As it is stated by Charles Mills, “In bad faith, I flee a displeasing truth for a pleasing falsehood. I must convince myself that a falsehood is in fact true. Under the model of bad faith, the stubborn racist has made a choice not to admit certain uncomfortable truths about his group and chooses not to challenge certain comfortable falsehoods about other people. Since he had made this choice he will resist whatever threatens it. The more the racist plays the game of evasion, the more he will sink into the world that is required to maintain this evasion”. The racial contract makes white moral psychology transparent as it gives the illusion of color blindness that is covered up by white privilege, its creation is to permit whites to oppress and exploit non-whites, violating their own moral ideals in dealing with non-whites and claiming it to be a norm to do so. Whites see it as a natural element to ignore their privilege.
The continued denial of racial oppression continues today. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1968 which abolished legal forms of racism against African Americans but although the government claimed it was abolished it did not end racism in the nation. Institutionalized racism blocks access to opportunities for people of color. One of those institutions are social institutions that promotes social control, such as the criminal justice system, the police, courts, and the prisons.
White supremacy has forced whites to come to the agreement to ignore non whites. They deny the centrality of race because they are racially privileged. To whites, race is invisible and they believe that world rotates around them. They take their privilege for granted, denying that white supremacy is really a political system set in place to practice repressing and exploiting nonwhite peoples socially, politically and economically.
The deprivation of the right to vote hinders successful re-entry because the Criminal Justice System denies offenders the right to exercise being full members of society. Disenfranchisement excludes large numbers of American citizens from the franchise, thereby prohibiting their participation in the political process. In 2012, the 19 states that still use disenfranchisement laws, about 5.3 million American citizens, 1 in 45 adults, are ineligible to vote because of their felony convictions in the past. This allows an offender to be and feel alienated in his or her community and country. Voting is one of many consequences of felony convictions, which restrict access to employment, educational opportunities, housing, and various forms of social provision (Demleitner, 1999). This is also a critical distinction since many people in the United States do not exercise their right to vote, despite having the ability to do so.
“Culturally sanctioned beliefs, which regardless of intentions involved, defend the advantages whites have because of the subordinated position of racial minorities”- David T. Wellman. Institutionalized racism blocks access to opportunities for people of color. One of those institutions are social institutions that promotes social control, such as the criminal justice system, the police, courts, and the prisons. Housing disparities leads to low taxes which leads to poor schooling, leading to low education, leading to drop outs and entering the justice system and because of prejudice they receive long sentences and are unable to receive jobs because of those sentences which brings them right down to living and settling for poor communities.
The prison population skyrocketed after the Civil Rights Act was passed, Mostly caused by the US War on Drugs. John Ehrlichman, Former President Nixon’s domestic policy chief stated, “We know we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with herin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities” proving that the US War on Drugs was created to target black communities, which was a contribution to the increasing prison population after the Civil Rights Act was passed. Even though blacks and whites use drugs at similar rates, Blacks are more likely to be prosecuted and sentenced longer for non-violent drug related crimes. According to Pew Research (2017), 70% of whites believe that racism is individual rather than being built into laws and institutions.
Many of the individuals who are subject to disenfranchisement laws live in highly populated minority communities, creating a racial disparity. Small numbers of urban communities who inhabit minority individuals have experienced the highest numbers of mass incarceration and they also experience the highest rates of felon disenfranchisement (Travis, 2005). About 13% of African American men are ineligible to vote because of disenfranchisement laws due to felony convictions (NCBI, 2013). Being disenfranchised reminds the offender that they do not belong, and that they are outsiders in their own community. If a person has no support in his or her community, then the offender has little motive to behave in a positive manner to avoid punishment.
Incarceration, gives an imagery of jails and cell bars. African American males occupy a large percent of jails in the United States to this day. The results of confinement, negatively impacts the households and communities these males once belonged to. The confinement of Black males does not only confine the males, it places the family into incarceration because it leaves wives without husbands, children without fathers and communities without male role models. With a large percent of African American males incarcerated, their families often struggle to survive emotionally and financially without them. These families are also stigmatized by the actions and absence of their family member.
Christopher Wildeman states that “1 in 40 white children born in 1978 and 1 in 25 white children born in 1990 had a parent imprisoned; 1 in 7 black children born in 1978 and 1 in 4 black children born in 1990 had a parent imprisoned; inequality in the risk of parental imprisonment between white children of college-educated parents and all other children is growing; and by age 14, 50.5% of black children born in 1990 to high school dropouts had a father imprisoned” (Wildeman, 265). He compares the risk of parental imprisonment and divergence between white children of college-educated parents and black children of imprisoned parents. He adds that the risk grew only 20% for white children of college-educated parents but the deep disadvantage of black children with low-education parents is also clear that more than 1 in 2 black children born in 1990 to high school dropouts had a parent imprisoned. The increase in African-American incarceration has been growing for years.
Statistics prove that the major challenges for African American males are the establishment of status and identity, meaning they are challenged by the perception of others. “Young black men today have a twenty eight percent likelihood of incarceration during their lifetime” (Bureau of Justice). Statistics also show that one in every two Black children live in poverty and one in every two children live in a home without a father. It goes on to state further that one in six Black males is arrested by the age of nineteen and homicide is the leading cause of death of Black males between the ages of fifteen and nineteen. If this continues how many households would be struggling in the future? How many obstacles would they have to battle? The enduring consequence of the incarceration of Black males significantly reduces the wages, employment and income for families.
Some of these males who are incarcerated were once breadwinners for their families. “More than 50 percent of fathers who are in prison were breadwinners in their families. After a family loses their breadwinner the loss of income just continues to increase” (Coates, 62). Taking away the stabilized income of a family allows room for many issues. Families are unable to keep up with the costs of housing, food, clothing and health. Families often have to choose between which necessities are more important. With the absence of a male figure or father the household becomes a single-parent household, headed by the mother. There are extra responsibilities that a single parent has to take on.
In some cases, the income that a mother receives is not close enough to the amount that the family needs to comfortably survive and they do not hold the required qualifications to make more than minimum wage. The mother still has to support the male in prison whilst also supporting the family. Considering the position of the less fortunate in the occupational structure, they are unskilled and unable to compete with advanced skilled individuals who can demand higher wages for their labor. They are now put at the bottom of the occupational structure with few skills that technology has minimized, thus raising the poverty rates among African-Americans, in which the government continues to ignore. These financial restrictions on a single mother raising children results in them becoming poverty-stricken and destitute, they then become welfare recipients if they qualify, to support herself and the children. Even though on welfare, she still cannot adequately satisfy the basic needs of the family and stress begins to take its toll.
Depending on the relationship of the male figure and the step-up parent, the absence of the male figure in the household and all of the financial stress that the mother has to deal with can become despondent and depressed and fail to discharge her parental responsibilities. Incarcerated men are separated from their wives and children and this experience limits family contact. “Incarceration is extremely resource intensive for spouses on the outside who must travel long distances for visits, pay hefty fees for telephone calls, and support and care for the family alone. When sentences are very long, many couples choose to divorce, saving not only the resources, but allowing the non-incarcerated partner to move on and enter other relationships” (Hattery, 144). Mothers are dealing with heartbreak and having to adapt without their significant other. It becomes too much at times and they convert to dealing with their pain in harsh ways. Whilst tackling their emotional aches and lack of support, mothers absentmindedly neglect their children and their needs. With these strains, children can be negatively impacted in these situations. The neglected children, are now faced with stress in their household that affects their coping and social abilities.
The absence of a father figure and being deprived of resources can have great impact on a child’s later life. School systems cater more to less poverty stricken public schools as there are higher chances of success amongst students as they already come from somewhat income stable households (Chen, 2018). Those who live in neighborhoods that are way below the poverty level are further pushed to the side. Education plays an important role in breaking the cycle of poverty, but with students being left behind, they are being robbed of that possibility. Four out of ten students are enrolled in schools with poverty rates that are more than 75 percent (Chen, 2018). School budgets shows how much the government values the well-being of children living in minority communities.
It is unfair to the children who are put in these situations. No child asks not to be born into poverty or ask to be placed in an impoverished educational institution, so they should not be punished. As funding continues to diminish, so does the hope to one day end the cycle of poverty. The financial struggle continues on with these children as they grow and it sometimes never leaves. When growing up children can have an absence of critical thinking skills which affects how they solve problems and navigate through everyday struggles. Education should promote understanding and advancement to one’s mind and personality. The students who occupy these schools barely receive these fundamental requirements on a daily basis. This again contributes to an increase in agitation. Not having a well-paying job also takes a toll on one’s life. Some children leave schools’ not learning basic social and problem solving skills that they indeed need to survive, leaving them to settle for low to minimum wage-paying jobs to no job at all.
The economic stresses of hardship that a handful of students face after leaving low funded educational institutions decreases their motivations to move further. The evidence indicates that as long as public schools are occupied by minority individuals low funding will continue for these institutions (Hammond, 2001).
Children learn what is presented to them by repetitive action. Facilities are generally located far from the communities where prisoners’ families live, visiting hours may be incompatible with work schedules, and the visitation experience is frequently degrading and far from family friendly (Comfort, 14). Children from young will notice change, so they definitely notice separation and differences in a household and they have no choice but to adapt. Families are characterized by their morals and norms. When parents do not practice morals and ethical behaviors, they are unable to instill these values during these formative years in their children (Gellar, 50). For example, if the parent is an alcoholic, drug abuser, or is constantly displaying poor behaviors the child believes the behavior to be acceptable, then learns and repeats the patterns of their behavior. There is no male figure in the household to be a mentor to the youth or to take care of the family.
Children are then left to grow up on their own. They begin to spend more time with their peers and begin to look at their friends as advisors, instead of their parents, or the adults who look after them. Without proper direction, children can be stared into the wrong path. The major challenges for these children are the establishment of status and identity. They find comfort from gangs who provide a sense of fellowship and brotherhood. “Experts propose that young adults join gangs because they both act as a surrogate family, as well as provide a sense of belonging, power, control and prestige” (Muller, 20). Youths feel that they have a status in gangs. They have fellow members who look out for them, provide unconditional support and money, the three things these youths crave. The gangs start to replace the family that they were born into and fill in the financial void that these children have been deprived. Whenever advice is needed the peers are the advisers. They make their own rules, eventually making the wrong choices, including pursuing a life leading to criminality.
Stereotypes and perceptions of African American males have been, lazy, incompetent, unstable and violent, this has been pervasive throughout American culture. Such negative perceptions of any individual can compromise one’s self-esteem and belief in one self. For our youth, at such a tender age, experiencing such negative stereotypes may be too much for them as they are trying to figure out who they are and what they want to become. This can have a profound influence and dictate how they see themselves and what they believe they can achieve. By the time these youth are into their teenage years, they have been pulled over or stopped by the police, followed by store security and heard the locking of a car door as they passed for no other reason except that they are young, Black and feared. Causing them to adopt a counter culture persona and engage in criminal behavior. These negative stereotypes lead many young Black adolescents to devalue education, school and develop a strong or hyper masculine posture in attempt to protect and define an identity. Their minds no longer leave room for positive changes or reunification. These youth are being labeled, just like their fathers are when they are placed into the system or when society knows they have committed a crime.
If the fathers of these youth are to be released in the future, they would be faced with many challenges when re-entering society. “When inmates return to the free world they have many strikes against them legally and in terms of perception; former inmates are frequently denied access to public housing, they face bans on holding a driver’s license, if they are drug felons they are banned from all forms of social welfare, and because it is legal to ask on job applications if one has ever been convicted of a felony they face serious employment discrimination” (Hattery, 151). One of those challenges being able to conform to independence and earn money. They have problems financially supporting themselves, where they struggle to acquire employment, and if they are employed, they are usually working odd jobs that pay below minimum wage. This also increases the poverty rates of this country. Without employment they are unable to be effective citizens and members of society. Formerly incarcerated males have a target on their backs when they are released back into society and this continues to affect the family because their situations ceases to change.
Being released does not mean an immediate reconciliation with family and children will occur. “Despite difficulties and challenges, the quality of the fathers’ lives hinged on the quality of their relationship with their children. The fathers unfortunately lost a significant number of years to incarceration that ideally could have been spent nurturing a lasting relationship with their children. The African-American fathers recognized the impact of their absence and decided to present themselves as father and nurturer with hopes to counteract the damage of their absence but it was not likely” (Sherece, 15). When a child has to live with the absence of a male figure for long periods of time, they adapt to different ways of survival without that parent. They grow up ultimately not needing the extra support from the parent that was incarcerated. Learning to live without a father allowed these children to fill the void that they have felt in their lives. Upon the release of the incarcerated parent, it is hard to rekindle that relationship that had been strained for years. Some children do not even care to rekindle a relationship because they believe that they have always did better for themselves without any help. Being away for so long fathers did not have much of an input in the upbringing of their children which resulted in estranged relationships. The facts are quite clear that mass incarceration has a vicious cycle.
The social factor of economic deprivation, family characteristics, peers and lack of education definitely paves the road to acts of crime and later incarceration. In addition to the defiance that builds due to lack of parental bonding, the rebellion from abandonment, being left with others and sometimes left alone. The youth in these broken households have limited opportunities and high rates of incarceration whilst entering an economically and politically emasculated adult world. On the political side, the government does little to protect these vulnerable families which further stresses the newly single parent.
Although young African American youth face a number of challenges in their communities, there are strategies that can be effective in addressing their issues that many of them share. The identification and recruitment of male teachers, that are young Black males, can be encouragement for professional development to Black children from economically disadvantaged communities. There should be a vast creation of opportunities for early career exploration and development such as internship and apprenticeships inside the classroom and as a part of school curriculum, to keep these youth motivated and allowing them to acquire proper skills that can be exercised in the real world. Males and other adults from the community can also be utilized as mentors for youth and students as early as elementary school. The creation of multi- disciplined research centers to assess what factors are associated with healthy development for African Americans and the development of interventions to address challenges facing these young children. These children should have a chance to explore their identities the correct way and have a stable childhood despite their uncontrolled situations.