Group Presentation #2

This group looked at the issue of Black Males and Incarceration. I was kind of envious because I wanted to do that topic but our group went with another topic. It wasn’t surprising to learn that of 200,000 America facing time that 81,000 are African American. It’s sad that the numbers for African American males has Tripled between 1980 and today. The group then continued to explain that there are three main reasons that black males are more likely to find they behind bars opposed to a college classroom; they listed poverty, child neglect, and racial profiling. Like I thought, most causes brought up against African American males are drug charges. However I was surprised to learn that 79.8% arrest for use of crack/ cocaine cases are African American. Not to be racist or biased, I would have thought that it was equal. They brought up an example of racial profiling. The used Henry Louis Gates Jr., a professor at Harvard University. Although he showed his Harvard ID and state ID, the police continued to arrest Gates. They said he was arrested because the same day of a chain of robberies, neighbors reported Gates as the robber. They interviewed a Sociologist in California she said she thinks that a lot of black males go to jail because of low income homes are most likely to be harmed or suffer from child neglect and blacks make up a big portion of those that fall below the poverty line. She also stated that the lack of education would cause people to look to illegal sources of income.