One hundred and fifty nine years ago, Frederick Douglass was invited to give a speech to commemorate the birth of what was then a very young nation. He challenged his listeners to consider the obvious hypocrisy of a nation founded on liberty, but built on the stolen labor of enslaved Africans with the question, "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?" Early in the speech he makes the point that this holiday does not embrace the lived experience of people like himself:
I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine.
Reading the new book by scholar and prophet Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness got me wondering what Douglass would say today about the Fourth of July. In the book, Alexander advances a compelling thesis that the mass incarceration of the black, the brown, and the red in America constitutes the latest version of an ever-mutating system of racialized social control, perpetuating a racial caste system; the new Jim Crow.
I suspect that Douglass would say what he said over a century and a half ago, "Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them."
I think he would challenge us to ponder the paradox of a nation founded on liberty, but which condemns men and women to civic death and internal exile on a daily basis once they are labeled felons. I think he would ask us to consider the question, "What to a felon is the Fourth of July?" What does this holiday mean for those who cannot vote, cannot work, cannot find a place to live, cannot access public assistance? What does this holiday mean for the families whose loved ones cycle in and out prison year after year and who face eviction if they offer their husband, brother, uncle a place to sleep? What does it mean for communities devastated by a misguided and cynical drug war with a near insatiable appetite for the black, the brown and the red? A war that is more about preserving the power of politicians than public safety.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Baronius
Frederick Douglass was part of the temperance movement, so I can guess what he'd say about the drug war. He'd tell people to stop taking drugs.
2 - John Lake
You make a an error sir when you segue from the black slaves of the early days of America to the currently or recently incarcerated. The psychological link is inescapable.
Time seems to cure ills, as it did with the slaves, and as it will with those from distant societies.
3 - Phillipe
Baronius and John Lake thank you for your comments. Baronius, it may be that what you say is true, though I expect Douglass would have more to say than that.
John, I'm not sure if I am understanding the point you are making. Could you clarify it a bit?
4 - John Lake
In some remote way you link blacks more than others to those who suffer incarceration. That slip might have been avoided.
5 - Phillipe
John, I see what you mean. While it is true that all felons are impacted by similar restrictions on their rights, there is a clear and well documented inequity in who gets incarcerated in the first place which breaks down along racial lines. I wish that were not the case, but unfortunately it is. So it was not a "slip" but a conscious choice based upon the thesis of Alexander's book and the work of others in this area. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
6 - Dan
The notion that racial differences in incarceration rates reflect police and justice system bias is not supported by any objective measure of statistical record.
Both the National Crime Victimization Survey and the National Incident-Based Reporting System are two huge data sets where victims describe the crimes and indicate the race of the perpetrators.
Based on victim surveys as well as police reports of arrested suspects, the Justice Department figures show that blacks commit crimes and are incarcerated at roughly 7.2 times the white rate, and Hispanics at 2.9 times the white rate. The incarceration rates generally match the rates provided by victims who report crimes, except that blacks are actually arrested slightly less frequently than would be expected.
Although Alexander notes in her book that incarceration rates per capita have greatly expanded in the last 30 years, she probably does not mention the significant corresponding drop in crime rates. This would seem to indicate that many of the right people are locked up.
7 - Phillipe
Dan thanks for your comment. Alexander does acknowledge a drop in crime rates but there is more to the story. If you have not read her book I encourage you to do so. Whether or not the "right people" are being locked up is debatable, as is whether or not "locking people" up is actually the answer to, in the case of the so called drug war which is a public health issue as much as a public safety issue. And my point is not just about the locking up of people but what happens to them once they are released, losing fundamental civil rights for life in many cases. The question is, is that just, particularly when it perpetuates racial inequities whether intentionally or not? I believe that it is not and needs to be challenged.
8 - Glenn Contrarian
Looks like Dan's up to his old "racism-only-exists-in-the-minds-of-liberals" tricks again.
I do wish I could take him Down South and introduce him to real racism...although I strongly suspect it won't be much different from what he hears among his own friends every day.
9 - Baronius
Phillipe, how would that work? Should we prosecute only the worst 13% of black criminals? Or incarcerate 7.2x the number of white people whether or not they've committed crimes? Would that be justice?
Justice can't be meted out statistically. It's got to be applied to the individual cases. If blacks are committing more crimes, it doesn't matter what their ancestors went through - they should be incarcerated more.
10 - zingzing
what is the "that" you refer to baronius? something phillipe said, i guess, but having trouble tracking that "that" down.
11 - Phillipe Copeland
Baronius, you are assuming as many people do that blacks commit more crimes than whites and so are being incarcerated more. The problem is that is not the case. The inequities in incarceration rates cannot be explained simply by crime rates. Even if the incarceration rates were completely race neutral, which they are not, even some "tough on crime" types are beginning to concede that our rates of incarceration are unsustainable and need to be reformed. This is not about past injustices, but present injustices. Second you are avoiding the issue of whether or not people should lose basic civil rights for the rest of their lives for "crimes" such as drug possession. The issue is much more complex than what you are implying and I believe is not just. Even who gets arrested is not race neutral when you take into account racial profiling and police strategies that consciously target communities of color even though blacks, latinos and Native Americans are not more likely than Whites to use illegal drugs and so on. This is a systemic issue with systemic outcomes and so we can't just look at individual cases because doing so obscures the larger pattern of decisions that are being made and the consequences of those decisions which do not impact all people or even all those committing crimes equally. I wish things were so simple but they aren't.
12 - Baronius
Well, Zing, a word like "that" could mean any number of things, especially if I'm not paying attention to what I'm typing. But here's my guess: Dan states that blacks are being incarcerated at an equal proportion to the number of crimes they're committing; Phillipe says that he's not sure the "right people" are being incarcerated; he then states that people lose rights after incarceration; then he states that he doesn't see the current system as just. If he were referring to the loss of civil rights as creating injustice, then my word "that" really doesn't have any meaning. If he were referring to the incarceration of blacks as creating injustice, then my word "that" was referring to the implied justice system which would incarcerate people based on skin color rather than on criminal activity.
13 - Baronius
Oh, this is where things get confusing. I posted #12 before reading #11. Lemme read #11 and get back.
14 - Baronius
Actually, the heart of #12 is still valid. I think we need to distinguish between the possible injustice of incarceration rates and the possible injustice of the consequences of having been incarcerated. As I understand it, evidence of the former is murky, and it's probably been debated better elsewhere. I'l love to hear more about the latter, it being something I don't know anything about.
15 - zingzing
well, what dan really states is that he believes there to be no injustice in the justice system, which is just foolish. and there is ample proof that it is weighted against minorities in certain areas.
phillipe states it is not the case "that blacks commit more crimes than whites and so are being incarcerated more." by raw numbers, he may have a point. but by proportional numbers, i don't think that's the case. the "war on drugs" makes sure of that, just as another stupid set of laws created more violence than it saved (prohibition) made sure that italians and other immigrants were committing proportionally more crimes.
there's inequalities in the system, that's for sure.
but i really don't get this 13% thing you wrote about up there and i'm not even sure where it's coming from...
16 - zingzing
well, baronius, i've never been put in jail, but i'd bet that "have you ever been convicted of a felony" line on most job applications can affect your job prospects. lots of other things you take for granted, like housing and the ability to get a loan, could be greatly restricted as well. get fucked over for one childish indiscretion for the rest of your life is probably a bummer.
17 - Jordan Richardson
Dan sniffed out another topic and created a "race" issue? Shocking!
18 - Irene Athena
Yes it is complicated. Release, and stop incarcerating people of all races for victimless crimes such as the possession of marijuana. Next, (dream on) throw into the slammer every crook on Wall Street and corrupt politician or CEO who gave himself a 150% raise (the tax-payers "stimulus package" at work) the same year he lays off thousands of employees. Do this, too, without any consideration of race.
I'm not denying the troubling rash of black-on-white crime witnessed recently in the Memorial Day "polar bear hunting" incident." That's a cause for concern.
My take: Blacks AND Whites are becoming less and less likely to treat one another with kindness and respect. The cessation of arrests for non-violent victimless acts, and initiation of incarceration for non-violent crimes that nonetheless result in widespread victimization, misrepresentation
19 - Irene Athena
...disparities in proportions of "criminality" with respect to race is likely to lessen or even disappear.
20 - Irene Athena
I clicked "enter" mid-sentence, sorry. I hope this thread doesn't degenerate into ad hominem attacks (or the restating comments of others and twisting the intent in so doing.)
Philippe, this may be one of the fairest articles on race I've seen on BC, and hopefully it will lead to a productive conversation, which hopefully, I can follow without becoming further actively involved.
21 - Phillipe Copeland
Baronius, I see the point you are making but think that one, things are not a "murky" as they may appear based on what information you have seen and second, I don't think you can really separate the issue of incarceration rates and the loss of civil rights because they are part of a system of related policies and procedures that according to Alexander are the latest iteration of an old strategy that is highly racialized. If you get a chance to read the book you will see what I mean.
Zingzing, I'm not sure if I'm with you on the proportionality thing, I think it is a matter of what your statistics are based on. For example, is the issue that blacks are committing a greater proportion of crimes relative to their population or that they are disproportionately targeted for arrest, more likely to be convicted and receive harsher penalties for the same crimes committed by whites? There is ample evidence that this is the case and is no great secret.
Irene, thanks for chiming in. I am completely with you on the issue of so-called white collar crimes vs. other crimes. Our criminal justice system seems to find it easy to lock up the poor (largely of color) but suddenly things get difficult when people commit crimes that impact thousands more than drugs do and not only don't see a single day in jail but even get rewarded with bonuses, lobbyist jobs, elected office and appointed to Cabinet posts! This in itself exposes our "tough on crime" rhetoric as hollow. As the saying goes, the rich get richer and the poor get prison.
22 - zingzing
"is the issue that blacks are committing a greater proportion of crimes relative to their population or that they are disproportionately targeted for arrest, more likely to be convicted and receive harsher penalties for the same crimes committed by whites?"
with all do respect, phillipe, i think it's a little of column a, a little of column b. because of the "war on drugs," the inner city drug trade creates a lot of criminals and a lot of arrests. and they're easy arrests that are easily prosecuted. if a cop wants an arrest to bolster his quota, he goes downtown. if a district attorney wants a win in court, he takes that case. when a man gets put in jail for that kind of thing, it's hard to find another kind of work once he's out, and he's right back at it, then right back in jail. (and once there, is he counted twice by the statisticians?) it's a vicious cycle, and these laws do nothing but produce violence and criminality due to lack of other opportunity. if those laws were changed, i think you'd see a dramatic drop in blacks being arrested, because a lot fewer people (black or white), would be on the wrong side of the law. violent crime would also drop, as illicitness makes things worth money and therefore worth committing violence over.
as for the white collar thing, all i can say is this.
23 - Phillipe Copeland
Zingzing, sounds like we agree more than we disagree on this one.
24 - zingzing
i believe so. i think it's an unintentional effect of the law, but it's there anyway. the police and courts may have prejudice against black people, but that prejudice is more based on the effects of these laws than it is on pure racism these days. they see the same type of perp perpetrating the same type of crime over and over again and it gets into them, same as the laws create the environment and reality that drives so many into becoming criminals. the biggest hate crime against minorities in america is a set of american laws.
25 - Dan
Phillipe, although I appreciate your civility and respect your opinion, There has been exhaustive research done to flesh out systemic racial and ethnic bias in the criminal justice system. Virtually none of it supports your thesis.
Even in the area of white collar crime, blacks are convicted at 3 to 5 times the rate as whites for crimes like fraud, racketeering, bribary and embezzlement.
Two of the top criminologists in the world, Robert J Sampson and Alfred Blumstein have published many critical studies concluding basically no systemic bias. Many, many liberal criminologists, pundits, civil rights activists, and politicians have poured over their work, and the work of others, expecting to find a system rife with discrimination, but they are disappointed. Nevertheless the research is completely ignored and the cherished myth of evil cops, racist white judges and assorted malevolent invisible forces is desperately clung to by sheer assertion.
The notion that simple drug possession is a major factor in the swelling of prison populations is more urban myth than reality as well.