Kemoni Whyte

C.Wynne
ENG-102
3/17/17

Literature Review: Systemic Oppression of Black People

Black people have lived with many forms of oppression, but in todays society there is a
higher count of systemic oppression than there was a couple of decades ago. African American
people have faced systemic oppression since the very beginning. Evidence in todays society,
media, and justice system show that the incarceration rate, the job discrimination, and racial
profiling is at an all time high. Throughout the many triumphs African Americans have gone
through to get to a better place, there are still obstacles in the way.
In the article/interview Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: Blacks have consistently lived under
systemic oppression written and produced by NewsOneNow, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries
spoke on the apparent unjust system we have today. Jeffries comments that not only is the
oppression of African American people apparent now, but it has appeared throughout history.
From slavery to I cant breathe black people have been oppressed as long as time can tell.
Despite milestones such as The Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment to the
constitution, reconstruction after the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, and the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. As Jeffries suggests African Americans have not been able to breathe, he also
went on to state that 3 years into Nixons term 350,000 people were incarcerated in America,
today there are 2.2 million. We have gone from chattel slavery into the Jim Crow era and then a
period of mass incarceration.
Steven W Thrasher also has a view on the systemic oppression of black people. In his
article Black Lives Matter has showed us: the oppression of black people is borderless
Thrasher states, Black Lives Matter helps move this kind of history. With this kind of
statement, it could be thought to believe that Thrasher is saying that the Black Lives Matter
movement has helped with the systemic oppression of black people in a positive aspect. Even
though some may say that the Black Lives Matter movement has given more African America
persons a sense of identity and unity within their people, some can also say that during the Black
Lives Matter movement the oppression of black people has gotten worse.
In The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, she defines racial castes as a racial
group locked into an inferior position by law and custom. She states that Jim Crow and slavery
were caste systems, and that our current system of mass incarceration is also a caste system. Just
as Jeffries suggested, Alexander asserts that these systems have not ended, they have just been
simply modified and redesigned to fit later civilization. In The New Jim Crow Alexander
suggests that the criminal justice system functions as a new racial control by targeting black men
with threats against drug use and marketing. She suggests that laws passed targeting the black
minority to increase the incarceration rate of these people.
Anna Yeltchev also made a few points on the black oppression in America. She states that
the systemic oppression is almost fully directed towards the black community. Yeltchev shares a
similar view to previously mentioned Steven Thrasher on systemic oppression when she suggests
Americans have been slightly better since the first half of the century. However, Yeltchev
states the facts when she states Currently in the U.S black poverty rates are the highest out of
any race in the country with over a quarter barely surviving and in dire need of basic needs, as
compared to less than 10% of whites living below the poverty line. It is apparent that systemic
oppression has a target race and it is African American people.
In the City Journal John McWhorter basically states the widening wage gap, and how
black people are in 61 percent and Black two parent households earn 87 percent of what white
two parent households earn. He also discussed racial profiling and how that it is racism.
McWhorter states In some parts of the country, black men are so overrepresented in criminal
activities that police officers, white and black, would be shirking their duty not to concentrate on
them. As far as racial profiling goes, it is apparent that black men get stop and frisked more
than other minorities and especially over white males.
With the evidence form these sources one can be very certain that the systemic
oppression of black people is a rising problem, and even though there are different views on its
initial stance, it can not be ignored or argued that black people have been targeted directly. These
types of injustices do not go unnoticed and with organizations like the Black Lives Matter
Movement, it can only be a unified upbringing that can end this crime against these people. The
systemic oppression of black people can only be brought into the light and let people be educated
on this topic.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Yeltchev, Anna. "The Systematic Oppression in 2015

America." Odyssey. N.p., 04 May 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.
Thrasher, Steven W. "Black Lives Matter Has Showed Us: The
Oppression of Black People Is Borderless | Steven W Thrasher."
The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 09 Aug. 2015. Web. 17
Mar. 2017
Alexander, Michelle. New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the
Age of Colorblindness. N.p.: New, 2012. Print.
McWhorter, John H. "What's Holding Blacks Back?" City
Journal. N.p., 26 Jan. 2016. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.
Now, NewsOne. "Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: Blacks Have
Consistently Lived Under Systemic Oppression." News One. N.p.,
16 Sept. 2016. Web. 18 Mar. 2017