Disenfranchisement, which according to dictionary.com is the term used for prohibiting voting based on the fact that they have been convicted of a felony, were laws that took away many rights of the people. According to Prisonsucks.com, there are 11,695 per 100,000 African American males ages 25-29 in jail, compared to 1,685 per 100,000 white men, clearly showing jails are very racist and look for more African Americans to fill up their jail cells as a way to keep African Americans oppressed, even though Whites are just as likely to commit drug related crimes as African Americans (14). If Whites are just as likely to break drug related laws as African Americans, how is it possible that an African American man is 30% more likely to go to jail than a White man? Because society is currently living in a system that is very similar to slavery, in which African Americans and the poor are discriminated against, making it very hard for them to escape.
Although mostly African Americans are going to jail to keep jail cells populated, some Whites of poor communities are also affected by this crisis. The rate of white men going to prison has also risen since the war on drugs and the system of mass incarceration started. Even though White men have been affected, the greatest effect is on African Americans, because their incarceration rates have gone through the roof, while that of whites has only gone up very little (1.8% compared to 27%). According to prisonsucks.com, an African American man has a 32% chance of going to jail in his lifetime, while a white man has only a 3% chance. Most of the Whites that are going to jail for these crimes either are of lower or lower middle class, and live in poor neighborhoods which mostly consist of African Americans. (89) This clearly shows the racism that is still going on in today's society, and has been turned into a way to keep African Americans oppressed and economic gain after the times of slavery.
