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The Criminalization of the Black Male; the Lack of Virtue and Justice

Statistically and strategically the media is one of the most influential entities on an

individual’s perceptions and ideals regarding everything, including people. Unfortunately, the

media is tweaked and conceptually biased. The Media Social Identity Theory states that media

images and depictions have an unrelenting impact on the on how individuals are perceived to be.

Unfortunately, this theory reveals that stereotypical images seem to manifest as true conceptions

of those that dwell within everyday society. In other words, these controlling images dictate what

people automatically assume about an individual without any other determining factors, and

these preconceived notions affect society on a micro and macro level. In relation to the

criminalization of black men, the media is a driving force that instills negative images of black

men in the minds of society. As a result of this, there is domino effect racial profiling and a

resonating practice of institutionalized racism. Within the following rhetorical analysis the

following explanations and observations will be revealed, the influence of the media in legal

processes, racial profiling within and outside of the media, and the affects of institutionalized

racism.

The media has strategically used controlling images to depict society’s members.

Unfortunately, those images of black men have not positive. The most common images of black

males in the media include “the infamous thug,” “pimp (or absent father),” or a misogynistic

“rapper.” Due to these images constantly bombarding society’s mind, it is difficult for black men

to be perceived any other way. Controlling images within the media are the catalysts that propel

the criminalization of black men. Criminalization is defined as the state of being or being treated

like a criminal, hoodlum, or vagabond. The media constantly uses negative statistics to

consistently cast black men as the scourge of America, especially those that revolve around

imprisonment or any facet of the judicial/legal system. Gloom and doom sells. But there is a

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deeper truth beyond the headlines, and it is this truth that we must understand in order to

appreciate the full story of black men in America. Statistics do not lie, but a statistic cannot give

balance or provide a larger context to the story. The statistics often do not cover the remarkable

advancement many American black men have made in the last half century, nor do they report

on the collapse of many white men in the same era (Entman, 2000). This is not just bad

reporting; it is bad for society. The continual coverage of the black man's plight instead of his

progress only hinders his growth, holds back our country from true equality.

As stated previously the media often portrays black men as thugs, unwed fathers that do

not take of their children (pimps), rappers, and felons. With these controlling images being the

dictating stereotype of black men it is not implausible for these images to manifest within

society. The adverse consequence of controlling images is that they are often mandated as

sources of legitimacy. When something is deemed legitimate it is no longer questioned, and this

is the ill-fated aftermath of media-controlled images of black men. The unbalanced media

coverage of black men being the face of crime and the glorification of rappers and athletes

(especially those supposedly engaged in “bad” behavior) play a significant role in the semantics

of personal wealth and achievement. Habitually, black males aspire to be or achieve the status of

the rappers and athletes they idolize consciously and subconsciously. The problem exists within

the goals attainability, the wealth that athletes and rappers hold is not an average position, so the

average person would have to do extraordinary things to achieve this wealth. However, the

constant notion “to get rich or die trying” is the anthem of many black men. Therefore, the get

rich method or just seeking to survive usually leads to illegal behavior. Some may argue that

there is not any correlation to the causation of black male criminality and the media but, it would

be adamantly refuted. White males are portrayed in consistently positive roles and they are not

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populating the prisons at alarming rate; simply because neither the media nor the judicial system

works against them, but it works for them, allowing society to embrace the image as valid

whether it is true or not (Boles, 2007).

Conceivably, in no other area are the statistics and the conditions of Black American men

more compelling than in the arena of criminal justice. According to the National Urban League

Equality Index, Black Americans are seven times more likely to be imprisoned as whites; and 1

in 8 black males in their twenties is incarnated on any given day. It is only feasible to question

these conditions because they are not sustainable without serious cost to society at large.

Unfortunately, this current state could get worse: according to the Sentencing Project, if the

current influx of Black males into the prison system continues, one of every three black males

born today will be imprisoned at some point in their lifetime (Lanier, 2003). At the same time,

incidence of drug use, crime, scandal, divorce and other social ills have increased dramatically

for white men, but these statistics are not reported as problems about ‘white men' in America.

Approximately 9 out of 10 serial killers are white males between the ages of 20 and 35. Yet we

do not hear these statistics repeated over and over again in the mainstream press, making these

crimes synonymous with one particular race as is the case with blacks.

The irrefutable effects of the incarceration rate of Black males are distressing personally,

socially, and holistically. Due to a singular felony conviction, individuals will be barred from

public housing, federal education loan programs, employment, and revoked voting rights. Now,

if the aforementioned factors do not cause a cycle of destruction, what does? This cycle is also

referred to as civic death. Civic death is defined as the state of reprobation as a result of judicial

rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is not possible without resources that extend beyond the walls of

the prison. The issue at hand is not the convict, but the system of the conviction. In no way is

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crime excusable however, certain facts cannot be elusively ignored. Prisons are filled with Black

men at disproportionate rates, and rehabilitation is more restrictive than it is constructive. The

limiting residue of the criminal convictions leads the effected individuals into an unforgiving

cycle of criminality.

Television, movies, and the news have also perpetuated racial profiling. Racial Profiling

is a legal and discriminatory practice. Racial profiling refers to the use of lawful enforcement

based on race or ethnicity as a factor in articulating reasonable suspicion to stop, question or

arrest an individual (unless race or ethnicity is part of an identifying description of a specific

suspect for a specific crime.) Individual law enforcement personnel who profile suspects on the

basis of race or ethnicity violate the civil rights of the individuals. When race and ethnicity

become factors in suspicious behavior, the civil rights of racial and ethnic minorities as a group

are violated. Although, racial profiling is legal it is not expedient when it abuses and targets

black and brown communities.

Racial Profiling and the war on drugs seem to be synonymous. The pervasiveness of

racial profiling by the police in the enforcement of our nation's drug laws is the consequence of

the escalating so-called war on drugs. Drug use and drug selling are not confined to racial and

ethnic minorities in the U.S.; indeed five times as many whites use drugs. But the war on drugs

has, since its earliest days, targeted people of color. The fact that skin color has now become a

proxy for criminality is an inevitable outcome of this process (Holbert, 120). According to the

government's own reports, 80 percent of the country's cocaine users are white, and the "typical

cocaine user is a middle-class, white suburbanite." But law enforcement tactics that concentrated

on the inner city drug trade were very visibly filling the jails and prisons with minority drug law

offenders, feeding the misperception that most drug users and dealers were black and Latino.

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Thus a "drug courier profile" with unmistakable racial overtones took hold in law enforcement.

The consequences of these law enforcement practices and sentencing policies are

painfully evident today in the demographics of our prison population. According to an April

1999 report prepared for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by The Sentencing Project, there

are now an estimated 400,000 inmates in the U.S. either awaiting trial or serving time for a drug

offense, out of a total inmate population of 1.7 million. "The combined impact of increased drug

arrests along with harsher sentencing policies has led to a vast expansion of drug offenders in the

nation's prisons and jails.”As these policies have been implemented, they have increasingly

affected black and brown communities. The African American proportion of drug arrests has

risen from 25 percent in 1980 to 45 percent in 2005. African-American or Black inmates are

more likely than non-Hispanic whites to be incarcerated for a drug offense." Today, blacks

constitute 13 percent of the country's drug users; 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges; 55

percent of those convicted; and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.

Theoretically, even without considering statistics Black men are prone to being violated

by the laws that supposedly protects them, because laws cannot protect those that it does not

include. In other words, initially the judicial system of the United States was established to

maintain the subjugation of African Americans. Historically, blacks have always had equality

issues with the judicial system. From physical lynchings to embedded racist ideologies, the

experience of the black community especially the black man is conclusively subdued in racist

inequality, racial discrimination, and stereotypes. The foundation of America would have to be

completely annihilated and rebuilt. Unfortunately, the foundation is established and amendments

and social transformation are the only options. Change is slow process, and although the Black

community is thriving and going much better when compared to our historic state of being, there

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is still and will always be room for improvement.

The residual effects of racism confine America from progressing holistically. The mere

fact that society constantly separates the United States into “Black America” and America proves

that Black Americans are not considered to American initially, but Black (and everything thing

that encompasses being black whether it is true or false, positive or negative, according to

society). How can assimilation ever be a successful entity if being black is a constant ostracized

factor? Double consciousness cannot be ignored because Blacks are constantly reminded of the

negative aspects of being “Black.” The initial question was, Are black males in a state of crisis

criminally and fortunately without a doubt I can say no. Although, there are a disproportionate

number of black males in the prison system I do not believe that they are all there based on a fair

trial or a crime that they supposedly committed. The crisis exists within American culture, we

cannot continue to separate blacks as maximized micro-level race of self-destruction; it is not the

case. The undeniable factors racism, inequality of the judicial system, and biased media

depictions are driving forces of the criminal state that black males are dealing with in America.

Blacks make up thirteen percent of the U.S. population, but criminality, poverty, education gaps,

and political gaps impact a much larger percentage of Black in America. Criminality is a

consequence of poverty, poverty a consequence of poor education, and poor education is

consequence of a mediocre political system. Fortunately, each factor is a determinant of the other

and in improving the state of being in one area it will respectively improve the state of them all.

Therefore the supposed criminality of the black male is not a personal battle of the black

community, but it is a societal and American platform for change. Society cannot continue to

ignore these issues but solutions that will work must be implemented. In implementing feasible

solutions America as whole will have to embrace the fact that there are other factors surrounding

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the state of Black Americans, especially the men. The media can be the vehicle that changes the

depiction of black men in America.

Everything that has been stated leads to the following analysis. Black men are not

conveyed fairly nor are they treated fairly due to the looming controlling images of media and

retrospectively society. No matter how successful a black man is, there is an undeserving

criminality attached to him because of media and socially controlled images. Despite the

perpetuated images of the media and society, there are statistics and everyday situations that

prove that black men are than what naysayers make them out to be. The Media Social Identity

Theory states that media images and depictions have an unrelenting impact on the on how

individuals are perceived to be; with this in mind our recent election proves that a black man is

more than thug, pimp, or a rapper. Black men have made the insurmountable surmountable in

spite of everything that has sought to destroy him. Although, Black has criminalized,

demoralized, ostracized, and categorized, black men are glorified in knowing that they are not

what society and the media says they are. The problem does not exist within the lives of black

men, but the very foundation of America. Racism is now an institutionalized entity that dictates

what is and what is not. Racism cannot be ignored nor can it be minimized as a problem of the

past. Media depictions of black men are discouraging to say the least; therefore the solution is

left in the hands of black fathers, black teachers, black coaches, black mentors, and black

professionals to change the perception that is embedded in the mind of society.