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James Williams, who is a public defender in North Carolina, in Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System , argues that the way African Americans are treated by law enforcement agencies “is the most pervasive blight on the criminal justice system today.” This is a problem that existed all through the last century and now into this century as well. Sociologist Becky Petitt points out in Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress that even though we live in a time where America voted for an African American president, African American progress is a myth. She says that this progress does not consider the many African American men who are incarcerated. There may be economic progress for African Americans, but no progress in the justice system.

Female Incarceration

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of women in state prisons increased by 75% between 1986 and 1991. For black non-Hispanic women the number of incarcerations for drug offenses went up by 828%, which is higher than any other group of people. From 1985 to 1997, the rate of white women in prisons and jails went up from 27 per 100,000 to 76 per 100,000. However, the rate of black women in prisons and jails went up from 183 per 100,000 to 491 per 100,000. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000). According to Lubiano, the media portrays these African American women as “welfare queens” who are responsible for the crack trade. These women are blamed for creating a new generation of drug users. Some have even re-termed the phrase War on Drugs to War on Black Women.

Perception

Moreover, according to Hugenberg and Bodenhausen in Ambiguity in social categorization: The role of prejudice and facial affect in race categorization, people perceive black faces as angry more often than they perceive white faces as angry. On top of this, angry faces are more commonly categorized as belonging to black people rather than white people. Even what people are wearing can determine what race people classify them as.

Perpetuation of negative images by popular culture

(Original: Linda G. Tucker in Lockstep and Dance: Images of black Men in Popular Culture (2007) argues that the representations in popular culture of criminal African American men help perpetuate the image.[27] She writes that the portrayal of crime by conservative politicians during heated campaigns is used as a metaphor for race: they have recast fears about race as fears about crime.[28] For instance, Republican opponents of Dukakis used the case of Willie Horton to attack the Democrat's stand on law enforcement, suggesting that people would be safer if led by Republicans. She says that such politicians used Horton as a collective symbol of African American male criminality.[29] ) Some argue that the ad Republicans used of an intimidating-looking mug shot of murderer Willie Horton created fear in white Americans minds. The message was clear: African Americans are violent and should not have prison furloughs or rehabilitation. This lead to the victory of Republican George H.W. Bush.

According to Sanders in Category inclusion and exclusion in perceptions of African Americans: Using the Stereotype Content Model to Examine Perceptions of groups and individuals, African Americans on television and in movies are most likely to play roles related to crime, sports, and entertainment stories rather than roles in which they make a valuable contribution to the nation. Interestingly, this omission of positive traits in African Americans on television has a powerful effect on viewers. Sanders refers to this as “stereotyping by omission”. It is very common for African Americans to be portrayed as threatening and violent gang members criminals and drug dealers.

Consequences

Moreover, in mock trials whites have assigned more guilt to African American criminal suspects than white suspects accused of the same crimes. They also gave more severe punishments to the African American suspects.