Minority Crime Study Guide Chapter 1 Media race isms The way the media portrays certain ethnicities and races o i e Native American s rarely featured in new only movies o i e Blacks are media players athletics entertainers and reporters Although there is more diversity in the media today there is not nearly as much progress as people think 2004 Justice Department study o American Indians were 2x as likely to be victims of violent crimes o Most likely to be harmed by someone who isn t of their own race interracial The primary media talk about Native Americans is all about gambling or casinos or of sports teams using Indian names and symbols o Redskin the early practice of hunting and killing Indians referring to their scalps for payment as a bounty arrowheads o Nike Air Native N7 a show designed specifically for Native Americans with feathers and American Indians make up less than 1 of the total population and of all American Indians live on reservations Asians make up 4 of the US population There are very few Asian women in the media but even less men Tiger Woods and Keanu Reeves are similar because they are both half Asian but both do not necessarily identify with it Asian American has a monolithic meaning because it reduces all types of Asians to one massive group Chinese Japanese Korean Thai etc Model minority myth hardworking smart and respectful of authority Latinos make up 14 of the population Bill Richardson is a Latino governor of New Mexico and ran for the presidential election in 2008 Latinos are second in line after blacks as the face of the feared American criminal There are more than 75 black newspapers today The relationship between rap and hip hop and blackness is that it defines how being black is presented It originated as boastful and fun Media blackness is depicted as clowns or as criminals and black superstars are not perceived in relation to their blackness o Positive images of black people do not overpower the overwhelming negative stimgas Criminalblackman refers to the fact that most people fear crime from a young black man Black people are about 2 3 of the US population Blacks can transcend their blackness and become colorless by achieving large scale success 2000 census 6 million mixed race individuals in the US Racial ventriloquism white person portrays an actor of color Chapter 2 Micro aggressions subtle stunning often nonverbal o i e Jena Six case segregated school hung nooses in a white sitting tree Macro aggressions group offenses attacks assaults statements against blacks Intraracial aggression when blacks hard other blacks o Intraracial macro aggressions blacks use language violence that harms other blacks o Interracial macro aggressions whites use language and violence against blacks 2003 study found that job applicants with black sounding names were less likely to be called in for an interview than those with white sounding names Willig Barnes found that the law falls short to help protect people from name based racial discrimination even though names are just used as a proxy for race o They argue that courts shouldn t treat it as any less harmful Levitt Dubner found that people look at black names and assume they come from a disadvantaged background and should change them but this is a complex form of racial discrimination Bill Cosby believes that by giving their children black sounding names they have given them a bad name and thus sealed their children s fate by naming them inappropriately Linguistic profiling using black sounding voices to determine race to discriminate The skin game is the belief that people s actions criminality is explained by genetics being a minority and those beliefs frame the way minorities are treated in the criminal justice system o The result of this is that we have a racially skewed and highly punitive CJS o Blackness is bad and seen as the cause and effect of deviance Statistics of the skin game and the CJS o Arrest rates 70 of those arrested were white 30 were black o Control rates in the CJS 48 are white 36 are black o Crack cocaine although 2 3 of users are white or Latino 85 of federal crack defendants are black crack is also more severe than powder cocaine o Prison jail In prison blacks make up 39 in jail they make up 38 2005 2006 o Lifetime chances of going to prison 3 4 of whites will go to jail 18 6 of blacks 2004 o Juveniles minority youths make up almost 2 3 committed or held while they only make up 34 of the population o Felony disenfranchisement of the 5 3 mil ineligible to vote 25 are black These statistics show us that race and blackness matters in the CJS there is extreme disparity between arrests and inprisonments etc Chapter 3 Slave codes were laws enacted to keep slaves in line the goal was to regulate slave life from birth to death The most important variable in determining punishment under the slave codes was any action that threatened the institution of slavery i e slave rebellion The one drop rule was that if you had any know black ancestery you were considered black o No matter how small Branding irons were used on slaves to represent what crime they had committed Using no more than 39 lashings violated their Christian tenets Sex crimes were handles under the slave codes as followed o If a black male raped a white woman death or any sexual advance o If a white man raped a black woman no crime if it was his slave o If a black man raped a black woman no crime Slave patrols were used to keep a tight rein on slave activity and any misconduct o Allowed to stop and search slaves and their homes Slaves could own Plantation justice gave slave owners private enforcement authority they were both judge and jury and they could impose whatever sanctions they wanted Black laws were enforced at the same time as slave codes and were used to govern the actions of black in non slave holding states o Ohio was the first to enact slave laws in 1804 Black codes were enacted after the abolition of slavery to enforce new laws upon the formerly enslaved black population o Ohio was the first to enact black codes in 1865 o Created a supported system of involuntary servitude by limiting job choices Lynching became common after the Civil War and they were ritualistic and treated like a sporting event o Selection of victim o Selection of the killers o Selection of location o Selection of method of death All of the following were actions that could lead to being lynched o Verbal disrespect to a white person lewd