Term Project

MARGINALIZATI
ON

Angeleah Salo
November 28, 2018
Seton Hill University
SEC 345 45: Consumers In Our Society
Mr. Stubbs
 In American society you can find many marginalized groups of people who do not

have the same economic opportunity as others.  African Americans are one of those

groups. Wealth is an individual's financial net worth, things like property, 401Ks, and

savings.  Things like wealth can function as a stepping stone for future generations to

inheart and grow from. However, African American families have a fraction of the wealth

that white families do.  This being said, African Americans have become caught in a

vicious cycle in America that is hard to break out of. 21.2% of African Americans fell

below the poverty line in the United States in 2017.  

The history on the marginalization of black Americans can be traced back to

slavery.  Slavery allowed for whites to benefit financially on the backs of their black

slaves, slaves in return has no wealth to then pass onto future generations.  However,

the inequality of wealth did not end with slavery. Things like Jim Crow laws, redlining,

school segregation, and today's mass incarceration have hindered black Americans

from every achieving the American dream.  Mass incarceration of African Americans

could be considered modern day slavery and is inhibiting the economic growth of

African Americans today. The likelihood of being imprisoned for a black male is 1 in 3,

while the likelihood for a white male is 1 in 17.  

Between 1980 and 2015, the number of incarcerated Americans jumped from

roughly 500,000 to over 2.2 million, 33% of those being African Americans.  The statics

for imprisoned black Americans as well as black Americans with felony records in

disparaging. The impact of having a criminal record can cause lifelong inequality, let

alone having a felony conviction on your record.  Once a person is released from prison

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with a felony, they must go get a job (usually one of the terms of parole) but many

employers have strict hiring processes for felons and they are unable to get good

paying jobs, so many of them doing what is to be expected, they go back to a life of

crime and inevitably end up back in prison.  While some felons have committed heinous

crimes, other have been charged with things theft or distribution of illegal substances.

The United States spent $81 billion on imprisonment cost alone in 2012.  A goal

as that American needs to work on for the short term is lessoning mandatory

sentencing, and looking into the way we imprison people instead of rehabilitating or

giving probation.  Another goal is to look at the people with criminal records and see if

they truly deserve to be held accountable for a crime they committed for the rest of their

life. If you commit a crime at 17, you should not suffer for it and pay for it forever.  A

long term solution to this problem is starting now with making these statistics known and

talked about. Start a movement for the people who don't have voices. Teach children to

be accepting of people who are different than them, give younger black people more

opportunity to grow, teach healthy and good spending and saving practices in

impoverished schools.

The feasibility of the above is hard to say.  Although the above statics are

becoming more available and talked about, there is still little being done politically to

help disenfranchised African Americans in the U.S.  President Trump has stated that if a

bill were to arise abolishing mandatory minimum sentencing, he would sign it. So maybe

there is some sort of progress being made. But, we still need to stride toward a better

tomorrow and teach our future generations about the past generations mistakes.  

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 The Catholic church is an institution that prides itself on helping others.  One

teachings of the church that I feel goes back to the solutions of teaching people to be

less judgmental of those with criminal records is “God is Love (Deus Caritas Est) Pope

Benedict XVI, 200, which states ‘“... love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the

sick and needy of every kind, is as essential to [the Church] as the ministry of the

sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. The Church cannot neglect the service of

charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word”.  In the eyes of

the catholic church it is important that you look at everyone with the same respect and

dignity, no matter their situation. Another Catholic social teaching is the right of every

person to have dignity. For most people that are faced with a criminal record they are

striped of their dignity. “The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be

protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected

and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and

a right to those things required for human decency.”

The statistics of impoverished African Americans as well as the amount of

African Americans with criminal records is unbelievable and hard to think about.

However, we are living in a much better time than our ancestors. Although these

problems cannot be fixed overnight there are real possibilities they will be fixed in the

next decade or so.  Recent documentaries and books about these issues are becoming

well know and looked at. 13th a documentary on Netflix about the 13th amendment and

black history from the signing of the amendment to today.  It illustrated the struggles of

the black community and how they got where they are today. Documentaries being

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readily available for people on a platform such as Netflix is a great thing and helps

information about this topic get to more people.  A quote that comes to mind when I

think of this subject is that of The Lorax in the famous Dr. Seuss’s book The Lorax,

“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's

not.”  So, in that, I’m asking that people start to care, care about the less fortunate, care

about people who need cared about.   

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Citations:
Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2018, from https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/

How Does a Felony Affect Your Life? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://helpforfelons.org/how-does-a-felony-affect-your-life/

Flurry, A. (2017, December 19). Study estimates U.S. population with felony convictions. Retrieved November 15, 2018, from

https://news.uga.edu/total-us-population-with-felony-convictions

DuVernay, A. (Director), & Averick, S. (Writer). (2016). 13th[Video file]. Retrieved November 15, 2018, from https://www.netflix.com/search?

q=13t&jbv=80091741&jbp=0&jbr=0