Welcome to White Disneyland, also known as: The United States of America’s Criminal Justice System, a place where white men, similar to myself, set the regulations on how you can live your life. The Criminal Justice System has systematically allowed for policies like Jim Crow, Section 1 of the 13th amendments exemptions clause, overruling DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) policies, and more to be normalized and weaponized against unprivileged communities. These regulations towards predominantly African-American communities are riddled with racial bias that still affects their communities today. It has been the largest tool to unofficially, but directly, charge people with the crime of having a different socioeconomic or racial class. Although it is true that diversity has made some inclusive practices, The US Justice System, on balance, does not treat all of its people equally because racism is rooted within American history and status quo, and at the highest level, political polarization leads to discriminatory precedent.
The biases that are historically and currently embedded into the Justice System are typically geared towards harming black communities. Research from Gale shows that, “although percentages of drug use are similar among white and Black Americans, Black Americans are five times more likely to be arrested for drug use” (Gale 1). This raises the conclusion that some level of biases within the local levels of our systems, our police officers, lead to overrepresenting African-American in crimes such as “drug use” even when both racial groups have similar usage. Even if not purposely trying to target these citizens, a lot of times communities that have a large percentage of White Americans aren’t as inclusive and see different minority groups as “lesser-than” or “threats and suspicious” which leads to alienating Black Americans. These types of communities are more prone to report this type of behaviour or individuals, as they have little-to-no experience with these groups, and inflate the amount of police reports made about their racial makeup. Researchers write that, “studies completed in the 1980s and 1990s indicate that judges on average give Black defendants higher bail amounts and longer sentences than white defendants, even when the crimes committed are comparable” (Gale 1). While this data may have been completed decades ago, the logical conclusion still remains that judges do, unintentionally, give black defendants harsher crimes. This can be attributed to the fact that many times African-Americans have lower economic prosperity, and get appointed public defenders. These public defenders are overworked, have little resources, and have a utilitarian method of their job, they have to complete as many cases as they can, which more times than not comes at the expense of marginalized communities.
The political polarization on the highest levels of the courts setdiscriminatory prescedents allowing for discrimination to occur. Hulse’s article argues that, “In deciding major cases with clear political overtones, an extremely reliable indicator of what side a justice would come down on was whether he or she was appointed by a president with an ”R” or a ”D” behind his name” (Hulse 2). Look at cases such as Roe v Wade being overturned, Chevron Deference, or the new gerrymandering case in Louisiana. The dissenting justices tend to always be the extreme, republican backed, justices who seem to be following their parties ideology over reason and constitutionality. This allows for the high courts to make the legal precedent based on who has the precedence, instead of what follows the law. He then further states how, “The refusal by Republicans in 2016 to even consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick B. Garland heightened the visibility of political infighting around the court” (Hulse 2). Now it should be recognized that before you can be appointed and serve on the supreme court, the senate has to confirm a voting date and vote in the majority, the majority being 60%. This allows for each party to block new judges based on personal politics instead of what’s best for the people. But to put this into perspective, 74% of congress identify as non-hispanic, white Americans. While this in itself isn’t racist, some of these politicians struggle to recognize and understand the hardships faced by communities of color. They would then reasonably vote against judges or judges the other side would appoint because of a lack of understanding other people’s lives, which sets up dangerous precedent for these communities based on feelings, not facts or reasonability.
Now, while there have definitely been some improvements made towards the justice system, which promotes diversity, we understand the fact that little improvements do not combat the large discrimination present in the system. One major reason people say these types of reforms work is because it allows us to be self aware, Loiseau argues that “Being aware of and understanding cultural norms and recognizing the impact of historical injustices on behavior patterns and attitudes, help to establish trust in the fairness of the system for all of its participants” (Loiseau). However the recognition of injustices does not always lead to better practices when our entire system is built brick by polarized brick. We can look at how black defendants and poorer defendants are, on balance, kept in their jails longer, denied attempts for reasonable bail, or denied attempts for parole while having the same crime as their white counterparts. This is because subconscious racial beliefs are engrained, not only to the people who run the Criminal Justice System, but also the process as a whole. Trust can never be woven into the representative of this system when every aspect is targeted against lower socioeconomic communities or different ethnicities, because of that the argument that diverse practices have made the justice system inclusive fall short.
The US Criminal Justice System cannot treat all of its people equally when the system has racial biases embedded in its core since the birth of this country to now, polarizing the highest courts sets up dangerous precedent, and inclusive practices have not met its burden of success when they reaffirm the previous biases. When you disproportionately overrepresent different communities in jails, under-represent them in the decision of what’s legal, and fail to vote on what is best for the country or its legal codes because of a letter “R” or “D”, you cannot treat everyone equally. So, welcome to White Disneyland, the justice system that will only give you equal treatment when you aren’t “different”.
Works Cited
Hulse, Carl. “Political Polarization Takes Hold of the Supreme Court.” New York Times, 6 July 2018, p. A11(L). Gale In Context: High School, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A545543866/SUIC?u=j101907012&sid=bookmark-SUIC&xid=23d63c2f. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.
Loiseau, Derek. “Diversity in the Criminal Justice System – Palm Beach County Bar Association.” Palmbeachbar.org, 24 Mar. 2023, http://www.palmbeachbar.org/diversity-in-the-criminal-justice-system/.
“Racial Bias in the Criminal Justice System.” Gale In Context Online Collection, Gale, 2020. Gale In Context: High School, link.gale.com/apps/doc/SMSDVO548593356/SUIC?u=j101907012&sid=bookmark-SUIC&xid=da6f669b. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
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