Social Justice
The Need for Systemic Change
The call for racial justice and systemic change echoed around the world last summer in response to the murder of George Floyd. Protesters demanded justice for Floyd as well as the long list of Black individuals killed by police brutality. On April 20, 2021, former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on three counts for the murder of George Floyd. Although this is a step towards justice, this is not enough. My blog post identifies the need for systemic changes to the legal system. One guilty verdict will not bring justice to the Black community. There is an immense failure in the system that contains implicit bias, racial profiling, and inadequate training. Nothing will change unless the system itself is repaired.
The New Jim Crow
Voter suppression is a strategy used to control the outcome of an election by preventing certain individuals from voting. The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed the right for every citizen to vote regardless of their race. As a way to enforce disenfranchisement, many states in the South created literacy tests, poll taxes, and evoked intimidation to drive away African American voters. The 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibited discrimination towards African Americans. This blog post compares Georgia’s Election Integrity Act of 2021 to voter suppression in the Jim Crow era. The United States has entered a new Jim Crow where African Americans are targeted once again.
Oppression in the Prison System
Being acknowledged or included in a dominant group can provide unearned benefits; being acknowledged or included in a subordinate group can inflict unjust obstacles. In the American legal system, prisoners face repulsive stereotypes that society imposes based on the status quo of the dominant group. These stereotypes oppress members of subordinate groups and contribute to the unjust treatment in the prison system. I examine two stereotypes that influence the ways prisoners are oppressed in society through the connection of intersectionality and the birdcage metaphor. Prisoners are labeled “inferior” or “dangerous” in order to justify the power of society’s dominant group and systemic racism.