Writing the Essay II: The Danger of a Single Story – Final Research Paper

America’s incarceration rates are five times higher than the majority of other countries in the world (prison policy). Statistics like this aren’t widely known across the US and the Prison Industrial Complex has only been talked about more recently in the media due to the rising popularity in the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of George Floyd. The concept of the Prison Industrial Complex refers to the relationship between the government, and the privately-owned companies that profit off of increased incarceration rates (Merriam-Webster). When slavery was made illegal with the 13th amendment it was abolished with the intent that enslavement would only be allowed as punishment for a crime; therefore creating a legal . America’s detrimentally high imprisonment rates are an evolution of the 13th amendment, a result of a system built off of slavery and classism, to contribute to an ongoing capitalistic society.

Enforcing strict, unjust laws directed at Black people specifically, allowed police to arrest and incarcerate at an extremely high rate. This built back the economy as the government now was able to hide indentured servitude behind the label of prisons. This allowed for slavery to transition into a form of indentured servitude that we still see today. The concept that one can serve a lifetime sentence, and work while in prison, is still widely regarded today and not given a second glance by many. Yet, the question still arises, “how is the concept of slavery still alive today?”

After the 13th amendment was legalized, Black Codes were used to determine when and where Black individuals could work along with their pay. This allowed white Americans to keep Black people within the confines of indentured servitude without the official label of slavery (History). Jim Crow laws became the next “legal” way to keep Black people at a low economic and social status. In the writing Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi writes, “At the onset of the Civil War, our stolen and bodies were worth four billion, more than all of American industry, all of America’s railroads, workshops, factories, and the prime product rendered by or stolen bodies-cotton.” (Between the World and Me). The profit made off of slavery, and the lack thereof, was a mass contributor to America’s economic status which is why it has never been truly abolished. The US was built on the backs of black and brown people, literally and metaphorically, without forced free labor, America’s economy would fail. Slavery cannot be fully abolished without an abolition of the systems that uphold it: white supremacy and capitalism. Jim Crow Laws were made to be “separate but equal,”considered, at the time, to be a stomach-able form of racism for white people. These laws kept Black people from voting, marrying, and entering public spaces with white people like theaters, parks, schools, work buildings, etc., and living in white neighborhoods (History).

Laws like Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws were created for two reasons. Firstly, these laws forced Black people into a lower societal, economic, and financial status. Secondly, this was not enough to make up for the American economy built on slavery which is why mass imprisonment at the time was necessary to uphold that same economy. Around the 1950s redlining was used as a way to enforce segregation. Black people were denied government-issued home loans and economically forced to live outside of white suburbs. As a result, Black people were attending schools with minimal funding, working jobs with minimal pay, and were systematically placed in a detrimental, economic position. Once the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968, Black people were legally protected in the process of buying homes yet, the white suburban areas weren’t affordable anymore due to inflation and the lack of ability to acquire wealth and financial stability (NPR). Redlining created a multigenerational lack of wealth, accessibility to education, poor healthcare, and low job opportunity and the effects of redlining are still seen today within neighborhoods all over America. In 2000, an average neighborhood within a metropolitan area had a racial makeup of 79% White, 6% Black, 9% Hispanic or Latino, and 6% Asian American (Brookings).

Today’s prison rates are deeply affected by Redlining and the segregation it caused. Sectioning off white and Black neighborhoods made it possible to target Black and poor people by over-policing and underinvesting in those areas (Brookings). These segregated neighborhoods were criminalized and with the ability to target certain neighborhoods, police have the ease of going to one location and targeting its population. This led to higher rates of Black people incarcerated for drug offenses and violent arrests. The rates of arrests for drugs and violence within black neighborhoods was not only impacted by over policing, but also a lack of resources and education due to financial instability within these neighborhoods. High rates of drugs and violence are not limited to race, but also class. This segregation allowed, and still allows, the government and media to force labels of violence and drug use on Black communities, despite researched statistics showing that white and Black people commit crimes at similar rates, Black people are simply arrested for it at higher rates. According to the Hamilton Project, an initiative to promote economic growth, the 2015 Census Bureau statistics showed that 16% of Black people report using drugs whereas around 19% of white people report using. Yet, Black people are 6.5x more likely to be incarcerated for drug-related crimes than white people (The Hamilton Project). Redlining and Jim Crow Laws enforcing this form of segregation have allowed for discrimination within majority-Black neighborhoods. Although these laws were enforced more than 60 years ago, their effects are still felt today. This forced displacement allowed for systemic neglect and state violence within segregated communities that were already at an economic disadvantage.

Redlining also directly contributed to the War on Drugs and how the government was able to imprison so many Black people. Within the 1960s, Black neighborhoods were already being criminalized heavily by the public due to the number of arrests and police activity there. At the beginning of Nixon’s presidency in 1969 he declared drug abuse as a “serious national threat” and began enacting legislation with anti-drug policies. The War on Drugs begins and mass incarceration ensues. In the 1970s and within the next 40 years America’s incarceration rates rose from 357,292 people to 2,306,200 by the end of 2014 (13th). Nixon kickstarted this “tough on crime” attitude by using the media to raise awareness about drugs and associate them with violence and therefore unsafe neighborhoods and living situations for society. He led the population to believe that drugs were a direct cause of violence and drug users needed to be imprisoned to make America safer. A Nixon official stated, “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt their communities.” (13th). Black communities stereotypically being associated with drugs and violence, not only enforced stereotypes, but also reinforced racism that exists outside of the system; like racism within schools, work places, and other societal settings. Nixon publicly made racism acceptable. Nixon legislated mandatory sentences for drug crimes and created a task force within the police that specialized in targeting illegal drug use. The task force was given $75 million and 1500 agents; today that same section of police has upwards of 5,000 agents and a $2.03 billion budget (NPR).

Reagan was elected in 1981 and served two terms. The “Just Say No” campaign was released regarding the dangers of drugs and the “tough on crime” attitude was kickstarted again. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act was passed in 1986 with more mandatory minimum sentences for drug use. This was and is considered to be highly controversial because crack and cocaine were given different sentence minimums when crack was used more often by Black Americans and cocaine was used more often by white Americans. Five grams of crack had a minimum five-year sentence whereas 500 grams of powder cocaine were needed to have the same sentence time (History). During this time and due to this legislation, Black neighborhoods were heavily targeted and non-violent drug arrests between 1980 and 1997 rose from 50,000 to 400,000 (History). This increase in arrests was directly correlated and cyclical with the legislation; legislation allowed for more arrests, and more arrests led to more legislation.

When Clinton was elected in 1993, there was still a lot of concern for drug violence in communities, and presidents that wanted to be elected had to take on harsher and harsher policies to gain the public’s favor. Clinton was considered to be a new “law and order Democrat,” and quickly showed his seriousness when he passed a federal crime bill in 1994. This bill was a $30 billion act that led to a huge expansion of the prison industrial complex (Brennan Center). America built a new prison every 10 days and between the years of 1994 and 2005, 544 correctional facilities were built: all within a timeframe of 15 years. It also incentivized states to pass truth-in-sentencing laws that required incarcerated people to serve at least 85% of their sentence (Brennan Center). This kept more people in prison for longer amounts of time. California adopted the “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law that meant anyone with three offenses was required to serve a life sentence, upwards of 20 states followed suit. According to the Sentencing Project, Black men are incarcerated at six times the rate of white men (Sentencing Project). Many Americans believe the days of racism are long behind us. Yet, many of our parents and our grandparents were alive during this time where systemic racism blatantly was and is in full force. Although many of these laws are no longer in place today, the effects live on long past them.

In 2018, American Progress released an article stating Black Americans makeup 30% of all drug-related arrests but only 12.5% of the population and that 80% of people serving time for a drug-related offense are people of color (American Progress). Not only do these statistics show how much communities of color were targeted but they also show the aftermath of what it looks like now to live in a post-war on drugs society. Incarceration creates a permanent second-class citizen. People who have been previously convicted cannot vote, serve on a jury, obtain employment in many places, get child custody, business loans, licensing, student aid, or public housing (Drug Policy Alliance). It has also been proven that after serving one sentence there is a 76.6% chance of being rearrested, which can largely be accredited to the lack of aid given to those previously incarcerated (Harvard Politics). On top of the classism used to keep those previously incarcerated from obtaining a higher economic or financial status, there is also the social and familial aspect. In 2015 the Drug Policy Alliance released an article stating that one in nine Black children are growing up with an incarcerated parent, compared to one in every 57 white children. This a cyclical concept, and directly reinforces generational trauma as Black parents’ children are over policed and arrested, and black childrens’ parents are over policed and arrested. Living within a system that frequently criminalizes you is traumatic in itself, yet the familial impacts leave black families feeling constantly unsafe and untrusting.

The concept of a permanent second-class citizen is very real today and is affecting a large portion of Black Americans. Meanwhile, private prisons, which house the majority of incarcerated people, profit off of prison labor daily. States depend on meeting a certain quota because prison labor drives state economy which is a massive contributor to prison rates throughout the last 40 years (Interrogating Justice). Between 1980 and 1994 private prison profits rose from $392 million to 1.31 billion (Interrogating Justice). An article from Interrogating Justice adds, “As the ACLU notes, private prisons expand in direct correlation to the rising number of incarcerated Americans. Their research found that two private prison companies amassed more than $3 billion in 2010” (Interrogating Justice). If states fail to populate the prisons with a minimum number of prisoners legislated then they are required to make up for the lost revenue (Interrogating Justice). Again proving that prison labor and the idea that someone can be an “indentured servant” as punishment for a crime, is still fully in effect today. The economy spiraled after slavery was outlawed, and since then, the idea of slavery has evolved to serve America’s economic and financial system. Slavery was an industry that has involved into mass incarceration and what we now call the Prison Industrial Complex. Capitalism is fueled by a labor force that is inexpensive and exploitable and private prisons are designed to do exactly that. The Prison Industrial Complex conveniently maintains segregation, provides a free labor force, and largely eliminates Black Americans from the labor market. In 1865 the states ratified the 13th amendment and slavery was considered to be abolished. Since then, America has continued to profit off of free labor provided by those incarcerated. Whether it be Jim Crow Laws or Redlining, the government has consistently found ways to modernize the concept of slavery: an accomplishable task considering how the United States was built on the economic foundation of slavery and is still finding ways to profit off of it today. White Supremacy is embedded in government format, policy, and legislation and has only ever and will only ever continue to evolve. As we’ve seen civil rights movements ebb and flow within society, the future looks brighter as more and more people begin to fully understand the past and the economic dependence on Black and Brown people. However, full change cannot be effected without a full abolition of the system that America is built on: capitalism. It has become popular, as of late, to refer to the government as “broken”, when it is really working exactly how it was supposed to. You cannot reform a system that is functioning exactly how it was designed. White supremacy will continue to be upheld in a system that allows it to go unchecked and even legalizes it again and again. Completely abolishing this system will in turn abolish the white supremacy and classism it upholds, along with capitalistic ideals it upholds.

Works Cited

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