African Americans: Struggling Against Discrimination and Inequality - Research Paper

Introduction

African Americans are among the minority races in America and Europeans countries. Despite slavery having been abolished, African Americans are still discriminated against by the white Americans. Many of them end up homeless, poor, or incarcerated. The African American male members are the most affected as their incarceration; between the years 1968 and 2016 incarceration has tripled. This is six-time the rate of white incarceration (Racial Inequality - National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2019). Those who exist prisons and jails find it hard to access affordable and safe housing, and they end up becoming homeless. Racial discrimination in rental housing has also rendered many blacks homeless. Majority of the African Americans live in areas with a high poverty level where there are inadequate educational resources and limited economic opportunities. African Americans also face discrimination when they want to move to pleasant neighbourhoods. Living in poor communities also exposes the blacks to high possibilities of getting involved in criminal activities, which increases their chances of serving a jail term.

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Racial discrimination is described by many as the main reasons why African Americans males have high numbers of homeless and those incarcerated. the criminal justice system has been partly blamed for perpetuating racial biasness towards the minority racial (Isaac, 2016). The prison population has been growing, and cases of unfair punishment towards African Americans have been reported. Black men are more likely to be placed in high-security prisons, unlike white men. Incarceration of male African Americans is also said to affect their health and prevent the growth of the African American communities as homelessness and poverty are likely to hit these men and their families.

Research Problem

The population of African American men in prisons and jails has been increasing. According to Cooke (2016), the African Americans prison population is 45%, with more than 800,000 being male as of 2015. Among all the African American men, 13% are in jails or prisons while in their 20s (Cooke, 2016). Is it that the African Americans commit crimes at a higher rate than all other races, or they are more often punished for crimes they do not commit? The issues of inequality arise when it comes to handling criminal cases involving blacks and even accessing public resources like education. Inequality can also be blamed for the large population of African American population who are homeless and living in poverty and also the large population of African American male members who are incarcerated.

Research Purpose and Rationale for the Study

The purpose of this research is to inform the educators on how African American males have been affected by inequality, homelessness, and recidivism. This research will show how the black community is continually suffering due to these problems hence being drifted away to poverty.

The Rationale for the Study

African Americans are suffering as society continues associating them with crimes, and the majority being denied their rights. Being discriminated in the allocation of resources and also by criminal justice, African Americans continue to suffer in prions, and many are rendered homeless. This research will help the educators to get a better view of the problems the African Americans are suffering from and help others in ensuring equity hence uplifting the lives of the African Americans.

Research Questions

• Why are black males the highest number of incarcerated?
• Why is black males statistically the highest rate of homeliness being released from incarceration?
• Does poverty play a role in inequality and recidivism?
• What are some of the things that we may be able to do to minimize inequality, homelessness, and recidivism among the African Americans males?

Literature Review

Unemployment and poverty disproportion affect the African Americans more than whites, according to Feeding America (2019), 9% of African Americans live in deep poverty where access to basic needs like food, housing, clothing, education, and health becomes a major problem to them. The majority of them live in poor neighbourhoods that are highly discriminated against when it comes to the provision of social services like better housing, education and clean water. With low access to low levels of education, African Americans find it hard to get well-paying jobs, and unemployment is a major problem. Rising from poverty level, better housing and better health services and education is a problem for African Americans. There is inequality in the distribution of social services as these neighbourhoods get little funding while the majority of these funds and better services go to those high living standards (Anderson, Shambaugh, & Nunn, 2019). Living in poor neighbourhoods where their high poverty level and unemployment, the male African Americans are exposed to a high likelihood of getting involved in criminal activities and incarceration.

Racial discrimination in the justice system is also a major cause of the increased population of African American incarceration. Despite the blacks living in poor backgrounds, it is not reason enough to suggest they are more likely to get involved in criminal activities. The criminal justice is racially biased and stereotyped, where African Americans are given harsh punishment than whites (Isaac,2016). Police brutality towards the African Americans and the high likelihood of an African American being suspected and stopped by police shows the level of inequality that leads is highly likely to cause incarceration. Statistics show that 25% of all men in prisons between the age of 20 and 29 are African Americans (Cooke, 2016). The majority of these have been given harsh sentenced and have not committed capital crimes.

Incarceration affects an individual socially when one is incarcerated, they part with their families, and there is a higher possibility of the family breaking if the father or son is incarcerated. Children are sent to foster care, and there is a disintegration of cohesion in the family system (Cooke, 2016). After being released from prisons, these individuals face major social challenges like lack of housing and employment. They face discrimination when seeking a job and even when searching for rental houses, as many see them as violent. Homelessness is the ultimate result of no job and unemployment. The majority of those incarcerated are males from African Americans. There is also a majority of the homeless who are also the African Americans who previously served a jail term. Some even suffer from poor health conditions due to the poor humanitarian conditions in prisons.

Methodology and Rationale

Both qualitative and qualitative research methodologies will be used to help gather more understanding of inequality, homelessness, and recidivism among African American males. To help gain more knowledge of the problem, communities with a large population of African American Americans will be surveyed. The living condition of this areas will be analyzed through observation and interviews and information recorded for analysis. The aim of the interview will focus on the view of the interviewee on inequality faced by the members of the African Americans and how it causes incarceration and homelessness. Quantitive research will be done in prisons will be done where the population of the male African Americans will be compared to those of male from other racial groups. A qualitative study will also be done on the population of homeless African Americans.

Measurement

Data of the male African Americans who are incarcerated will be compared to those of the other males incarcerated, and a percentage of their representation generated. The percentage of homeless male African Americans who were previously incarcerated will also be calculated. The living standards and the distribution of social resources in a neighbourhood with the majority of African Americans will be compared to that of regions with less African Americans.

Research design

On the qualitative approach, interviews will be used to gather data on how racial inequality has affected African Americans communities. Level of education, employment, housing, and crime rate will be the topic of the interview. Data on the living conditions of these African Americans communities will be collected by interviewing a sample of the members.

On the quantitative approach, surveys will be conducted in prison to calculate the percentage of the male African American Americans incarceration. Observation of the homeless African Americans will also be done in the neighbourhoods with the majority of African Americans.

Population Sample and Sampling Procedures

Two random neighbourhoods will be chosen one with the majority of the African American population and another with a majority of the white American population. In terms of social services, a comparison will be made between the quality of services offered in the African Americans neighbourhood with other neighbourhoods. Quality of education, quality of housing, and other services like health and clean water supply. A prison will be randomly chosen in America with a large population. The population of the male African Americans will be compared to the entire population of the prison and to that of other males of different races. A neighbourhood with equal distribution of different racial groups will be chosen, and the number of homeless individuals recorded. Among these homeless males, the data will be grouped according to their races and those who previously served a jail term.

Instruments

The researcher will visit the neighbourhood with a large population of African Americans. Random male residents will be selected and interviewed as the researcher records the answers in table form. The researcher will also visit one of the major prisons and request for information about the prisoners. The researcher will only gather the male population data and their racial differences. The researcher will also sample a city with a large number of homeless people and collect the number of homeless males and classify them according to their races.

Proposed Data Analysis

Data of the prisoners will be calculated, and a percentage of the male population from different races analyzed. The total number of males from a particular race will be divided by the total number of prisoners, and the result multiplied by one hundred to get the percentage. Similar calculations will be done to calculate the percentage of the homeless. A comparison of the living standards of neighbourhoods with the majority of African Americans will be compared to that with little African Americans. This data will be analyzed to establish those neighbourhoods...