REINFORCING STATUS QUO

... i hereby sentence you to ...

Evidence of racial discrimination is hardly contestable, but there is also evidence that social class is the basis for discriminatory treatment of capital offenders within the criminal justice system. Poverty and social deprivation, while not confined to colored people has served to create a contemptuous stereotype, based on race, which actually does deprive people of their basic human qualities not only in the eyes of the dominant culture, but also in their own eyes.

Many appear to have tolerated the use of the death penalty against the racially subjugated and the impoverished. In fact the death penalty has been--and is being--used carelessly and arbitrarily to promulgate the cause of the dominant higher echelons of society.

Discriminatory culture still prevails. The consequences of institutionalized racism, apart from its effects on the individuals concerned, means that across society the death penalty has no bearing on the needs of justice. Its effectiveness as a crime deterrent has been disproved, and as retribution its inconsistent application has rendered it invalid. It is purely a means of reinforcing the status quo.

Ref: MD 1996

A BLIND SPOT?

How can we influence attitudes? How can we improve people's perception of one another? How can we help modify behavior toward actions and values that are more just and humane? Can social structures be changed for the better?

The tendency to categorize people, places, or things on the basis of generalized attitudes is one reason we are all prejudiced against something. Some of us are against certain foods we have never tasted, countries we have never visited, people we have never met, or political systems that we have only heard about.


Prejudice, an attitude with a blind spot? Psychologists say, that prejudice is an attitude that is unsupported by reasonable evidence, that persists over time, and is based on an emotional feeling about the person or group being judged. It usually implies that the other person or group is some way inferior to your own group.

Prejudice gives root to discrimination. The unfortunate consequences affect most of us--those discriminated against, those who discriminate, and those who stand by, silently, and let discrimination continue.