in-crack-sentencing
The data on this sort of thing is always interesting and very telling of where we stand with racial issues internally.
ReplyDeleteYeah, statistics always tell some striking truth, however sometimes they can be misleading too.
DeleteI think this is very interesting. Also note the political language used to describe the substance when it pertains to certain individuals
ReplyDeleteGreat point you made about the clear flaw we have in our criminal system. What others laws do you think this could also pertain to? What do you think the officials at the top can do to fix this problem? What can the people at the bottom do in order to rise out?
ReplyDeleteI think the immigration law might be another manifestation of this structured supremacy. It had set quotas for immigrants from different hemispheres. Because these are problems that based on the institutional flaw, the most effective way to solve it in the United States would be submit bills to congress and solve it from a top-down manner; for people who live at the bottom, it is important for them to start petition and protest in order to start a political consciousness towards certain social problems.
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