The Enduring Myth of Black Criminality

I think our criminal justice system is working as intended it is only broken to the extent that our society is broken if your intention is to you know jail massive numbers of people if you believe that prison is an effective means of dealing with the myriad a social needs of the african-american community that is pretty effective in fact there's a long history in this country of dealing with problems in the african-american community through criminal justice system criminalizing social problems in a way that we don't do in other communities for instance if you you know looked at the research you would find in somewhere around sixty to seventy percent of the people in in prisons and in jails are suffering some sort of mental health problem I was a fifty percent you know go in there dealing with some sort of chemical dependency viewed from another lens these are public health problems one could look at you know the massive number of african-american men who are out of work any intersection between that in prison well one could look at where prisons are located and you know you would find that a lot of times friends are located in rural regions you know with all other industries effectively shut down and you might think of that is actually an employment problem and not a criminal justice problem the enduring view of african-americans in this country is as a race of people who are prone to criminality I mean literally we have the notion of black people as you know our criminals written into our Constitution we have a Fugitive Slave Clause which effectively makes all the things that are normal for any other American in that period you only go for black people you know to pursue your own freedom was illegal slavery you know was enforced by the criminal justice in the slave laws it may you know very very ordinary things like learning to read effectively a criminal act Frederick Douglass is an escaped slave he's a criminal you know he's stolen his body as he says in one of his speeches Harriet Tubman you know is running a massive criminal conspiracy stealing people I know we all love Martin Luther King today but in his time by you know the highest powers in the American justice system Martin Luther King was viewed as a criminal he'll by Jay ago arguably perhaps by you know the Kennedy administration in the Johnson and mr. B cuz they signed off one debugging you know of his home and you know wherever he was the lens of criminal justice ease the way this country is traditionally regarded black people I don't know anything is broken at all the deeper question is are we okay with something on the order of four thousand african-american males per 100,000 being in jail are we are we okay with that I will carry with you know there being a one in three chance for every you know african-american male born and born in this generation of eventually doing some sort of time in prisons and in jail are we alright with that and I go set a deeper question of all we all right with black people in the position that they are in our society do we have some sort of you know long-term commitment to justice [Music]

Channel: The Atlantic

Views: 346,487

Keywords: Ta Nehisi Coates, Incarceration, Criminality, Mass Incarceration, Animation, Civil Rights, History, Culture, African American, The Atlantic

Id: cQo-yYhExw0

Length: 3min 15sec (195 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2015