For this assignment I have chosen the concept of race and racism, from chapter 5. This topic interests me because it is a very relevant and importance issue. It has been a very prevalent issue for years but has only just now become a major topic of discussion. My main concept from the author of chapter 5 is this: “The DOJ investigation found that in a town of 21,200 residents, of whom 67 percent were African American, during the previous two years, African Americans comprised 85 percent of all traffic stops, 90 percent of all tickets, 93 percent of arrests, and 95 percent of citations for jaywalking or disturbing the peace, violations that hinge significantly on police discretion.” (Guest, K. J. (2018). Essentials of cultural anthropology: A toolkit for a global age. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.). The essay I chose for this assignment is titled: “Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States” by Samuel R. Gross, Maurice Possley, and Klara Stephens.
The theoretical framework the author of this essay I chose mentions that they are studying exonerations for murder, sexual assault and drug crimes. These three types of crimes make up the largest amount of exonerations. The author used different tables in the writing and data was collected from the National Registry of Exonerations web site. The writer states that “There is no one explanation for the heavy concentration of black defendants among those convicted of crimes they did not commit.” (Gross, S. (2017) Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States). The authors used an open mindset and pure facts when writing this piece. I think that it is very hard to argue with statistical evidence when it comes to topics such as these. Especially when there are others saying the exact same thing and agreeing that something needs to be changing.
I took an applied anthropology class this semester and one of our guest lecturers was Dr. Susan Hyatt. She studies the anthropology of prison and policing. Her work focuses on wrongful convictions and the overall racist system that we have here in the United States. She gave a history of policing and she spoke a lot about the very same issues that the essay I chose, talked about. The essay I chose mentions that many African Americans are wrongfully sent to prisons for things such as murder and rape. “The leading cause of these false convictions was mistaken eyewitness identifications—a notoriously error-prone process when white Americans are asked to identify black strangers” (Gross, S. (2017) Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States). I think that the examples and evidence that is given is very convincing.
The essay is set up with various different headings to introduce the new topics and I think the one that stood out to me the most was the one about murder. “Half of all defendants exonerated for murder are African Americans (380/762), who make up only 13% of the population of the United States.” (Gross, S. (2017) Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States). This number blew my mind. I knew that there was racial bias and just pure racism but knowing that half of those exonerated are African Americans is crazy to me. It makes me think about earlier in the semester when we talked about the stories of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Alton Sterling- all victims of racism. The analysis of this writing could only not make sense to you if you are not paying attention. It is impossible to overlook the blatant racism happening in our justice system today.
This reading affected me personally because it really makes me realize how growing up white gave me privileges and an overall “security” that African Americans and other minorities do not have. I think it is sad to see where we are still at in regard to racism when we have come so far in everything else since the 1600s. I think it is ridiculous that there are people out there who still believe that racial bias and racism are no longer an issue. The reality is, white people do not fully understand racism because have never really experienced it. We have been the ones acting upon racists viewpoints and stereotypes for years, but still say there is no such thing as racism anymore.
This reading definitely will influence how I perceive the world around me. I knew that there were a lot more African Americans incarcerated than there are white people, but I never really fully understood it until after reading this piece, and also rereading our book. It makes me want to change and be a better person to be able to help those who have been wrongfully convicted. Thinking about all of this also made me think a lot about applied anthropology and how there are ways to study these statistics and look for a genuinely good way to help those wrongly convicted.
The essay also made me really realize just how many African Americans are in prisons for things they did not do all because of a false identification from someone who sees all African Americans as the same. This is also something that really affected me because it makes me realize that an innocent person is going to go to prison for something they did not do, and someone else is sitting there okay with the fact that they are ruining someone’s life and are not one hundred percent sure they are sure about who they saw. The racial bias there is truly sickening, and I do not think I could do something like that without being sure of what, and who I saw.
In conclusion, I think that I have learned a lot over the course of this semester. It has given me a truly more open mind and perspective and made me want to learn more about different cultures and things that are going on in the world. I had no idea that anthropology could be so interesting.