Race and Ethnicity's Impact on US Employment and Criminal Justice

Since the beginning of colonialism, raced based hindrances have soiled the satisfaction of the shared and common principles in society. While racial and ethnic prejudice has diminished over the past half-century, it is still prevalent in society today. In my opinion, racial and ethnic inequity is one of the most important forms of social inequality in society. Prejudice has taken a more modern stance. Society has shifted away from the use of blatant bigotry, the firm beliefs in the need for segregation and the brazen view that blacks are biologically inferior to white to a more subtle form.

This essay will explore the ways racial discrimination is present on both an institutionalised and individual level with regards to the detrimental effects of the function of society. Racism in terms of disparities and inequalities in American culture have manifested a range of underlying social domains that include educational opportunities, healthcare inequalities, incarceration rates and housing patterns. It is embedded within a structural matrix that penetrates not only society but public and private spheres. In order to diminish the levels of racial inequality in society, there should be new policies that ensure crucial changes are made to the framework that is currently implemented. The current system structurally impedes and disadvantages groups that belong to the minority.

Race can be defined as a “category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin colour, facial features, and stature”, whereas ethnicity refers to the “shared social, cultural, and historical experiences, stemming from common national or regional backgrounds, that make subgroups of a population different from one another”. Essentially, race is a social construction that discriminates against people who are deemed to be inferior or different. One factor that contributes to racial and ethnic inequality is the mass rates of incarceration within the criminal justice system. It is a significant cause of the extensive perceptions of inequity in communities that people of colour reside in. In America, the two most common minority groups that are affected by the disparities within the judicial institution are the African Americans and the Latinos. According to a 2018 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2.2 million adults were incarcerated in American prisons at the end of 2016, which is the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Minorities are overrepresented in the prison population. According to the Pew Research analysis of the Bureau of Justice statics data, African-Americans constitute a mere 12% of the total US population; however 33% are currently imprisoned in both state and federal prisons. This is in comparison to whites, who comprise of 64% of the population, yet only 30% are incarcerated.

Fundamentally, males from minority groups serve much more time for committing the same offences than their white male counterparts. Western & Pettit conclude that, “the inequality is cumulative because the social and economic penalties that flow from incarceration are accrued by those who already have the weakest economic opportunities. Mass incarceration thus deepens disadvantage and forecloses mobility for the most marginal in society. Finally, carceral inequalities are intergenerational, affecting not just those who go to prison and jail but their families and children, too”. Due to the obvious systematic bias of the penal system faced by minorities, administrative changes should be imparted to decrease the disproportionate incarceration rates. Class inequalities in imprisonment are reflected by the level of education achieved by those in prison. According to statistics, state prisoners have only reached tenth grade with around 70% of them having no high school diploma. However, race is not the only contributing factor to the high level of incarceration rates for African-Americans. Gender, class and age disparities have simultaneously with race attributed to the extraordinary high rates of imprisonment of young African-American men with low levels of education. The low achievement rate of minorities in the area of high school completion could be attributed to parental education and socio-economic status. The disparity that emerges from imprisonment is frequently invisible to mainstream society due to it being concentrated and segregated. The research conducted concludes that steep racial and class incongruities in imprisonment have created a generation of social exceptions whose aggregate experience is vastly different to the remainder of the American community. The extreme concentrated rates of incarceration are exacerbated by the clearly segregated capacity of the punitive system, which frequently displaces individuals to remote facilities that are distant from their social groups and families. Consequently, individuals in jail are disengaged from essential institutionalised organisations such as family units and the labour-market that dominate a person’s comprehension and measurement of the populace. The isolation and social centralisation of imprisonment thus assists in covering its effects. This reality is essentially significant for public policy because in evaluating the social and financial prosperity of the population, the imprisoned fraction is often neglected, and the disparity is underestimated and belittled as a result.

In addition, cumulative inequality is also an important factor when discussing the effects of the mass incarceration rates in racial and ethnic inequalities. It is a known fact that social and economic opportunities are reduced when one is serving a prison sentence. Research shows that due to these diminished opportunities, the socioeconomically disadvantages are subjected to further discrimination that includes reduced earning and employment. Furthermore, another major contributing factor of the inequity experienced by minorities is due to unemployment. Race and ethnicity have a substantial impact on the nature and quality of jobs that are available, as well as the earnings of an individual. Discrimination in the labour market is nonetheless present in society today. The workforce is stratified by racial and ethnic disparities, with whites earning a higher salary than African-American and Hispanics with the same qualifications. This inequity has generated a notable wage gap and essentially increased the rates of unemployment within those communities. In America, black unemployment is more than twice as high as white unemployment. William Bielby, a professor of sociology examines the sources of racial disadvantages in large financial service firms. Through the use of data from reports submitted in discrimination litigation, Bielby portrays how differences in race affect access to wealth and the limits placed upon African Americans. Bielby found that white financial advisers who leave the firm are more inclined to turn over their account proprietorship to their white colleagues as opposed to their black colleagues. Due to this conclusion, it was be inferred that African American’s encounter racial separation and prohibition from the workplace environment. In addition, Bielby found that compared to white financial advisers, black financial advisers earn 40% less. The gap in the earnings between white and black people is fundamentally high, which signified a systematic problem that is installed within the structure of the work force that requires evaluation and change. Similarly, Hispanics also encounter disparities in the work place. Compared to white workers, immigrants in America are more inclined to have brown collar jobs. The lack of opportunity to excel and be employed in white collar jobs significantly disadvantages African-Americans and Latinos, thus resulting in high unemployment and poverty rates. The pay gap could be attributed to the deepening marginisation of native workers.

The discrimination faced by minorities has been documented in a field experiment that looks at the rates at which African American and white males were awarded positions at entry-level jobs. The candidates had dressed the same and documented similar levels of qualification and education. In addition, some candidates conceded to have a criminal record, while others did not. The study found that candidates with a criminal record were hired at much lower rates than those without. Nevertheless, the study did depict the racial discrimination African American’s faced when applying for a job. The evidence found that African Americans without criminal records were procured at the same low rates as white males with a criminal record. The lack of employment opportunities further correlates to the low level of educational achievement and attainment.

In order to minimise the level of discrimination due to race and ethnicity, Hutchinson proposes an antisubordination theory which considers “social context in which race-based policies emerge and recognize material distinctions between policies intended to oppress racial minorities and those designed to ameliorate past and current racism”, while also scrutinizing “facially neutral state actions that systemically disadvantages vulnerable social groups”. The race and ethnicity of a person does not only determine employment opportunities but affects resource allocation in health care and quality education. Focusing on the United States, race and ethnicity have proven to directly influence policy, curriculum and funding. Schools influenced by location, for example the inner city, and high destitution rates are normally associated with areas populated with minority groups such as African Americans and Hispanics. This is in contrast to schools where a majority of white people reside in such as residential areas, which are generally awarded with a larger amount of assets and recourses than their counterparts. This causes further ramifications in racial disparity which must be changed through state intercession in order to ensure all students have the opportunity to accomplish their desired level of education. In my opinion, the allocation of resources must be revisited and altered. In addition, new policies must be passed at a federal level to ensure equal job opportunities and funding in areas such as job training and public work programs. Through the increase of funding, racial and ethnic inequality will with time subside. I believe that government should provide aid for individuals struggling through the inclusion of earned income and child-care subsidies, as well as strengthening laws through reinforcement that forbid discrimination of minorities in the process of promotion, income and hiring. 

To conclude, one of the most important forms of social disparity is the inequality by race and ethnicity. It is significant due to the stark divides in the measures of wealth, employment opportunities, mass incarceration and education. This essay explored and focused upon the impacts that race and ethnicity had on employment and the criminal justice system in the United States. The studies conducted reinforced the contributing factors that lead to systematic racism through both an institutionalised and individual level, as well as the segregation experienced by minority groups.