US Institutionalizing Anti-African American Racism

Thousands gathered in downtown Detroit on March 26, 2012 during a national day of action calling for justice in the Florida shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The 17-year-old was killed by a vigilante one month before. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe), a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

US institutionalizing anti-African American racism

Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:56PM GMT
presstv.ir

The US imprisonment regime is “unconscionable” as it has been institutionalized to guarantee that young African-American males remain trapped in a cycle of recidivism, an analyst tells Press TV.

The comment comes as African-Americans, who constitute 44 percent of all prisoners in the US, are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites and the US police are under fire over alleged racially motivated killings of African-Americans in the country.

In an interview with Press TV, director at Peace THRU Justice Foundation, Mauri Saalakhan, insisted that “there are about 2.5 million inmates in the US. It’s been said no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.”

“Now what’s interesting is that this sharp increase has occurred in the past 10 to 15 years. Why is that?”

The African-American leader also reiterated that black men and women in America are often targeted for non-violent offenses.

“It’s unconscionable, especially given the fact that most of the incarcerations are for non-violent offences; many of them are drug-related,” he said.

“When you do see the analysis of who within the American population is more susceptible to using drugs and dealing drugs, in study after study it comes out to be a young white male but, you know, the way that it’s; the system has been slanted towards criminalizing young black men and increasingly females.”