Mass Incarceration and Race

This article discusses the concept of mass incarceration and its relation to racial inequality in the US. It explores the disproportionate imprisonment of black people and the underlying factors that contribute to this phenomenon.

Running head: MASS INCARCERATION AND RACE
MASS INCARCERATION AND RACE
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Racial inequality is one of the undeniable truth of the US and a damning feature of the
US. Black people in the state are found to be imprisoned more often than the whites. The ratio of
black people imprisoned compared to whites is five times more than the rate of whites.
Moreover, according to Stanford center on poverty & inequality, out of 10 black children, at least
one child has their one parent behind the bars when compared with the whites, it is one in 60
children (Hager). In the similar discourse, the paper aims to discuss mass incarceration with the
underlying factor that guides it, race. The paper will discuss the concept of racial inequality, the
social issue of mass incarceration and the relation between the two concepts.
According to most people racism is a phenomenon that arises from the perception of
human differences. Racism is a fact that arises from the practice of racism. For years, for
unreasonable reasons racism has been occurring in the society. It is easily said that racism is
entirely a social construction that evokes an astonishing level of racism and resistance among
people including the liberals. Although there have been several revolutions, struggles and
conflicts in order to reduce racism in the American life, it still profoundly remains one of the
social phenomenon. There are even well-meaning individuals who seek to explain the injustice
associated with racism towards the people of African descents (Fields and Fields 10-12).
According to Fields and Fields, it is not simple adequate to state that race is a social construction.
To them social construction holds the power and the power of granting any form of racism in
itself is obfuscating and dangerous. The phenomenon of racial injustice is intimately inter-twined
with various other forms of inequality in the American society. It is enrooted in the society’s
every aspect including politics, economic doctrine and everyday thinking that the presence of
racecraft is merely noticed. When the statement was said aloud, ‘black southerners were
segregated because of their skin color’, it was more than normal to many America’s ears (Fields

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and Fields 16-18). Many people in the American society do not even realize the injustice and the
inequality that the statement conveys. Therefore, it is the racecraft that has been ongoing in the
society that leads to racism making the incarceration of blacks normalized in the American
society. The actuality of the existence of racism is no due to race rather it is justified racism
actions that are created by the fictions of race.
The similar concept has been presented by (Vargas and James 194) with their article that names
‘Refsuing blackness as victimization’. According to Vargas and James, death of any black
person is seen as a normal event in United States. The authors of the article have used Trayvon
Mattin, a 14 year old African-American boy who was shot by George Zimmerman, as an
example to represent the America’s mentality towards black people. The incarcerations of black
people are not coincidence or accident but they are causal since death of black is seen as
normative. It is much more than just racism that has been practiced for years and needs to be
changed. For people like Trayvon Martin are victim of no crime but being born as black. They
are not tragedy or media controversy however they are a political marker of possibilities that
permits an individual come to terms with many foretold and foundational stories that involves
mass or collective loss of social understanding. Although everyone seems to agree on the
strategy for redemption such that he was considered innocent victim hey fail to acknowledge the
underlying truth in their behavior. they fail to understand the problem lies within themselves, the
citizen of united states who ultimately reproduce anti-blackness. The concept of anti-blackness
relies on an impossible time that has neither beginning nor end. The growing awareness and
movement aiming to eliminate has a long way to go (Vargas and James 196). The reason mass
incarceration is profound today is for it was and it will always be a society of white supremacy.
The innocent people, who are dying for they have darker skin color, will never be considered

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victim of racism. In the past, present and future in white democracy blackness as evil cannot be
‘victimized’, it can only be vanquished.
Mass incarceration has been a topic of discussion for a while for it’s the unnatural and
unbelievable truth it holds about United States. It has already been discussed the way death of
black has been normalized. Loic Wacquant has presented an interesting perspective of the issue
in his article ‘From slavery to Mass Incarceration: Rethinking the Race Questions in the US.
According to Wacquant (13-15), there are four distinct that are intertwined with each other
period of confinement that begins with the plantation economy till the Civil War. Each of the
four periods has been used as a means of labor extraction and social ostracization. According to
Wacquant (12-16) the society is in the fourth stage of this developing historical trajectory widely
called as mass incarceration. It is important to understand all the past stages in order to
understand the fourth stage. The discrimination has been going on for years in various disguise
and in various roles that have resulted in incarceration affecting African-American over the
years. The trajectory of racial domination are seen through the four institution, slavery (1619-
1865), Jim crow (1865-1965), Ghetto (1915-68) and Hyperghetto & Prison (1968-present)
(Wacquant 47). Naming them in terms of form of labor they are: free fixed labor, free fixed
labor, free mobile labor and fixed surplus labor. The years of ongoing racial discrimination have
gained the importance through these stages and built a relationship with the structural symbiosis
and functional surrogacy. This interprets that slavery and mass imprisonment are genealogically
linked with other. The former cannot be understood without the understanding of the later. These
years of long practices have made Americans perceive the blacks as slaves inherently which have
made incarceration of black normalized.

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According to Davis (10-11), population in the prisons is increasing to a great numbers
and people are being incarcerated since 1960s. The strange factor is that there is increasing
number of African American, Latino, and Native American who are more likely to go to prisons
than the whites. There are an increasing number of blacks in prisons than whites which indicates
some unusual phenomenon in the society. Although the believe is that when there are more
people incarcerated, the society becomes a safer place for the citizens. People are likely to stay in
the free world in safer way and feel more secure. Prison is a place that is seen as a place for the
undesirables who create social and economic barriers. Therefore, prison helps in seeing the
problems that exists in the society. However, the question is when there is growing number of
blacks in the prion, is it only the blacks who tend to make the society a dangerous place Davis
(14). Therefore, when the image shows that it is only the blacks people who are incarcerated and
it is only the black people who lack the basic shelter and healthcare it manifest the concept that
black people are undesirable and creates barrier in the society’s development. It is ought to make
the death of black people normalized. The racism is the factor that leads to the building of entire
concept making the black people look as the socially juvenile and deserving of incarcerated. It
can be seen as the long ongoing conspiracy of making the entire race as criminals.
As discussed above, racial inequality is one of the undeniable truth of the US and a
damning feature of the US. Black people in the state are found to be imprisoned more often than
the whites. The ratio of black people imprisoned compared to whites is five times more than the
rate of whites. The phenomenon of mass incarceration is supported by the theory that many
people in the American society do not even realize the injustice and the inequality that the
statement conveys. Even though there are policies that sate equality for people of all races, there
is a in-built behavior among the American that feel blacks are unwanted people of the society.

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Hence, racial discrimination is justified and black do not deserve equal treatment. The mass
incarceration is majorly followed with the underlying racial discrimination that for year have
made millions of people belonging to different race experience inequality in every aspect of the
society.

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References:
Davis, Angela Y. Are prisons obsolete?. Seven Stories Press, 2011.
Fields, Karen E., and Barbara Jeanne Fields. Racecraft: The soul of inequality in American life.
Verso Trade, 2014.
Hager, Eli. “A Mass Incarceration Mystery.” The Marshall Project, The Marshall Project, 15
Dec. 2017, www.themarshallproject.org/2017/12/15/a-mass-incarceration-mystery.
Vargas, João Costa, and Joy James. "Refusing blackness-as-victimization: Trayvon Martin and
the black cyborgs." Pursuing Trayvon Martin: Historical contexts and contemporary
manifestations of racial dynamics (2012): 193-204.
Wacquant, Loïc. "From slavery to mass incarceration." New left review 13 (2002).