"Unequal Justice" in Review

The following essay was written for an Interdisciplinary Theory and Concepts course during my undergraduate education. The project pushed students to find peer reviewed journals regarding topics of personal interest. Then, we traded these journals with our peers, and assessed them under an interdisciplinary lens. While I started the project with interest in migraine disease, I ended up writing a review about the penal system and unequal punishments. This quickly became I topic I felt drawn to.

Racism and the concept of ethnic inferiority have been present across the world since the beginning of time. When analyzing what this means in the broader sense, race is defined as a social group of people compared and differentiated by chosen real or supposed/unproven distinctive physical or structural biological characteristics including but not limited to skin color. Racism concerns the hierarchical ranking of superiority and/or inferiority, prejudice, and/or discrimination, hinged upon the characteristics noted in the definition of race (Ikuenobe 109). Odom’s claim in “Unequal Justice” directly pertains to the fact that black people living in the United States are more likely to receive the death sentence than any other racial or ethnic group, and argues that this is a direct result of racism. (Odom 3). This essay will examine Odom’s claim, the valid and doubtful viewpoints of the author’s case and research and whether or not they need further studying, the effectiveness of the article in itself, and conclusions that can be drawn from the efficacy of the article.

According to “Unequal Justice,” black Americans are more likely to receive a death sentence than any other group. While the majority of those who receive the death penalty in the United States are white people, the death penalty is recommended to black people “more often and for less severe crimes than their White counterparts” (Odom 1). Until 1787, the United States considered black people to be three-fifths of a human being (Odom 4). Even after the ratification of the Constitution, not only has racism been present in the criminal justice system but it has been inherently anti-black people. This racism has manifested itself in a plethora of ways, including: those who murdered whites were found to be more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks (Odom 6); in defendants sentenced to death, 57.5% rated to have “stereotypically black” features, such as broad noses, thick lips, and dark skin and hair (Odom 8); and those who kill white people are more than four times as likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill Latino people, and over three times as likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill black people (Odom 9). Additionally, racist and stereotypical notions are still being portrayed in the media (tv shows, movies, the news) and forming a false notion of who black people are, yet they are still being perpetuated creating a gap between black people and the rest of society (Odom 16). The inclusion of all these facts individually contributed to supporting Odom’s claim that black Americans are more likely to receive the death sentence than any other American.

Racism is sensitive in the sense that it is difficult to validate racist experiences in a way that can be measured, quantified, or analyzed because they are often based on word of mouth, which is often neglected in the criminal justice system. Odom points out many ways that racism can be seen through quantifiable statistics and data to alleviate any concerns of validity and to eliminate any room for doubt. As it is true of most countries, in the U.S there is legislation present to outlaw any blatant racism, and the leaders at the federal and county level have concluded that discrimination and racism can no longer exist as a structural characteristic of society or the state, simply because it is not allowed. If discrimination or prejudice occurs, it is treated as “an incident, as a deviation, as something that should be attributed to and punished at the individual level.” In other words, institutional or systemic racism is denied (Dijk 95). This is corroborated when Feder states that racism is not simply “disliking/mistreating others on the basis of race,” it is “a system of advantage based on race.” She further states that it is hierarchical and like a pandemic (Feder).

The elites in our political, media and corporate institutions play a key role in the dispersion and reproduction of racism. At these levels, these people are the ones who control and have predominant access to many varieties of public discourse, and “have the largest stake in maintaining white group dominance” (Dijk 88). In “Discourse and the Denial of Racism,” Dijk identifies several different strategies when denying present racism: one of the largest social strategies is called justification, which details that the perpetrator wasn't guilty and, therefore, deserves no consequence, or that the act done to the victim was done out of pure self-defense (Dijk 93). In “Unequal Justice,” the criminal justice system uses this technique to reach a misinterpreted form of “justice,” in which the institution defends white people whereas black people have to fight for due process of the law (Odom 25). By using other reliable sources and other perspectives on the study, it is clear that the data in Odom’s article is accurate and valid.

Odom underscores a multitude of evidence to show the unfair treatment of black people under the current justice system, and one of these points focuses in on the lack of diversity in those who prosecute black people-- white district attorneys make up 97.5% of the sum of district attorneys, whereas black and Hispanic district attorneys each make up a mere 1.2% (Odom 28). These statistics were surprising and were relevant as of 2003. Updated statistics (as of 2016) show that White DA’s make up 92.65%, Hispanic DA’s make up 4.28% and black DA’s make up 2.44% (Stohr). This shows the number of black attorneys has doubled, but it is such a low percentage that the doubling hardly had any effect on the sum. As a method of making a point, even data from 2003 (as included in “Unequal Justice”) was still relevant with the times and could be used as an accurate source. Additionally, Stohr agrees with Odom when it comes to the powerplay in systemic racism. Stohr writes that prosecutors have more power in this system than any judge, supreme court, police officer, or attorney. They decide what charges to file -- “or more importantly, what charges not to file” (Stohr). Therefore, the inclusion of statistics on district attorney demographics is sufficient evidence to maintain that racism is institutionally present.

Being that there tends to be more done to defend the white American as victims or as offenders, it is clear that the current policy in place suggests that white lives are more important than black lives (Odom 5). The evidence used to support this claim and the language used to present it pose for a very persuasive argument. For instance, Odom spends five pages analyzing the presence of racist mores and depictions in the media through statistics, anecdotes, and charts to emphasize the concept of “reality programming,” or the act of programming someone to believe a different reality. The different methods used to demonstrate his argument effectively appeal to the logical side of the reader as well as the emotional side and persuade the reader to understand what they are being fed by the media and how to differentiate it from the truth. Another example of Odom’s persuasiveness is found in pages 20-23 in which Odom denotes the three types of theories associated with racism, details them, and applies them to everyday situations to address the importance and the relevance of each claim.

One way that Odom was ineffective in his writing was the inclusion of longer quotes and passages from other authors throughout the piece. While it proves that Odom completed sufficient research to support his presented claims, the placement of the quotes without any mention of the validity of the sources used forces the author to question how much the source can be trusted. Additionally, the inclusion of these longer texts within his work in between his own thoughts and/or back to back with other sources--without much further analysis done by Odom--interrupted the flow of the piece itself and made it hard to follow at times.

Odom’s use of statistics about who is prosecuted, who the prosecutors are, and the comparisons between other races throughout history form an argument that cannot be denied. Based on the corroboration and cross-references from outside, valid sources, the study is further supported by additional research. The argument at hand seemingly covered all bases, and the only doubt that could be kept by the reader is whether the data was up to date-- which the additional research verified. Based on the evidence presented by Odom and after further research to maintain that the claims were still relevant in the presence of modern statistics, the proper conclusion is that black people really are more likely to receive the death sentence than any other group.

Sources:

Odom, Samuel. “Unequal Justice: The Death Penalty and the Black Community.” Aug. 2007, doi:10.31979/etd.chs8-mkye.

Dijk, Teun A. Van. “Discourse and the Denial of Racism.” Discourse and Power, 2008, pp. 120–154., doi:10.1007/978-1-137-07299-3_6.

Feder, Sandra. “Seven Factors Contributing to American Racism.” Stanford News, Stanford University Communications, 9 June 2020, news.stanford.edu/2020/06/09/seven-factors-contributing-american-racism/.

Ikuenobe, Polycarp. “White-on-Black Racism and Corlett’s Idea of Racism.” Journal of African American Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 2013, pp. 108–127., doi:10.1007/s12111-013-9259-0.

Stohr, Kate, and Deirdra Funcheon. “It's Not Just Police, Racial Bias Is Rampant among Prosecutors, Too.” Fusion, 2016, interactive.fusion.net/how-to-rig-an-election/district-attorney-race.html.