Free Paper Sample on End Racial Discrimination: Upholding Equality in the US

Discrimination based on ethnicity is morally wrong since the principle of equality is violated. The principle of equality states that everybody to be treated equally and based on similarities and not a race. There are laws governing people against racial discrimination put in place in the 17th Century in the US (Rawls, p.600). Racial discrimination has a deep-rooted history in the US due to slavery. In America, some constitutions and amendments protect the citizens against racial bias, and an individual is innocent until proven guilty, the idea that everybody is created equal, and the right to legal representation, and if one cannot afford an attorney, it is provided for him. There is an increase in racial bias within the criminal justice system within the courts from racial profiling, and selection of the jury, among others.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Continuous corruption when it comes to the death penalty in the US is increasing due to racial and class discrimination. The majority of those federal persecutors executed African Americans and Latinos (Rawls, p. 601). Capital punishment for African Americans is primarily because they kill white people while the Latino is because they are usually homicide victims. Racial discrimination also puts African Americans at high risk of the wrongful conviction of capital punishment. They face the death penalty even though there are questions of their possible innocence because the justice system in the US often rules due to the race of the defendant and the victim (Rawls, p.602). Many young black men are arrested, tried, and imprisoned due to the rising number of drug arrests. The experience is an epidemic since many mothers raise their children alone and have to work to earn a living since the judicial system tends to try minority groups unfairly. The practice has made many young black children visit their fathers in prison with the impression it’s their way of life (Nozick, p.603).

The entitlement theory of justice focuses on how the majority of the prisoners (two million inmates), 570,000 are African American. With two million prisoners, the number of drug-related criminals is 126,000, and 47.53% of them are blacks while the whites are only 24. 33% (p.610). Within the American justice system, when charged with a felony, African Americans are far more likely to get a prison sentence compared to whites. The repeated number of crimes by minorities is due to the high number of school dropouts, the low number of college attendance by the black race, less quality paying jobs, and insufficient funds for suitable legal representation (Nozick, p.613). The theory accuses the American justice system of racial profiling resulting in the overload of the prisons since many blacks tend to be imprisoned in most of the police arrests than whites. And when a white man and black face a trial with similar charges, the white man is less expected to face prison time.

There are conflicting opinions on what the justice system within America does. It is because the Latino and African American communities tend to regard the atmosphere of the law enforcement system as racist (Madva, p.414). Currently, the implicit racial bias in the criminal justice system has led to false justification. As a result, the majority of those imprisoned after serving their time do not reform and tend to commit the same crime on several occasions, “the renewal effect.” The implicit bias in the court system caused by racial discrimination is because the assigning attorneys tend to have a subordinate role when dealing with a black individual. It makes the attorney that is provided by the state since the black race most often does not have adequate funds to afford one tend to have negative implicit evaluations of the minorities in America. The attorney assigned to a white lawbreaker who is also entitled to a superordinate role showed a favorable trial of the white resulting in the dropping of the charges or he is found not guilty (Madva, p.417).

According to the research by Madva, the superordinate status of the whites in America seems to amplify bias within the judicial system; hence there is no justice practiced in courts. In the case of ethnicity, perceiving minorities in a subordinate status also seems to amplify bias resulting in imprisonment or the death penalty of the innocent (p. 418). Implicit bias results in a habit-like behavior where blacks tend to commit crimes to prove themselves. For example, a black child growing up visiting the father in prison is most likely to end up in jail in the future to prove to his peers that jail is the way of life for them. One of the reasons for implicit biases within the court system is ethically immoral (Madva, p.419).

In many cases, the practice tends to persist and influence the behavior of African Americans and Latino individuals who do not approve of the validity of those very biases in America. Many individuals from minority communities who have emphasized the importance of changing the unfairness of the justice system caused by inequalities to combat implicit bias fail (Madva, p.420). As a result, no minority members do not undergo self-regulation successfully in prison. In summary, so long as social institutions like the judicial courts continue to encourage various forms of inequality such as racism, and sexism among others, no amount of punishment will combat the increase in the rate of crime within America (Madva, p.421).

According to Pojman, there are three main reasons for justice justification; retribution where punishment aims to penalize, another goal to prevent crime, and finally reform criminals to become better citizens (p. 549). He supports capital punishment because of the first and second reasons, and the death penalty should not be a form of punishment since it does not rehabilitate the dead individual. The death penalty should only be allowed when an individual murder sentence should always be in proportion to the crime (Pojman, p. 551). Hence the justice system should not condemn the minorities to death and drop charges against the whites because they are the majority in America.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ethical bias is morally wrong, and the justice institutions within America should not favor whites when they commit crimes. Instead, they should treat both the blacks and the whites equally. In case whites commit the crime, they should face the same punishment without the justice system becoming racially biased. The practice will result in a reduction in the number of crimes committed in America.

Works Cited

Madva, Alex. “Virtue, social knowledge, and implicit bias.” (2016).

Nozick, Robert. “6 The Entitlement Theory of Justice.” Contemporary Political Theory: A Reader (2004): 61.

Pojman, Louis P. “A defense of the death penalty.” Contemporary Debates in Philosophy 107 (2005).

Rawls, John. A theory of justice. Harvard University Press, 2009.