The 13th amendment had abolished slavery. The Caucasians despite the idea of having African Americans free, and went by any means to have them held in bondage. This, however, was very easy for them to accomplished, for they had created laws that had African-Americans arrested and put over long periods, because of senseless crimes. After a while, these states realized that they could make profits off these prisoners which they earned a lot from.
During the 1800s laws like the pig laws and vagrancy laws were created. These laws were said to have been created for all to obeyed. However, the laws were mostly directed towards African-Americans, for they were the ones been arrested for walking along the side of a railroad, speaking loudly, and stealing …show more content…
They only targeted blacks and because of this, the black population in prisons were very high at a rate of 90%. When the whites saw how high the black population in prison was, they became fearful of blacks, even though the crimes that blacks were been charged with were ludicrous. They still saw them as dangerous, especially the women who saw the black man as predators. This eventually became so deep-rooted in them, that it is still alive in our society today. For instance, majority of the time when a white woman sees a black individual especially a man on the same side of the road, she ends up crossing the street, tightly clutching her purse. During the reconstruction period, they wanted the blacks out of sight a goal they did achieve by having them …show more content…
However, as of today, there are still some changes that need to be done in our society to make America even better. While we may not have ridiculous laws like pig and vagrancy laws, which targeted African-American; we will still have laws that are said to be made for everyone to follow, however, mostly minorities are affected by these laws. In particular drug laws, where drugs are mostly used by Whites, however, African-Americans are more likely to go to prison. According to the Huffington post, “Higher percentages of whites have tried hallucinogens, marijuana, pain relievers like OxyContin, and stimulants like methamphetamine. Crack is more popular among blacks than whites, but not by much… Of the 225,242 people who were serving time in state prisons for drug offenses in 2011, blacks made up 45 percent and whites comprised just 30 percent” (knafo, 2013). Our system is very unfair, and even though there has been a lot of improvement over the years, there is still work to be done, because not everyone is treated equally by the law. It is time for our justice system to
During the 1800s laws like the pig laws and vagrancy laws were created. These laws were said to have been created for all to obeyed. However, the laws were mostly directed towards African-Americans, for they were the ones been arrested for walking along the side of a railroad, speaking loudly, and stealing …show more content…
They only targeted blacks and because of this, the black population in prisons were very high at a rate of 90%. When the whites saw how high the black population in prison was, they became fearful of blacks, even though the crimes that blacks were been charged with were ludicrous. They still saw them as dangerous, especially the women who saw the black man as predators. This eventually became so deep-rooted in them, that it is still alive in our society today. For instance, majority of the time when a white woman sees a black individual especially a man on the same side of the road, she ends up crossing the street, tightly clutching her purse. During the reconstruction period, they wanted the blacks out of sight a goal they did achieve by having them …show more content…
However, as of today, there are still some changes that need to be done in our society to make America even better. While we may not have ridiculous laws like pig and vagrancy laws, which targeted African-American; we will still have laws that are said to be made for everyone to follow, however, mostly minorities are affected by these laws. In particular drug laws, where drugs are mostly used by Whites, however, African-Americans are more likely to go to prison. According to the Huffington post, “Higher percentages of whites have tried hallucinogens, marijuana, pain relievers like OxyContin, and stimulants like methamphetamine. Crack is more popular among blacks than whites, but not by much… Of the 225,242 people who were serving time in state prisons for drug offenses in 2011, blacks made up 45 percent and whites comprised just 30 percent” (knafo, 2013). Our system is very unfair, and even though there has been a lot of improvement over the years, there is still work to be done, because not everyone is treated equally by the law. It is time for our justice system to