Tony Brown’s (2003) Critical Race Theory contains five tenets:
- Racial stratification is ordinary, ubiquitous, and reproduced in mundane and extraordinary customs and experiences which critically impact the quality of lifestyles, and life chances of racial groups.
- Races are categories that society invents, manipulates, and re-creates.
- The race problem is difficult to comprehend and possibly impossible to remedy due to claims of objectivity, and meritocracy that camouflages the self-interests, power, and privileges of Whites.
- Blacks and other subordinate groups are able to competently communicate and explain the meanings and consequences of racial stratification, because they are oppressed; thus experimential knowledge is appropriate.
- Critical Race theorists should seek to propagate social justice.
Tony Brown’s (2003) five tenets suggest that hegemonic ideology pervades all social institutions within American society, and that racial groups are systematically oppressed by a system which was designed to fail and exclude them from the competition for success. Furthermore, Blacks and other subordinate groups should be included in conversations regarding racial injustice and various issues urban communities’ experiences, in order to bring about social policies and programs that would effectively remedy the issues which need to be addressed in order to assist with leveling the distribution of power and wealth among all citizens within society.
Critical Race Theory has been marginalized in public discourse and crime policy in order to protect the self-interests, power, and privileges of the dominant group; those in power. The social structure of society and social institutions has been designed to maintain capitalism and a system where meritocracy is sought as a symbol of success. According to the principle of functionalism, capitalism and society would fail to exist without a system of meritocracy and competition for positively valued goals. Therefore, Critical Race Theory and other conflict theories have been marginalized in order to resist conflict and rebellion, thus protecting the interests of those in power. Moreover, those in power create our basis of knowledge; norms, values, standards of behavior. Consequently, critical and conflict theories are systematically ignored and marginalized in order to preserve the interests of those in power, and to cement their ideologies into our frames of references. Indeed, these theories are marginalized in order to promote middle class standards, and the conventional norms and values of Whites as the identified culture of society. This is done in an effort to prolong systematic oppression, unequal access to resources, wealth, power, status, and various other variables which are positively valued in American culture and necessary for success and survival.
Theory and research are used to formulate policy. However, according to Critical Race Theory, the research is not being represented in social policies. According to statistical research, it is self-evident that social injustices are persistent in American society, racial groups are being systematically oppressed, and that disproportionate minority contact exists in a response to racially biased policies and practices. However, most policies are not being changed to reflect these research findings. For example, the crack v cocaine charges have disproportionately incarcerated young Black men. Due to research which could be attributed to a Critical Race perspective, this law has been amended. Moreover, the Three-Strike legislation has been shown to disproportionately affect Blacks at a rate 12 times higher than Whites. In fact, 60% of those incarcerated are non-violent offenders (Walker, 2006). Furthermore, 13% of the U.S. population is Black, however, 35% of Blacks have been incarcerated, and 55% of this number has been incarcerated for drug offenses (Glaze and Bonczar, 2007). Drug laws have been systematically designed to incarcerate high numbers of Blacks and other subordinate groups in American society. The War on Drugs has been regarded as a War on Black Men due to high levels of disproportionate police contact. Truth in Sentencing laws provides that offenders are required to complete 85% of their sentences before they can be considered for parole. However, a disproportionate number of Blacks have been sentenced to prison for substantially lengthy terms which are not proportionate to the crime committed. Therefore, remaining in prison for 85% of their prison term is longer than a White person staying in prison for 85% of their prison term for the same type of offense.
Furthermore, the high rates of incarceration have formulated a phenomenon of the prison industrialization complex which earns the owners of private corporations and prisons an enormous profit by utilizing inmate labor for production. Often times, minorities are incarcerated for lengthy sentences. Consequently, the incarceration of minority groups, especially young Black men, serves the self-interests of those in power. Anything that is done which risks or threatens the power and privileges of Whites is marginalized, incarcerated, or labeled as deviant, and treated as an outcast of society.
References:
Brown, Tony. (2003). Critical Race Theory Speaks to the Sociology of Mental Health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 44:292-301.
Glaze, L.E. & Bonczar, T.P. (2007). Probation and Parole in the United States, 2006. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1283-1322.
Walker, Samuel. (2006). Sense and Non-sense About Crime and Drugs: A Policy Guide. 6th Eds. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
The Social Costs 