Michael Giles received 25 to life after being convicted of aggravated battery under the Florida 10-20-Life sentencing law. Meanwhile George Zimmerman who also did not file for a Stand Your Ground hearing walked free after the judge told the jury that Zimmerman had every right to stand his ground and use deadly force if needed.
Systematic Discrimination
Systematic Discrimination by dictionary definition is the use of a system or method used to disadvantage a person, racial group, minority, or majority. This is an informative paper on how and why systematic discrimination has been and still is a constant issue in American society.
Origin
Systematic Discrimination in the United States has been around since the colonization of the Americas. It began with indentured servitude and grew with the enslavement of Africans and Native Americans. Indentured servants where usually the poor who wanted to come to the New World to begin a new life. Often these people would work for the family or person that would pay the fare to travel to the New World. Usually these indentured servitude contracts were only for four to five years or until the debt was paid off. The completion of these contracts left a hole in the economy landowners had no one to reap and cultivate their fields while the demand for the crops grew overseas. According to Matthew Pursell’s article Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South, indentured servitude and other tactics such as the “redemptioner system” paved the way for slavery in the early U.S. colonies. Slavery plays a major role in systematic discrimination being that by law these persons had no political rights and their human rights were constantly infringed upon. Aside from not having the right to vote or own property/livestock, slaves were not allowed to read or write and were told who and how to worship. By using these tactics this made it impossible for a slave to be a functioning member of society. Slavery was the crutch of the American economy, from the 1600’s to the 1800’s being that crops such as tobacco, cotton, and sugar were in high demand.
Jim Crow Era
After the Civil War Blacks were given full citizenship and black men were allowed to vote and served in political office and on juries. However, this all changed shortly after the Union troops left in 1868 this began what is known as the Jim Crow era. Jim Crow was a slang term for a black man which later was used to recognize any law that established different rules for blacks and whites (Packard). Every aspect of life was of the Black person’s life by law was scrutinized and determined by the Whites in power. Everything from water fountains to parks to schools and even in some states cities where blacks could live was determined by Whites. But usually when people hear the term Jim Crow they only think of the southern states. However in states such as New York and California Blacks were denied jobs due to fear by Whites of their jobs being taken (Packard). The Jim Crow era is when you really start to see systematic discrimination really take its toll of the Black society. Blacks during the early stages, due to most being former slaves, were illiterate and uneducated there for could not vote or hold prominent positions in society (Packard). With the rise of the Klu Klux Klan, Black men were the primary targets for lynching. During a time when society was very family based these men would usually have a wife and multiple children. Women during the time were often house maids barely making enough to feed their families so the oldest child would drop out of school to help take care of the younger sibling(s) or bring more money to the household. Thus less and less Blacks are becoming educated and the ones that are able to go to school their schools usually were not up to par with the schools of their White counterparts (Packard).
The 60’s-90’s
During the Civil Rights Movement there was the creation of the Economic Opportunity Act by President Johnson and administration in 1964. Its purpose was to eliminate poverty, provide aid to the poor/unemployed/elderly, and provide educational opportunities (Garson). This is where public housing and public schooling comes into play. With these public housing developments occupied mostly by Blacks there was a rise in harassment issues by white groups and the predominately white police force (Howell). This led to the creation of some of the first black gangs and other militant organizations such as Vice Lords, Black P-Stones, and the Black Panthers. These organizations original role was to protect their public housing area (Howell). With the introduction of crack-cocaine during Vietnam, public housing areas became war zones for gangs over drug turf (Howell). Due to the violence these housing projects and surrounding areas were neglected by the government. This also led to these housing projects becoming target areas for police and a rift between police and the Black society. Along with the rift between police and the Black society began the rift with the Justice System. Blacks were getting jail time for not paying child support and there were many cases of police brutality such as the famous Rodney King case.
Today
In today’s society, specifically the last ten years, events have brought us to question whether or not discrimination is still an issue in America. In the past three years the rift between the Black society, police, and the Justice System has come back to the forefront of social issues. The recent main issues with the police and Justice System have been the killings and extensive injuring of unarmed Black males by police officers and these officers not being prosecuted to the full extent of the law or being let off with lesser charges or not being charged at all. This has led to multiple rallies and protest and even riots across the country. There has also been a call by prominent community leaders to the President and other significant government officials for police reform.
Works Cited Page
Chafe, William H. Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell about Life in the Segregated South. New York: The New Press. 2001.
Davis, Jack E. “Civil Rights Movement.” Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 27 May 2015.
Garson, David G. Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Pearson Higher Education. Pearson Online, 2014. Web. 27 May 2015.
Howell, James C., Moore, John P. National Gang Center Bulletin. U.S. DoJ: Bureau of Justice Assistance. 2010.
Packard, Jerrald M. American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2002.
A look at some common view points taken on the subject of Systematic Discrimination. Is there a right answer here? Are both sides on to something?
As a kid coming up I heard this term thrown around quite a bit. At the time my understanding was that it involved things such as being called the “N word” or being followed in a store. As I have come to the young age of 21 and the fact that I have lived in multiple countries, life experience comes fast. My view of this has changed drastically from those things that I mentioned for and I now understand that it is why those things happen to people like myself. But I still haven’t figured out what is fully encompassed under the umbrella of systematic discrimination. the first step to solving an issue is acknowledging the issue. Second, is to understand the issue.
Within the last 2 years our country has seen a rise of protests to police involved shootings of Black men/teenagers. If you were to ask multiple Black citizens of their view of this topic, you will probably get an answer along the lines of “This is an addition to the never ending systematic discrimination of the Black Community.” However if you were to ask another group of individuals you may get a response that systematic discrimination as a whole is non-existent. What I know is, Systematic Discrimination is and has been engrained in the American way of life since this great nation was formed. Throughout the years we have placed the solution to this problem on the government thus the Civil Rights Act is formed. Since the formation of the Civil Rights Act there have been multiple violations of Civil Rights. But these situations become even more difficult to deal with due to the difficulty of discussing it. I have a deep rooted investment to this topic being that I am young Black male of the American society. My interest in this topic extends from my need to understand this in hopes of getting people to understand the views and working together to rid the United States of America of this plague. That goal is next to impossible, so my true goal is to gain a better understanding of the views on this topic from college age citizens.
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