From Slavery to Mass Incarceration free essay sample

Of the supplementary readings provided, I found â€Å"From Slavery to Mass Incarceration† by Loic Wacquant the most intriguing. This particular article is based on â€Å"rethinking the ‘race question’ in the US† and the disproportionate institutions set apart for African Americans in the United States. The volatile beginnings of African Americans presented obvious hardships for future advancement, but Wacquant argues that they still suffer from a form of modern slavery. Wacquant introduces four â€Å"peculiar institutions† that are responsible for the â€Å"control† of African Americans throughout United States history: chattel slavery, the Jim Crow system, the ghetto, and arguably the dark ghetto and the carceral apparatus. Chattel slavery was the origin of African American existence and the ultimate foundation of racial division. Jim Crow legislation provided â€Å"legally enforced discrimination† after the abolition of slavery. The ghetto is the concept of the urbanization of African Americans in Northern industrial areas, creating racially divided metropolitan areas. We will write a custom essay sample on From Slavery to Mass Incarceration or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The final institution, the dark ghetto and carceral apparatus, refers to the â€Å"caste† of urban blacks and their mass incarceration epidemic. Chattel slavery in the United States took place from 1619 to 1865. Immediately upon arriving in America, Africans were placed in a lower and inhuman caste in society. As Wacquant states, â€Å"[a]n unforeseen by-product of the systematic enslavement and dehumanization of Africans and their descendants on North American soil was the creation of a racial cast line separating what would later become labeled ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’† (2002:45). Also, the concept of â€Å"race† was planted in Americans’ heads. The biblical theory that Africans were inferior and worth less than whites – three-fifths of a man, to be precise (Wacquant 45) – provided plantation owners with a source of free, dehumanized laborers. The truth in these statements is undeniable. With the abolition of slavery, the South took up a new way to maintain white superiority: the Jim Crow system of legislation. These segregating laws were enacted in 1865 and remained in place until1965. African Americans were no longer enslaved by law, but became sharecroppers, dependent on their employers and vastly without property. In addition to the lack of basic freedoms, African Americans were still lower-class citizens (Wacqaunt 2002:46). Violating the segregation laws led to what Waquant calls â€Å"ritual caste murder† (2002:47), or whites murdering African Americans who, with or without intention, breached either the formal or informal segregation laws. Slavery may have been abolished, but the ability to dehumanize black individuals remained. Beginning in 1915, African Americans began to flee the South in great numbers, hoping to escape the brutal discrimination. The promise of work in the industrialized North provided enough incentive to emigrate. However, the myth of equality and citizenship led to the establishment of the ghetto, Wacquant’s third institution. Although African Americans were better off in the North, they were still marginalized for their cheap labor and flexibility (Wacquant 2002:48). African Americans were not assimilated into the white culture, nor were they considered social equals. Wacquant compares the â€Å"ghettoization† of African American industrial workers to that of previous bearers of the exclusionary cross: Jews. The concept of an â€Å"ethnoracial prison† is not a new one. Wacquant attributes ghettos’ existence to the existence of an â€Å"outcast group† (2002:51). In addition to an outcast group, stigma, constraint, territorial confinement, and institutional encasement contribute to â€Å"ethnoracial control,† resulting in the formation of ghettos. Wacquant goes on to elaborate upon the prison system as a â€Å"judicial ghetto† (2002:51). A prison system containing the â€Å"outcast group,† within which it develops â€Å"their own argot roles, exchange systems, and normative standards† has only recently been established (2002:51). In criticism, does everyone in society view African American as an â€Å"outcast group? † Most definitely not. However, Wacquant brings the term â€Å"inner city† to light, breaking down its meaning: â€Å"black and poor. † Living in Chicago gives one an exemplary example of the term â€Å"inner city† meaning â€Å"poor, black ghettos. † The references to â€Å"inner city† schools being synonymous with â€Å"poor quality† and â€Å"mostly African American† are damaging to urban terminology and creating a predetermined perspective of those who call the â€Å"inner city† home. The â€Å"hypersegregation† of the city of Chicago is a topic within itself, but the institution of segregation is, without question, existent here. In addition, â€Å"inner city† is becoming a label which implies unavoidable incarceration. â€Å"As the walls of the ghetto shook and threatened to crumble, the walls of the prison were correspondingly extended, enlarged and fortified. . . † (Wacquant 2002:52). In his account, Wacquant implies that once ghettos began to disperse, American society required a new place for African Americans to reside: prison. Reading this article, one would never know that African Americans existed outside ghettos and prisons. The concept of African Americans in suburbia or anywhere of decent living standards is ignored completely. There is no dispute over the â€Å"racially skewed mass imprisonment† (Wacquant 2002:56) of black men and women, but not only African Americans inhabit ghettos and the â€Å"inner city. † However, the â€Å"centuries-old association of blackness with criminality and devious violence† (2002:56) assumes a high-crime, low-income â€Å"inner city† is predominantly African American. The mass incarceration of African Americans in response to crime demographics is almost unconstitutional, according to Wacquant. The institution of penal labor has been addressed by Wacquant as a form of modern African American slavery. The overwhelmingly black prison population being leased for hard labor with little or no profit to the incarcerated is not a new epidemic. Chain gangs and early â€Å"convict leasing† after the abolition of slavery benefited the Southern economy after the loss of free labor (Wacquant 2002:53). This practice has continued in both public and private prisons with little pay or â€Å"slave wages† being paid to the incarcerated individuals. Wacqaunt calls this a new form of â€Å"racial domination† (2002:53), as it was in the late nineteenth century, but today, race is not the motive for penal labor; overwhelming profit is. The modern prison institution is indeed overgrown and disproportionately occupied by African Americans, but Wacquant’s argument that â€Å"[i]t is not only the pre-eminent institution for signifying and enforcing blackness, much as slavery was during the first three centuries of US history† (2002:57) is going slightly overboard. It implies that prisons were made to contain African Americans and to deny them of their civil liberties, such as cultural capital, public aid and political participation (Wacquant 2002:58). The implication that African Americans are the only members of the â€Å"’underclass’ of criminals, loafers, and leeches† (Wacquant 2002:60) is simply untrue. Wacquant fails to acknowledge any of the other theories for why â€Å"inner city† black inmates are overrepresented, only that they are so often incarcerated because the dominant culture of white individuals wants them there. Wacquant approaches the concept of African American mass incarceration in the United States in an obviously extreme way. Once African Americans began to assimilate into â€Å"white culture,† Wacquant states: â€Å"They [white individuals] abandoned public schools, shunned public space, and fled to the suburbs in their millions to avoid mixing and ward off the spectre of ‘social equality’ in the city† (2002:49). Many factors drove white Americans into the suburbs, not just the fear or socializing with African Americans. I think that Wacquant confronts the topic of semi-enslaved African Americans in such a way because without extremities, no one really opens their eyes to history almost repeating itself. Wacquant exaggerates and ignores other possibilities to enlighten all of society to the epidemic of mass incarceration and the subsequent loss of public and civil rights because of convict status. Drawing attention to such an epidemic is necessary. Above all, reform is necessary. Wacquant addresses the â€Å"caste† of African Americans in a radical and intense way that brings blazing clarity to the current problems with â€Å"race† in our society. If a â€Å"plane of equality† (Wacquant 2002:46) is ever to be reached, the marginalization and mass incarceration of African Americans needs to be put to a stop for good. The myth of white superiority and reality of white privilege in America prevents this from happening. Overall, Loic Wacquant takes an extreme and tunnel-vision view to the problems with and consequences for being black in the United States. His â€Å"peculiar institutions† remind any reader that abominations against marginalized African Americans existed and still exist today. Writing an powerful and concentrated article may not prevent what he refers to as â€Å"the first genuine prison society in history† (2002:60), but it may enlighten enough academic individuals to do something about it.