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Briece Graham

Dr. Wells

PHI 2206

2 December 2019

Racism in the Criminal Justice System

The issue of racism has been a major contributing factor towards the oppression of

minorities in society for an astonishing long amount of time. There are many negative aspects of

racism that has exacerbated the quality of life of minorities in many different ways. I believe that

the most pressing aspect of racism in today’s society is the presence of racism in the criminal

justice system.

The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution states that everyone is equal and

guarantees equal protection of the laws for all citizens. It is apparent that this amendment has

failed to protect the citizens of this country on numerous occasions. Everyone is not being treated

as equals in today’s society, especially in the justice system.

As a young black women in this society, I can attest to the many struggles of being a part

of two minorities. As a black person in this society, you will likely be called a racial slur at some

point in your lifetime. You will also be stereotyped by other individuals and seen as a threat for

no reason. The most frightening part about being black is the idea of being involved with

authority figures or the justice system. The many infamous cases of police brutality like the

unjustified killings of Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, and Sandra Bland has instilled fear in

the black community. Being that I am sixteen now, I recently received my driver’s license after a

lot of hard work. Although I was excited to finally have my license, a new fear was developed. I
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always hear about the mistreatment of black people by white police officers, which unfortunately

sometimes ends up in the death of an innocent person. Nowadays, I feel that minorities can not

look at traffic stops at face value because a simple confrontational traffic can result in a tragedy.

The book “Suspect Citizens” conducted a study on profiling by police officers (Balko). In the

study, the researchers reviewed twenty million traffic stops (Balko). They found that black

people are about twice as likely to be pulled over than a white person (Balko). The study also

revealed that a black person has four times the odds of being searched and twice the odds of

being pulled over (Balko). More research on this issue was done by the Charleston Post and

Courier. This research showed that blacks had a very high likelihood of being the subject of a

pretext stop (Balko). A pretext stop is essentially a stop where a police officer pulls someone

over because they profile the subject as a drug dealer or something of that caliber. Pretext stops

almost never lead to citations and the subject usually doesn’t do anything significant to be pulled

over in the first place.

Let’s say that you never get pulled over and have to deal with anything like this. Now,

you are involved in a legal dispute with another person and you are going to court. If you are

black, there likely won’t be many jurors (or any) that look like you. Despite the Supreme Court’s

declaration that rejecting aspiring jurors because of race is illegal, this ruling is oftentimes

ignored. The New Yorker has informed us that within thirty years after the ruling took place, the

courts have still accepted the most insubstantial excuses for rejecting an aspiring juror (Balko).

The Equal Justice Initiative reveals the shocking amount of cases where jurors are dismissed

because they graduated from a historically black college or university or live in a predominantly

black neighborhood (Balko). Between 1994 and 2002, 80 percent of criminal trials had two or
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less than two black jurors in states where only 10 out of 12 jurors votes are needed to convict

someone (Balko).

Another facet of the criminal justice system that reveals racial bias to us is the death

penalty. When it comes to murders, the race of the victim seems to play a significant role in

rather the convict receives the death penalty or not. If the person killed is black, statistics show

that the killer is less likely to receive the death penalty (Balko). If you kill a white person as

opposed to killing any other race, your likelihood of the death penalty skyrockets. As of 2003, 80

percent of people on death row in the United States has killed a white person (Balko). The 2012

study executed by Harris County Tex., revealed that people who have killed a white person is 2.5

times more likely to receive the death penalty than a person who has murdered someone of

another race (Balko). Something that’s even worse than this is that a black person is more likely

to be wrongly convicted of murder if the victim is a white person (Balko).

What has caused this misconduct of our law enforcement? Well to begin with, a huge

part of our criminal justice was developed during the Jim Crow era. The system is essentially

built on racism. Being that it has been years since the Jim Crow era ended and our justice system

still reveals traces of racism, shows that many people still share the same values about race. The

question “why are people racist?” is a hard question to answer and if you ask different people

you will likely get many different answers. I mean, there are no biological factors in any race

that makes one race superior to the other. Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah ponders on this

question. He states that racialism is a cognitive problem as opposed to a moral problem (Fiala).

He also states that racists have a cognitive incapacity because there is no evidence that supports
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their ways of thinking and yet they still think the same way. He states that people also refuse to

give up beliefs that justify the advantages that they receive (Fiala).

Now that we have analyzed the issue of racism in the criminal justice system, how do

we solve this? I think we need to refocus our thinking. Bouncing back on the ideas of Kwame,

racism is a sign of being small minded. If we realize that a person’s race does not determine

one’s moral character, then the issue of racism in the criminal justice system, and in society as a

whole, should diminish. To end racism in the system, we have to be more aware of the intrinsic

values of police officers and officials. I know that it may not be obvious to an employer that a

person is racist while they interview and evaluate a person for a job, but I think that we need to

analyze these people more thoroughly.

The system needs to also stop being so easy on police officers who have committed

police brutality. I think that many police officers know that they can avoid the consequences that

an average person would receive if they did the same crime, therefore they are more inclined to

participate in this behavior. Many police officers do questionable acts and end up receiving paid

administrative leave at the most. Although a lot of police officers get away with these crimes and

the court doesn’t seem concerned by this, this doesn't sit well with the public. Philosopher Naomi

Zack states that the reason acquitalls and the failure to enact consequences causes rage and

protest from the people is that police are to protect citizens, and instead, in many cases they are

putting them in harm’s way (Fiala).

It’s not only police officers or authority figures who get to live a perfectly fine life

after murdering a black person though. A prime example of this is George Zimmerman. George

called the police to report someone as suspicious. The officer directed him to not approach the
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man and to stay in his car and he ignored his orders (CNN). He then shot Trayvon and claimed it

was self defense, even though there is no evidence that Trayvon posed a threat to him and the

young man was unarmed. Despite this, George Zimmerman’s case was acquitted.

Another way that I believe would help resolve the issue of racism in the criminal

justice system is to appoint more minorities in position of powers. In court, there are not many

minorities present which leads to a lack of representation of minorities and it also calls for less

support for these people. I do not think we should just appoint a person because they are a

minority but I think we should crack down on people dismissing a perfectly capable and

qualified person because of their race.

In conclusion, this ethical issue is a difficult issue to solve that does not have any

clear cut solution. This is one of the reasons I have labeled it as the most pressing ethical issue in

today’s society. Racism in the criminal justice system instills everyday fear in minorities every

time they walk out of the house and get into their car because they fear being profiled. It is the

reason that a minority can not have a tranquil shopping experience without employees

not-so-discreetly following them around the store because they suspect they are stealing. It is the

reason that a person who kills a white person will receive the death penalty when a person that

kills a black person will not. If there was an easy solution, then this problem would have been

long gone. But there is not. All we can do is be mindful of the fact that we are all humans and

regardless of skin color we all bleed the same. Moral character is an important part of an

individual and it is not dependent on race. We must know that just because a person has a certain

skin tone does not make them dangerous or deviant. We must stop passing racist views to our

children because they will one day make up the justice system.
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Works Cited

Balko, Radley. “There’s overwhelming evidence that the criminal-justice system is racist. Here’s

the proof.” ​The Washington Post, ​18 September, 2018,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/18/theres-overwhelming-ev

idence-that-the-criminal-justice-system-is-racist-heres-the-proof/. Accessed 5 December

2019.

​ ngage Learning.
Fiala, Andrew. Mackinnon, Barbara. ​Ethics Theory and Contemporary Issues. E

2018. pp 334-336.

CNN. “Trayvon Martin Shooting Fast Facts” ​CNN.com​, 9, December 2019,

https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/index.html.

Accessed 6 December 2019.