Table of ContentsSummaryIntroductionBlack nihilism existsThe myth of black crimeAbuse of police powerOther factors of nihilism (poverty, unemployment)ConclusionSummaryThe purpose of this in-depth essay is to address the question “To what extent is the disproportionate incarceration of African American communities responsible for black nihilism?” Nihilism, according to Cornel West, is "the lived experience of facing a life of horribly meaninglessness, despair, and (most importantly) lack of love." The question is intended to highlight that throughout American history, African Americans have repeatedly been controlled by systems of government, from slavery to Jim Crow, that continue to have devastating effects on their minds . The scope of the investigation is to analyze the past, as it is essential to understand the evolution of the prison system from laws and policies, including the US Constitution. The method consists of using two specific subjects: history and psychology. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The historical lens allows us to analyze how this system came to be, while the psychological lens analyzes why. History is a vital part of this inquiry because many in the United States don't like to talk about slavery, but for black lives to truly matter, black history must matter too. Racial caste systems defined the meaning of race in their time. Slavery defined blackness by the fact that a person was held in servitude (literally a slave). The Jim Crow era defined blackness through permanent second-class citizenship, whereas today, being black, especially for men, means being a criminal. The exploitation and destruction of black people, throughout the centuries of American history, has repeatedly evolved into systems designed to temporarily maintain racial control in America, given the constraints of the times. Psychology involves the study of human behavior. Racism and its implications still exist today and the disproportionate number of African Americans currently under correctional control is an example. Covert discrimination against Black people manifests itself largely in broken social institutions that we, a society of collective human beings, allow to grow and thrive. We can conclude that the mass incarceration of black people causes nihilism in their communities; However, we cannot say that this singular factor, by itself, causes the development of this nihilism, although it plays a large role. There has been a physical and psychological war against Black people in America for centuries, evident in the expansion of the prison system, and denying this history only fuels more of the same in the future. Nothing can be done about these prisons until American society is willing to at least momentarily suspend the assumption that it absolutely needs them. Introduction Although America is home to 5% of the world's population, it is home to approximately 25% of the world's total prison population. A quarter of the world's population is imprisoned in America, the "land of the free." The legal system, influenced by race, is extremely crucial in today's business because to dismantle such a system, its existence must be recognized; Racism (a system of benefits based on race) and white oppression are at the heart of this civil rights issue. This essay clearly highlights that Black Americans are disproportionately targeted by manyinstitutions that exist in America; America is built on the subjugation and second-class treatment of black people. About one in 15 African American men is incarcerated, compared to one in 106 white men, and yet there are far fewer blacks (than whites) in the total U.S. population. Returning to their predominantly black communities, the former prisoners are left with a strong sense of hopelessness and meaninglessness. Mass incarceration leaves victims with oppressive psychological consequences and nihilistic attitudes toward life. Such analysis of how the criminal justice system works helps us better understand the despair that is perpetuated in Black communities. If white nihilism does not exist, then we must investigate what makes the African American experience hopeless. It should also be clarified that I am talking about social nihilism and not typical philosophical nihilism. Given the issue, this is an important topic because the inability to care about color differences is at the very heart of this control system, like any other. another racial caste system that has existed in the United States. Americans need to be able to connect across these color lines, but, as time passes, many seem less able to do so and discrimination against black people becomes less explicit, making it harder to do so. fights against the legacy of racism and dismantling it, which hinders the beginning. of the essential healing process. Today, the systematic control of Black America manifests itself through the flaws of the criminal justice system; this system is only broken to the extent that our society is broken and functioning as intended. If our intention is to imprison massive numbers of people or if we view prison as an effective means of meeting the myriad social needs of the African American community, then the system is quite effective. This essay assesses how the mass incarceration of hundreds of thousands of black men (and women) causes nihilism in their communities. Black Nihilism Exists Despair and eternal peril have long been the essence of Black America and now more than ever. However, a distinction must be made; nihilism is not the opposite of morality. Seemingly desperate people may have morals, but such a lack of meaning can devastatingly lead to “bad choices” and increased motivation to participate in “criminal” activities. Although the possibility of social cohesion could end this cycle of self-destruction, it seems unlikely that this type of stability could be achieved, as humans do. Angela Davis, in Are Prisons Obsolete?, describes society's reliance on prisons to care for discarded members of society, who largely happen to be people of color, and while advocating for of the prison industrial complex, argues that it is difficult "to envision a social order that does not rely on the threat of sequestering people in terrible places designed to separate them from their communities and families. » Mass incarceration shows how deeply rooted corruption is within American society, and corporate America bears great responsibility for the destruction of Black America. It is undeniable that mass incarceration causes, directly and indirectly, total despair in black communities. Explaining crime and poverty as the result of black behavioral choices further obscures the fact that both are caused by capitalism. Cornel West, a renowned black author and intellectual, plays an essential role in this investigation.West explores how nihilism poses a threat to black survival by explaining the impact of corporate market institutions. In the United States, these institutions wield a disproportionate amount of capital and power, while exerting a disproportionate influence over how our culture is shaped and society is governed. He asserts that the primary motivation of these institutions is to make profits, and that their basic tactic is to “convince the public to consume”. The fact that the public conforms to the normative reality that systemic inequality is a cultural choice suggests that black people are simply reluctant about their situation – that it is their fault if they remain in poverty, but, in reality, this “behavior is the tragic response of a people deprived of resources to the functioning of American capitalist society.” Violence arises from economic deprivation, not because poor black people have bad attitudes or cultural attitudes. But because without real economic security, "necessary projects for survival" can include illegal activities, such as trafficking. of drugs. Therefore, it must be recognized that the "nihilistic threat" contributes to criminal behavior, and while legal businesses have the police to physically enforce the laws that govern them, disagreements and disputes within illegal businesses, often composed of people of color, are set and enforced by people of color. the practitioners themselves. Essentially, the prison system “alleviates the responsibility to engage seriously with the problems of our society, particularly those produced by racism and, increasingly, by global capitalism.” West also stated that "Americans must criticize and condemn the immoral actions of black people, but they must do so with an awareness of the circumstances into which people are born and live...and many fall into the trap of blaming poor black people." for their actions.” their predicament", but this so-called "predicament" is almost inevitable because life in the ghetto actually influences criminal behavior, reinforcing the need to participate in such activities in order to survive and prevent the destruction of one's own black body. The psychological effect of mass incarceration extends beyond incarcerated people and their families; the analysis reveals that parental incarceration results in “intergenerational trauma.” A feeling of hopelessness affects not only the inmates but also the residents of these communities. Paternal incarceration is associated with poor behavior, particularly among boys. Children of incarcerated adults are at greater risk of economic instability due to the loss of the primary breadwinner and, as a result, more often end up in foster care or homelessness, both situations strongly associated with poor academic performance and the lack of a strong figurehead. Approximately 1 in 9 African American children have an incarcerated parent, and research also shows that there is a high risk that incarceration will become a hereditary trait. Today, reports also indicate that “incidents of domestic violence are more common in black households.” Thus, children of incarcerated parents are more likely to eventually find themselves incarcerated. In a public address, former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson said the breakdown of families “stems from centuries of oppression and persecution of the black man. This stems from long years of degradation and discrimination, which have undermined his dignity and undermined hisability to provide for their family. The press interpreted this statement as a condemnation of the "failure of black family life." Black families are generally seen as hopelessly discordant, dysfunctional, violent, and insubstantial; but what makes the situation worse is that “these perceptions are accepted and shared without question or scruple.” Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “the devastating blows to the black family have left them fragile, helpless and often psychopathic.” Many Americans like to think that they deserved all the “good” in life, and that others did too. , get what they deserve. However, this cannot apply to the plight of poor black people, because racism explicitly contradicts these ideas of justice. Social psychologists call this tendency a “belief in a just world.” Blaming the victim for their suffering is a common behavior that justifies the current system. Belief in a just world can lead not only to the derogation of individual victims, but also to the derogation of entire social groups. This myth of merit is used by many, black and white, to justify the inconveniences that black people encounter in many aspects of their lives, not just in the courts. The myth of black criminality 1600, where Africans were bought and sold as human property to America. Although black history does not begin with slavery, slavery is integral to understanding the origins of crude oil.Black stereotypes. Slavery was an economic system in which 4 million "goods" were vital to the Southern system of economic production. After the Civil War, African Americans were arrested en masse, resulting in America's first prison boom. Many were arrested for minor offenses, such as loitering and vagrancy. Those arrested after the war provided labor to help rebuild the economy, and again, the exploitation of black people was seen as a “greater goal,” according to some. Currently, African Americans are viewed as disposable and unnecessary to the functioning of the new global economy, whereas previous systems of control, such as slavery, were designed to exploit and control black labor. Black criminality and inhumanity are enshrined in American law; in Article IV of the Fugitive Slave Clause, just one example, it states that any "person held to service or labor" who escaped from one state to another could be "delivered upon demand of the party to whom such service or work may be due. » From the founding of America, the pursuit of the right to work and the right to live without being whipped or selling one's children was forbidden to black people. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed, “All men are created equal,” and yet, in this “political arithmetic,” blacks were divided into three-fifths of men. Denying black humanity is at the root of deeply held beliefs that black people are inferior. The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, included a loophole allowing whites to continue exploiting blacks. According to this law, once a person is labeled a "felon", that person is subject to various losses, including, but not limited to, deprivation of the right to vote, the right to be part of a juror, basic benefits, and discrimination in housing and employment. Black people are deprived of rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement and although this amendment prohibited involuntary servitude, "white supremacy continued to be embraced by large numbers of people and became deeplyenrolled in new institutions. » Bold promotion of white supremacy and black inferiority is the most effective and successful propaganda campaign, according to Tom Burrell, pioneer of black marketing communications and author of Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority. In detailing his knowledge gained from working within the system, Burrell clearly emphasizes that “black people are not dark-skinned white people”; centuries of inhumane treatment are the cause. The corporate market institutions that West was referring to earlier convince the public to buy into myths of black villainy through an overabundance of media misrepresentation. The distortion of the history of people of color leads the public to make assumptions that may go unquestioned for some time. long lasting. These fixed ideas (that black people are lazy, violent, and criminal) persist among the 7 million Americans whose freedom is currently significantly restricted under correctional control. Nationwide, 13 percent of African American men are disenfranchised for felony convictions, which is seven times the national average. Alabama has one of the highest rates of disenfranchisement in the country: nearly a third of Alabama's African-American men have lost the right to vote, and for the foreseeable future, those numbers will only increase until black humanity is recognized. In her book, Why Do All the Black Kids Sit Together in the Cafeteria?, renowned psychologist Beverly Daniel Tatum delves into the reasoning behind self-segregation and the development of racial identity, while also referencing to this “mythical norm,” originally described by Audre Lorde in “Age, Race.” , Class and gender: women redefine difference. Lorde claims that this standard is generally defined as a white, thin, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure male; nevertheless, “the external signs of power that reside in society fit into this mythical norm.” And those who are not included in this power often identify at least one reason why they are different (such as being black, gay or poor) and it is assumed that this is the main cause of all oppression, forgetting the other distortions around the difference. Standing outside of this norm allows those who are different to continually be oppressed and subjugated so that white people (the norm) can maintain power. Blackness is therefore not the only reason to incarcerate those who possess such a trait, but, indeed, blackness (and racist intentions) are so deeply ingrained in the foundations of the system that they control how everyone lives. Blackness, in itself, can also explain disparities within the criminal justice system. Black crime is closely linked to the black struggle. Ta-Nehisi Coates, an acclaimed author and writer for The Atlantic, explains how it's not surprising that, "amid the civil rights movement, increases in crime were repeatedly linked to advancement of blacks. He then presents compelling statistics: “Even though violent crime declined between 1925 and 1940, Louisiana's incarceration rate increased by more than 50 percent. Twice as many inmates entered the state's correctional facilities in the low-crime 1940s as in the high-crime 1925s. At the Angola State Penal Farm, the white population increased by 39 percent while the African American prison population increased by 143 percent. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, because black people wereinferior, they needed slavery and actually benefited from it. After slavery, a presumption of guilt and dangerousness was attributed to black people, as white people defended vigilante violence against black people as necessary to protect themselves from black “criminals.” » Racism erodes our humanity and has done so for centuries. PowerAs a result, white America has benefited from the theft of black freedoms for centuries. It is an established fact that police power has been used disproportionately against communities of color. This abuse of power leads to the destruction of Black morale and reinforces cyclical feelings of hopelessness. Thus, the death and destruction of black bodies became a sign of social and political progression. To fully understand black disadvantage in dominant society, one must examine the culture of both dominant and subordinate groups. Michelle Alexander, in her book The New Jim Crow, explores the maintenance of racial hierarchy in America. She states that “mass incarceration functions as a tightly woven system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions, which work collectively to secure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.” Tatum also describes this relationship, but with a psychological prism, opposed to Alexander's sociological choice. According to Tatum, dominant groups determine the circumstances in which subordinates operate; the dominant group also has the greatest influence in determining the structure of society. Whether or not we speak in racial terms, in today's America, white men generally hold power over minorities, especially poor blacks. The relationship between dominants and subordinates is also one in which the targeted group has been labeled. as defective or substandard in significant ways, therefore, the dominant group assigns roles to subordinates. Today, black people are relegated to second-class citizens because they are too often portrayed as savage, inhumane criminals incapable of helping themselves. Tatum also asserts that “dominant groups generally do not like to be reminded of the existence of inequalities… because rationalizations have been created to justify such social arrangements.” This is a heavy statement because it reminds us of the taboo nature of the discourse on "race" and how, without mentioning racism and the legacy of slavery (reminders of inequalities), the crisis of he mass incarceration and stereotypical images of black people can never be solved. be fully addressed. Alexander also states that "few legal rules significantly constrain police in the war on drugs, and enormous financial incentives have been given to law enforcement to make mass drug arrests." through military-style tactics.” by abusing the system. Nixon, after all, officially declared a "war on drugs" in 1971 and declared drug abuse to be "public enemy number one." During Nixon's term, incarceration rates began to see their "historic increase." He claimed many things, including that heroin dealers were "literally the slave traders of our time and traffickers in the undead." They must be hunted to the ends of the earth,” which has a strong irony, considering how black people were repeatedly subjected to trade and trafficking against their will. Nixon's campaign lacked real substance, but Reagan's election in the 1980s transformed the rhetorical war ofNixon on drugs in a literal war. Presidential efforts to maintain a war against black America through the "presumption of guilt" and the dangerousness attributed to African Americans have made minority communities a target for law enforcement and vulnerable to an administration unjust criminal justice. Although it is tempting to think that the need for such strategies, such as intense police surveillance and racial profiling, disappeared with Jim Crow laws, their legacy lives on in the "frequent and sometimes fatal harassment that black men in the part of white police officers.” Numerous studies have concluded that white people have strong unconscious associations between blackness and criminality. Implicit bias (justifications concocted by white people to excuse racist behavior) has been shown to affect policing; many young men of color are subject to frequent stops, searches, and violence, among other aspects of the criminal justice system, all of which lead to higher rates of suspension, expulsion, and child arrest at the school. Police officers engage in widespread racial profiling and stop Black people on the streets and sidewalks more often than is justifiable by objective (race-neutral) standards. Even as today's media focuses on the criminalization of Black people, it also allows us to witness the shocking accumulation of injured and mutilated Black bodies, particularly young Black people. In response to these deaths, Americans were asked to continue to fight, to keep “hope” alive, and to keep the faith. After George Zimmerman's acquittal for the murder of Trayvon Martin, President Obama addressed the nation and implored black people to continue fighting for change because "each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing the world." attitude towards the race” and, if they work hard enough, they will advance. closer to “becoming a more perfect union.” Despite Martin's "corpse lingering in the minds of young people and Zimmerman's smile of relief after the verdict, Americans are being told that things are actually getting better." artificial privilege of whiteness. In a societal context, where blaming the “other” has become standard operating procedure, it is easier to do so than to critically examine the larger structural conditions that created this situation. African Americans cannot blame “others” when society tells them at every level that they are the problem. Whether one succumbs to the demeaning pressures of the dominant culture or manages to resist them, the fact is that dealing with oppressive systems from the reverse side, whatever the strategy, is physically and psychologically taxing. Breaking with the structural and psychological limitations imposed on one's groups is possible, but not easy to achieve. Other Drivers of Nihilism (Poverty, Unemployment) The disproportionate incarceration rates that Black people experience contribute to race-based inequalities in other aspects of their lives. Black people were “brainwashed” with the idea that they were incapable of taking care of themselves. This unquestioned dependence, what psychologists call learned helplessness, is one of many reinforcements of firmly established racial inferiority. Systematic barriers were erected with the primary goal of keeping poor blacks in poverty, thereby widening the wealth gap between blacks and whites. According to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), “In the American criminal justice system, wealth – not guilt – determines outcomes. Poor people are unfairlydisadvantaged at every stage of a system that treats the rich and the guilty better than the poor and the innocent. It was found that approximately four out of five defendants are considered indigent in court, reinforcing how wealth and status (typically held by white men in American society) can be used to escape the system. Bryan Stevenson, founder of EJI and author of Just Mercy, describes the relationship with poverty and the criminal justice system quite elegantly: "My work with the poor and incarcerated has convinced me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I have come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, to the character of our society, to our commitment to the rule of law, to fairness and equality is not can be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged and respected. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disadvantaged, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned… We are all implicated when we allow others to be mistreated. » In 2013, white households in the United States had a median wealth of $144,200, nearly 13 times the median wealth of black households at $11,200. This racial wealth gap is emerging now and cannot be fully resolved without discussing history. Advantages were accrued over generations and black people were left behind. Many white people today do not understand that they are the beneficiaries of these long-standing racist policies. Richard Rothstein's book, The Color of Law, chronicles how such policies at all levels of government deprived black families and communities of wealth. White wealth advantage is underscored by the fact that the rules of the economy are intended to benefit those at the top, and white Americans have had a long reign. To be part of a solution and repair the future, many Americans must get out of their gated neighborhoods and bring wealth back to their communities. To do this, real stories must be told and we will have to work towards repair and reparations. This is only the beginning of a process of truth and reconciliation. However, the process of seeking truth and reconciliation for Black people, in and out of prison, is difficult because they live in a world that despises them; the destructive and cyclical nature of returning black communities makes formerly incarcerated people very vulnerable to reintegration. Upon release from prison, if formerly incarcerated people do not have jobs or motivation to become productive citizens, they become even more prone to crime and drugs. The American job market views black men who have never been criminals as if they were, and for some who have been labeled "criminals", the "check the box" policy further prevents blacks from 'get a job. “Just as ex-offenders had to learn to acculturate in prison, they must learn to re-acculturate on the outside. But the attitude that helps a person survive in prison is almost the opposite of that needed to succeed on the outside. Craig Haney, a professor at UC Santa Cruz who studies the cognitive and psychological effects of incarceration, observed: A harsh veneer that prevents seeking help for personal problems, the widespread mistrust that comes from fear of exploitation and a tendency to withdraw. in response to minimal provocations are very functional in many prison contexts but problematic almost everywhere else..”