Issue of Race and Gender on

Criminality.docx
by Shun-An Han

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 Han!

Shun-An Han

ENGL 1302/ CRN# 14531

23 Oct. 2020

The Colour of Imprisonment

Issue of Race and Gender on Criminality

According to the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that "all

men are created eqtial" - regardless of race, gender, religion, or social class -

with the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." However, racial

discrimination and gender stereotypes still happen eve1y time in the world.

The two articles, both "Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial

Complex, by Angela Yvonne Davis, and "Supremacy Crimes", by Gloria

Steinem are glutted with racial and gender issue in jail and society.

The criminal justice system is designed to provide a system to protect all of

the people. The "feat of magic" (Davis 1) makes prisons seem to disappear
m
crime to convey the illusion of solving social problems; therefore, the people

believe in the magic of imprisonment continually. In fact, they "disappear

people" (Davis 1) and often these people belong to poor and colored. At the

beginning of the Documentary, the 13th Amendment, starts with an alarming

statistic. A speech by former President Barack Obama stated: "Although the

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United States only constitutes 5% of the world's o ulation, it also has 5% o

the world's prisoners." In Davis' article, she also states that two million are at

this moment behind bars, and "more than 70 ercent of the im2risoned

po_Qulation are people of color avis 2) ." Thus, those "caged people" (Davis 1)

are just colored people rather than the criminal.

he 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted in 1865,

stating that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment

for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within

the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." However, that

clause, which only converts slavery from a legal business model to an equally

legal punishment method for criminals. That rationalizes the unfair treatment

of people of color in prison.

Another issue is the gender of imprisonment. "Today the number of

incarcerated women in California alone is almost twice what the nationwide

women's prison population was in 1970 (Davis 2)." Women are as

underprivileged as people of color. In contrast, as Steinem's main argument in

her essay, "supremacy" (Steinem 1) is only given to the men in society. People

regard the fact that men to be the leader of the family; nevertheless, women are

actually the bringer of life and great leaders as well. Besides, when it comes to
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a
"'white,' middle-class, and 'heterosexual "' (Steinem l ), the whites are
a
considered to be more superior to the others, and they are also the ones who do

not commit crimes.

Mass gun violence continues in America. The Columbine shooting was one

of the worst high school shootings in U.S. history. The shootings have since left

their impact on popular culture, as well as on the several copycat crimes and

mass shootings in later years, called the "Columbine effect." In fact, two killers
a
themselves said they were targeting blacks and athletes since they can easily

say, "I'm superior because I can kill" (Steinem 1). Ethnocentrism is

profoundly affecting our society and posterity.

As jails take up more and more space, prison does not really help the

problems and also solve these problems. Also, Qrivate ca_Qital has become

enmeshed in the prison · ndus Prisons on a whole are not creating any

wealth in our society but they are creating wealth for themselves and them only.

In Davis' essay, the two largest private prison companies, CCA and WCC,

whose stocks are doing extremely well. "Between 1996 and 1997, CCA's

revenues increased by 58 percent, from $293 million to $462 million. Its net

profit grew from $30.9 million to 53.9 million. WCC raised its revenues from

$138 million in 1996 to $210 million in 1997 (Davis 3)." That is a "great"
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"prison industrial complex."

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Works Cited

Angela Y. Davis. "Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial

Complex." Colorlines Magazine, 1998.

Steinem, Gloria. "Supremacy Crimes." Available Means: An Anthology of

Women'S Rhetoric(s), edited by Joy Ritchie and Kate Ronald, University of

Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa, 1999.

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