- Reconstruction: the Impeachment of President Johnson/the election of President Grant
- "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin
- What are Michelle Alexander's 3 key points? (Remember, answers may vary on this)
- Do you agree with her notions about race in America during the Obama administration? Support your ideas.
The first key point I can take out of this story is that black individuals are searched more often due to stereotypical labels. A second main idea is that Prohibiting drug activity does not lead people to stop using drugs. The last key point I found was that there are more African Americans in jail or on parole now than enslaved in 1850.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Obama's presidency has made it appear that the United States is racially equal when it is really not. African Americans were very enthusiastic about Obama's election, but we will never be completely equal. Michelle Alexander made a point that more blacks are in jail or on parole now then enslaved in 1850. To me, that was a shocking fact.
There was a point she made which I do not understand, and that is that four-fifths of drug arrests are for possessions and one-fifth are for selling. I do not see how this pertains to her argument that racial inequality still exists today in America. In my opinion I do not care whether the penalty was for selling or using. In the end, if cops find drugs in a vehicle or around a person, they should be arrested. I agree with Alexander's statement that said the police are more likely suspicious of a black male then a white male or a female. This might be part of the reason why such a large percent of blacks are in jail.
Another point I would like to make is that there are parts of the United States that have a concentrated population of blacks in a bad area. We would refer to this as the ghettos. If someone was to be raised in a bad area they would be more likely to get into crime whereas there are not as many whites in that kind of area.
One of Michelle Alexander's main points is the war on drugs has appeared to be exclusively waged on poor communities of color. She mentioned that studies have proven that African Americans are no more likely to use or sell drugs than whites. Another key point I took away from this was the majority of African- American men are put in jail for minor drug crimes and spend the rest of their lives in a political "cast." Once they are labeled as felons, these men can be legally discriminated against when it comes to employment, schooling, and housing and not be allowed to vote or be on a jury. Many of these men spend their lives incarcerated. The last major point I took away had to do with the government. It made me feel awful to hear that governments are rewarded for the sheer number of drug arrests they have. Federal Drug Forfeiture laws allow the government to keep 80% of your belongings if you are arrested of suspicion of selling drugs.
ReplyDeleteMany African- Americans celebrated Obama's election, and it has been viewed as the final nail in the coffin of Jim Crow laws. Though the Jim Crow laws are not currently in place it is very clear to see by the points I took away from Michelle Alexander that African- Americans are still being discriminated against. We would like to believe that having an African American president has given America complete racial equality, but clearly that is not the case.
During her feature, Michelle Alexander discusses a series of key points that all point towards racial inequality. First, she talks about how the war on drugs has negatively affected the black community by putting many behind bars. Racial discrimination, in her opinion, is evident in this war because the majority of citizens charged with illegal possession or selling are blacks. Michelle Alexander is also trying to say that law enforcement tries to arrest as many offenders as possible in order to attain maximum profit. This is why she thinks that many blacks have been convicted because the police are just trying to increase their personal number of arrests. Lastly, she points out that prohibiting drug activity will not prevent the illegal use of drugs. Alexander illustrates this idea by including the instances where people were not discouraged from using alcohol even after it was banned.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I do not agree completely with her views revolving around racial discrimination during the Obama administration. I fell that she exaggerates her point and only includes the facts that help her case. I actually found an article on socialistworker.org that says that only 37% of all people arrested for drug use are blacks. Why did she not include this in her argument? However, I do believe she brings up some points that need to be taken into serious consideration. If all the statistics that she dictates are accurately represented, then something must be done to tip the balance back to equality. In my own community, I do not see the extreme racial discrimination that Alexander discusses. However, I do notice small racial slurs and neighborhood separation within Salem. With that being said, I only agree in part with the points she discusses about racial inequality.
The first major point she opens up with is that people of color aren't more likely to be involved in drug trafficking or drug use than whites based on consistent studies. Michelle then transitions to the discrimination of blacks. Upon becoming felons, they are then placed in a class where they are eligible for legal discrimination. Lastly, Michelle touches upon the fact that both local and state law enforcement exploit the drug war for profit through drug forfeiture laws allowing law enforcement to seize a large percentage of wealth of suspected drug offenders. As Taylor has said, Michelle's key points not only opens up issues regarding the discrimination against blacks but issues related to the government as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michelle's views about race in America since she uses and compares contemporary statistics to statistics in past years. This gave me an understanding of how race in America has changed over the years and how the data comes together to support her claims.
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ReplyDeleteMichelle Alexander brings up many points that shows colored Americans are not being treated fairly in today’s society. Alexander’s first point in her interview is that a majority of the War on Drugs has been waged in colored communities. She states that this shows inequality because people of color are no more likely to do drugs than white people. Another point she makes is that local authorities make profits from the number of drug arrests they make. Alexander also states that the majority of drug related arrests are for merely possession and a smaller percentage is for selling the drugs. She implies that a heavier emphasis should be placed at finding the suppliers and “kingpins” to keep these drugs out of the community and not to just focus on the users.
ReplyDeleteI do support what Alexander says about race during the Obama administration. Although Obama being elected president was seen as a big step in equality, many colored males are still being labeled as felons and are locked into a second class that keeps them from many potential opportunities in their lives. I agree with her point that these examples can be seen as current day Jim Crow laws.
The first point I took away from this was that black men (or women) convicted on crimes relating to drugs, were labeled as felons and branded for life. Some people were even labeled this without having any crime charges against them. These false accusations were made because of skin color. The second key point was that black men and women are just as likely to do drugs as a white person. Somewhere along the evolution of this country, we conceived this idea that most blacks do drugs, which is not true. Lastly, Michelle Alexander made a point that by prohibiting drugs will not necessarily stop them from being used. Alcohol is considered a drug and during Prohibition, alcohol was still drunken, if not more excessively than normal.
ReplyDeleteShe makes a statement that really stuck out to me. She mentions that in 4/5 of arrests due to drug use, only 1/5 is because of the person actually selling a drug. It makes it seem like she is trying to rationalize this behavior. Well if ONLY 1/5 is selling, that means the 4/5 that are using are ok...this is what it seems like she is saying.
In regards to the Obama administration, many blacks rejoiced over Obama being elected. I think that it should not matter if he is black, white, a man or women. I understand that in black heritage they have come a long way, but I feel like they are segregating themselves too, in a way. I would probably feel different if I was not raised in a white, middle class setting. Whites are also discriminated against, as are Asians. Every ethnicity has different stereotypes and discrimination that come with it.
Recently I brought the car I drive into the shop to get it looked at. The man who was looking at it was white, and he was kind to me. I had him talk to my dad on my phone and explain the situation. As soon as I pulled out my new iPhone, two young Hispanic men started taunting me for being a rich little white girl. I was incredibly uncomfortable and was infuriated. They did not know me or my situation. Then, I realized that many people go through these struggles on a daily basis. Dealing with discrimination is not right, but everyone goes through it one way or another.
Michelle Alexander states many accurate facts regarding race and inequality. First, she brings up a point on a war on drugs. Studies have shown that colored people are not more likely to use or sell drugs than white people are. Four of five people are arrested for use of drugs, not selling. This statistic shows how much of a crime this is nowadays. Convicted felons are sometimes denied voting rights, access to education, and even job employment. A second point she states is about racial politics. Alexander goes on saying how this is all a part of a republican strategy, or also known as the "southern strategy." It deals with desegregation, and "has worked like a charm." A third point she says is also about race and Barack Obama's victory. By Obama being elected president, Michelle Alexander thinks it is a triumph over race, since he is the first African-American to take office. Her main key point was to show that blacks are stereotyped to be the ones on the streets selling drugs and using them, but whites do it just as much.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what she noted about the Obama Administration. Just because an African-American was elected as president, doesn't mean that colored citizens have a leeway when it comes to drugs or being convicted of crimes. We need to do a better job to keep these people off the streets (both whites and blacks using and selling drugs), and getting the poor communities on their feet.
During Michelle Alexander’s piece on Democracy Now, she touches on three main topics. The first includes how the war on drugs is affecting many poor communities of color. Many black men are being arrested for minor offenses and are put in jail for long periods of time for minor drug felonies. Once released from jail, these black men are now branded with the label “felon” for the rest of their lives, which may cause them to be discriminated against. She also mentions how local law enforcement may be rewarded for the number of drug related arrests they make. This could be connected to the fact that most drug related arrests are arrests for drug use or possession, not the selling of drugs. Drug users and possessors are easier to find and arrest than drug dealers, so law enforcement may arrest who they find first so they can receive rewards. Her third and final point discusses how people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites. I liked this point because up until this point, my mind set was, well if they do not like being labeled as drug users than they should just stop doing drugs. Once I heard this fact though, I then realized that drug users and equally white and black, but blacks receive more discrimination because of the stereotype society imposes about most drug users and dealers being black.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Obama’s election as president, I think many black community members thought Obama’s election would bring more black and white equality. Some may have thought that by having a black president, more laws would have been enacted preventing this new era of Jim Crow Laws. I think that by having a black president not much has changed. Many drug users are still on the streets and the ones that are convicted for minor drug felonies are later discriminated against when being hired for jobs or voting.
One of Michelle Alexander's 3 key points is that although studies have shown that black people are no more likely to sell or use drugs than white people, there are more black people being convicted for these types of crimes than white people. She believes that this is because the police are purposefully targeting lower income neighborhoods where there is a much higher population of blacks and other minorities. Another point that she makes is that minor nonviolent drug related crimes are causing convicted felons to be denied of certain rights and be legally discriminated against for acceptance to educational facilities and job opportunities. The third point she makes is that radicals within the republican party are pushing what she calls the "southern strategy" to indirectly discriminate agains people of color.
ReplyDeleteI agree with her thoughts on the Obama administration. Although electing Obama was seen as a huge step towards equality, there is still a lot of racism and race discrimination in America today. Many white people still view blacks and other minorities as criminals or potential criminals based solely on their race.
Michelle Alexander makes quite a few good points throughout the short clip we watched. It is true that four out of every five people arrested for drug related incidences have been convicted for the possession or use of drugs, not the sale of them. She also mentions that white people are just as likely to use drugs as, colored people are, contrary to the popular belief that colored people are more likely to be addicted because drugs know no race, they will mess you up no matter what you look like. I can also take away the fact that colored people tend to be stereotyped by people who believe that all people of color use drugs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what she says about the Obama administration but I do not agree with the context she is putting her opinions in. I agree with the fact that many people saw the election of Obama as America finally being brought out of the days of segregation and Jim Crow laws, and I agree that it finalized the opinion that those days are finally over. I do not agree with her opinions about blacks being terrorized with the war on drugs. She seemed astounded by the fact that more people are being arrested for use of drugs than selling drugs. I do not see a problem with this statistic as there are not as many drug sellers as there are drug users. Also, the colored people that are being arrested for the use of drugs consciously put themselves in that position. They chose to take part in an activity that they know is illegal and they must pay the consequences just as any white person would have to. If you apply her drug logic to other crime in America, people who attempted murder should not be convicted, only those who are successful. I also acknowledge that there are not as many black people in positions of power as there are whites, but there are more white people in America than there are black people and those people of color that are in those positions worked just as hard as those white people that are, possibly even less hard because of the sliding scale of admissions and specific black scholarships for college. All in all, I believe America is in a good position with being racially accepting as a whole country, although there may be others that observe differently.
I would like to begin by first agreeing with Michelle Alexander's belief that, although the Jim Crow laws have been eliminated, racial control in the United States, functions through the criminal justice system.
ReplyDeleteOne of the key points she makes during the interview is that non-violent drug offences label people of color as felons, which in response, sends them into a permanent, 2nd class status, similar to that endured by blacks during the “Jim Crow Era”. ”. That newly given status has very negative impacts on people’s lives. It makes them unable to vote, excludes them from being selected for jury duty, and legally discriminates them by restricting the person’s privileges on housing, employment, education and public benefits.
Alexander then continued to explain another key point, the fact that the drug war was not launched in response to drug crime, but rather it was due to racial politics. The drug war began during the Reagan administration and was created by the Republican party. The overall strategy of the Republicans was known as the “Southern Strategy”. The part of the plan know as the drug war was a way to appeal to the poor, working class, white voters of America, who were threatened by the gains of the civil rights movement. So it appealed to anyone who felt threatened by the desegregation, busing, affirmative action of the United States.
The clip ended with Alexander's final key point, the idea that the drug war caused many colored people to be “branded” as felons. This “branding” caused the creation of stereotypes of blacks and lower-class, colored communities that affected many generations. The same drug acts that were, and still are, negatively affecting the lives of many colored people, continue to be largely ignored in middle to middle-upper class communities.
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ReplyDeleteMichelle Alexander emphasizes many points that prove people of color are still discriminated in society today. Alexander starts out with her first point explaining that black people are not most likely to be involved with drugs. She states in her argument that “drug dealing happens everywhere in America”. Blacks are no more likely to use or sell drugs than white people are and that fact is believed to be untrue. Michelle Alexander also goes into depth about how blacks are still discriminated today. A large majority, millions might I add, of African American men are put in jail for minor drug crimes and spend the rest of their lives in jail in a political “cast”, where they are felons. These blacks are then targeted as violent offenders and can be legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits. They can also be denied the right to vote and excluded from juries, which is not fair because it is their right as a citizen. The final prominent point that shocks me is that local and state law enforcement agencies get awarded for the sheer number of drug arrests they have. The federal drug forfeiture laws allow state and local law enforcement officials to keep eighty percent of cash, cars, and homes that they seize from suspected drug offenders. How is that fair at all? The answer to that is it’s not; it is one-hundred percent cruel and discriminating.
ReplyDeleteI do and do not support what Alexander says about the race during the Obama administration. I think that Alexander comes up with great points of the discrimination of blacks. But, after reading Elena’s second paragraph, I wish I could just quote the entire thing. Elena makes awesome points about how she exaggerates her point to help her argument but there is also many points that need to be taken into serious consideration.
I think that Michelle Alexander was simply spouting random incorrect facts and figures to try and make her point more validated. Her first point, that the war on drugs is secretly a war on blacks is completely unfounded. A majority of blacks do happen to live in America's low income areas which happen to attract the majority of drug use and solicitation but the war on drugs is not secretly a war of racism. I also disagree with her on the fact that the Obama administration just makes matters worse. Having the first black president is a great acomplishment for getting past the racism of a hundred years ago.
ReplyDeleteThen she started talking about how only 4 out of 5 people were in for possesion, she didnt mention how many of those people were repeat offenders. She also has no idea how the justice system works. For somebody to be convicted of selling of drugs it would have to be in a recorded confession or physically caught by a police officer selling the drugs which would be very hard to do. Michelle Alexander is simply a radical spewing random innacurate facts to try and get her views to be everyone elses and it's horrible that people would even listen to her sadly though you have these types of people on both sides of the debate.
Michelle Alexander has three main points in her discussion about racial inequality. Her first point is that the war on drugs has put thousands of blacks in jail. She said that over half of young black men have either been behind bars or marked with a felony for life. Her second point is that prohibiting drug use will not prevent illegal drug use. The United States has learned about the effects of banning from the prohibition of alcohol. Alexander's third point is that the law tries to arrest as many offenders as possible because they have a chance to make a profit. The profit motive makes police make more arrests on things such as drug possession.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alexander's thoughts about race during the Obama administration. I believe that Obama's election symbolized a step against racism. However, I still think that Blacks and other minority groups are viewed as second class citizens and are constantly being discriminated against.
Michelle Alexander makes several key points during the clip we watched in class. One of the key points is that 4 out of 5 people that are in jail with relation to drugs, are in the clank for possession rather than selling. Also, more than half of these criminals have no prior history of assault and it would appear that these mostly black males are being held for a longer period of time than a normal possession case should. Another point is that just because Obama became president, does not mean that the two races are equal. The last point was that cops seem to be arresting people for their own gain as they gain more money if they arrest more people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jess when she said that Michelle Alexander seemed to be obsessed with the 4/5 user to 1/5 seller stathich seems about right because there has to be more users than sellers. I believe that there was a significant amount of hype surrounding Obama's presidency and I think that if anything, the racial tension has gotten worse in the country.
I also agree with elena and ben where michelle seems to exaggerate the situation and seems to may not know how the system works and may have spewed things.
DeleteMichelle Alexander's believes that the war on drugs has caused America to "brand as felons millions of people of color for relatively minor, nonviolent drug offenses." In her first point, she states that although there have been nearly the same amount of drug offenses between white and colored people, the colored people have been depicted as the dangerous felons. A second point that Alexander brings up is the fact that once these colored people are depicted as felons, they immediately fall into a lower class by not being allowed to vote, excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in various ways. The third point that Alexander makes is that many of these people with drug offenses have only possessed drugs and have no history of violence or selling activities. Plus, most of the time, the drug is marijuana, a drug which many people now consider for medical use. Michelle Alexander brings up many solid points which support her main idea, that various Americans have drug offenses, yet the colored Americans with drug offenses are the ones depicted as felons.
ReplyDeleteI partially agree with Alexander's point. I have seen many of Alexander's statements in action as I watch the news and hear about various drug offenses. When walking through a ghetto, most people feel uncomfortable because of the "drugs and violence," yet when walking in Salem most people do not think about the fact that there are constant drug arrests in our own town. I remember reading an article during the Presidential election with Obama and McCain that many of both colored and white people alike voted for Obama for the sole reason that he is black. I also remember the American celebration as Obama was inaugurated, how it was a day to be put in the history books as we elected our first black President. Yet why do so many people consider it a victory if we have already claimed that we are all equal? Americans claim that they are done with the racial inequality yet celebrate when the first black President is elected. Lastly, as Jess said, we cannot feel badly for the black people who are arrested for drug offenses and not care when the same thing happens to white people if we are going to claim that all blacks and whites are equal. The black man knew just as much about the dangers of possessing and selling drugs. Therefore, I partially agree with Alexander's points.
Michelle Alexander makes many points throughout the video, one being the fact that more often those who are black are stereotyped as criminals and drug users compared to those who are white. This is a well known stereotype that is not accurate or true at all. Another point she makes is that people again assume that all criminals and those who possess drugs are violent, when only a select few are, and again this is another well known stereotype. One other point she makes is that there is still no real equality in America, and blacks still deal with discrimination and stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it seems that we have moved forward with racial equality, with President Obama being the first black president, I do agree with Michelle Alexander's view on this. I completely agree that it seems as though we are acting and treating everyone equally, but we are not even close to that point. Many people believe that because we now have a black president, it is a new hope, but I disagree and believe that that is not true because people will always have stereotypes and believe that they are better than others.
In her interview, Michelle Alexandra raises some valid points. The first point she makes is that the war on drugs is targeted at poor colored communities. She says that the people in these communities are labeled as criminals for a majority of their lives and are denied basic rights like being able to vote. The next point she makes is that war on drugs is a flawed system. The police stations that enforce these drug laws gain benefits based on the amount of arrests, so they are more likely to make as many arrests as possible. They do not focus on people that are key players in drug distribution but more on the actual users themselves. The police are treating the symptoms of the drug distribution not the disease. The last point Alexander makes is that the election of Obama gives a false sense of equality. People believe that since Obama has been elected equality has been reached. This is an incorrect assumption because she says that 50% of black people are registered as criminals and are legally discriminated against.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Michelle raises some valid points, I do not agree completely with her findings. To make a point, she says that 4 out of 5 arrests are for possession or use of drugs and not selling. Although I understand her point, the 4 out of 5 people arrested for possession should still be arrested. It is true that the police focus more on the poorer black communities, but that is only because they have become synonymous with crime and violence. The lesson to be learned from this is that the war on drugs should stretch to the middle and upper class communities, not that the restrictions should be lessened on the lower class communities. I also believe that Obama's election shows equality is being reached. It takes time for equality to be fully reached. Segregation was still around in the 1960s and now we have a black president. Equality is taking time, but it is still there. However, Alexander makes it seem like there is blacks are still as oppressed as they were in the 1960s, which I find untrue. In my opinion, I feel that Michelle Alexander is over exaggerating coincidence, but I do not live in a poor black community or have studied them so my opinion is just based on my personal feelings.
Michelle Alexander makes many points during this video. One of the key points that she makes is about the drug war. Alexander believes that the war on drugs is secretly a war on blacks. Alexander says that although whites are just as likely to get addicted to drugs as blacks are, colored communities are targeted more often. Another point that Alexander makes is that 4 out of 5 drug arrests are for possession of drug as oppose to selling of drugs. I think that when Alexander makes this point she comes off as sounding like the possession of drugs is not a big deal. From what Alexander says, it seems to me as if she does not believe the possession of drugs to be considered a felony. She then goes on to basically say that the use of marijuana and the possession of it is not a big deal. In addition, Alexander says how police officers make money based off of the number of drug arrests. I was not aware of this and I think that it is interesting. I think this makes some police officers work harder to find drugs, which might not be a bad thing. The reward for the police officers only helps to ensure the safety of Americans all over.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the Obama presidency, I think that having a black president does not really change anything. The color of the president's skin is only noteworthy because he was our first black president. If we truly believe that skin color has no meaning and does not change who we are, why would having a black president change the country in aspects that it wouldn't be changed if Obama was white?
Michelle Alexander had a lot of information to put out there, like Ben said, and it may not ball be correct. I agree with Ben in some ways, and disagree with him in others. She did spout way to much information at the viewer. I was very overwhelmed with this because it was difficult for me to pick out what she was really trying to say. The three points that I got out of it were that blacks and Hispanics were treated differently on the fact that they were arrested more than white people, there is a war on drugs, and that there is still racism in our society. Although the last two points are vague, that's pretty much all I could get out of it.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that her notions were correct though. I agree with her that Obama becoming president has really been "the final nail in the coffin of Jim Crow". His presidency is very exciting, but I do think that there is still racism happening in our community.
Michelle Alexander discussed many key points in this clip. One main point she talked about was the war on drugs. She discussed that people of color are not more likely to use or sell drugs than white people. She says that people of color are generally in the lower class and are more likely to be arrested or have a criminal record than that of a white person. More than half of these criminals have no prior history of assault yet most black males were held longer than a normal amount of time for a dug possession criminal.
ReplyDeleteTh also makes the point that the drug war was launched in response to racial politics. She claims it was to appeal to white people who were threatened by desegregation and civil rights movement. She believes that images of black people using crack on television helped change the viewers of Americans on who the users of them were.
Her third point is that law enforcers try to arrest as many offenders as possible because they profit and benefit from the volume of offenders they arrest. They are allowed to keep certain things they find from offenders as profit.
I agree that electing a black president show's America's progress through the racial conflict in the country, but I still believe that America still has racial problems and that just electing a black president has not gotten rid of that. I do however think Alexander exaggerates the situation and only seems to mention facts to prove her point and less information pertaining to this as a whole.
In Michelle Alexander's interview, she makes a number of good (and sometimes surprising) points. The first point of hers that I heard is that nearly half of the young black men in the United States have either been put behind bars or branded felons for life, mostly because of drug-related crimes. Another point I heard is that after those men are put behind bars or branded felons, some of their rights, such as voting, can be taken away and that they may be discriminated against when applying for jobs and the like. One of the last points I heard is that racial equality has not been reached just because Obama is president. This is true, since many people are still quite racist, which means a tougher situation for all blacks across the country. For example, even though Alexander states that white people are just as likely to use drugs as black people, it's proven that way more black people are convicted than white people for those very same crimes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michelle Alexander's statements regarding Obama and racial inequality. People seem to think that everyone is truly equal now and that everything is a-ok just because we have a black president, but that is not the case. Black people are still incredibly stereotyped and discriminated against, which Alexander proves in her interview by bringing up the drug war and how blacks are affected by it. We have not yet reached racial equality and I believe that, sadly, we may be a longer way off from it than we may have thought.
While watching the clip I would have to agree with Mikey that Michelle Alexander had a lot of information to talk about, and it was at some point overwhelming to catch the main points or pick out the important details. Michelle Alexander made three main points throughout the video that all had to do with race and inequality in America. The topics brought up all had to do with the fact that many Blacks were being discriminated because of the felons they were convicted of and were being compared to white people. Many other topics had to do with racism still present in our society and the outlook on the drug war.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Michelle Alexander that Obama becoming President has made an impact in our society. However, even though we have a black president, many in our society view things differently. Even though racism is not as big as a problem as it was back then, sadly racism still exist in our society today.
Michelle Alexander makes many points about how the Drug War is primarily targeting the colored society. One point Alexander makes is that once a colored person makes even a minor drug offence, they are permanently labeled felons and become a part of a second class. Alexander describes that this second class usually strips these “felons” of their right to vote and legally labels them as felons. Another point Michelle Alexander brings up is that the Drug War was initially enacted to help with politics. The Drug War helped the Republican Party appeal to the poor working class of white voters who felt vulnerable by the gains of the civil rights movement; which included desegregation, busing, and affirmative action. The last point Michelle Alexander makes is that four out of every five drug arrests are for possession. Possession is not a major offence, but it would place colored people in prison for an extended period of time. Once they were convicted, they would be permanently placed into the previously mentioned second class by law.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michelle Alexander on a few points. I do believe that the Drug War is mainly aimed at lower class colored communities. However, I disagree with the fact that this should stop. It does not make sense to me to stop catching lower class colored people of drug use and dealing just because it can be viewed as racist. To battle this accusation, however, I would advise the Drug War to broaden its horizons and also strike the middle / upper class society. I do not agree with the way Michelle Alexander tries to use the statistic of four out of every five drug arrests are for possession to support her stand. Regardless of what the arrest is for or how minor it is, the people, colored or not, should still be arrested for doing something illegal. I am personally not bothered by the fact that colored people are going to prison for something as minor as possession because they knew they were breaking the law and they knew the risks in what they were doing.
I do not know why my response is not indented like it showed in the preview, but it is supposed to be indented at "I agree with Michelle Alexander."
DeleteDuring Alexander's interview she makes many points about racism in America. Her first point and most repeated point is that the new form of Jim crow laws are the war on drugs. She states that black people are targeted by police in colored communities for drug use/possession/violence. Her second point is that since black people are targeted, when they are convicted automatically become second class citizens and lose rights such as voting. Her third point is that since Obama was elected, America has a false sense that racism in America is gone.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Alexander is correct in saying that America has a false sense that racism is gone in America because we have a president of color. I agree with this statement because it is a very easy out for people that are racist to say that they aren't because they live in a country with a black president but they probably didn't even vote for him. I also believe that this is true because just because one person is accepted by part of the country(Those who voted for him) doesn't mean that those who were racist will all of a sudden change their beliefs because of one man.
Michelle Alexander brought up many points in this video. One key point that was really surprising was when she mentioned nowadays, the state and local law enforcement are extremely target on the poor, colored people, and they would even get rewarded for dramatically increasing the number of drug arrests. Another shocking point she made was in 2005, four out of five drug arrests were simply for drug using, and only one out of five was actually for selling the drugs, also many of them had a pretty clean record. The last important point she made was the people of color are less likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but yet, they are as felons for nonviolent drug offenses, and those "felons" are excluded from juries and were legally discriminated when it comes to housing, finding a job or receiving an education.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Michelle Alexander's view about the race in America during Obama administration. I agree on how Obama's election seemed to close gap and bring the equality between the colored group and the whites, and how the affirmative action seemed to have help the colored group to do better than ever, but unfortunately, we know in reality it really did not change much. The colored people are still facing the discrimination and inequality, and they are still being stereotyped here in America as the drug dealers.
Michelle Alexander's 3 main points in this video are that blacks are being arrested more by policemen on minor felonies, the problem of policemen making more arrests for possession than distribution, and blacks are still being discriminated as criminals. According to Michelle Alexander, more blacks have criminal records than whites for the same charges because law enforcement are targeting poor communities that are mostly populated by blacks and Hispanics. In this video it is stated that 4 out of 5 arrests made on drugs are for simple possession and not distribution, and that people now have records that can deny them admittance into higher education systems. Michele Alexander's final point of this video is that even with the administration of Obama, blacks are still being discriminated and stereotyped as criminals by the law.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Michelle Alexander's view on race inequality during the Obama administration because the "facts" that she stated in the video were clearly picked specifically to focus on just one point of racial inequality and not the whole picture. The whole picture is that drugs are being abused equally by blacks and whites but black people are being arrested more because the people in poor communities are always looking for a way to rise up financially and selling drugs is an easy route. I believe that blacks are being discriminated not because of race but by how they look in other's eyes.