The Criminalization of the Black Community

A PARABLE: A man named John once owned a show dog who had won for his master many prizes, helped him to become wealthy, win the envy of his friends, and even helped to save his master's life on a number of occasions. As the vicissitudes of capitalism would have it, there came a time when there was no longer any money in the show dog business. This situation changed Master John's feelings toward his once prized possession. He could be heard often saying — "He is lazy, a good-for-nothing cur. All he wants to do is just lie around and eat-up my food. I wish he'd just go away." Filled with hatred and resentment, Master John, by various cruel and ingenious means, drove his dog rabidly mad.

One day as fate would deign it, the mad dog attempted to attack its master. Master John felled him with a single shot from his elephant gun. Because there was a law against shooting dogs Master John was tried before a jury of his peers. Master John as represented by his lawyer pleaded self-defense — "It is cut and dried," his lawyer exhorted! "The dog was mad and in his madness he sought to attack his master, who in self-defense, shot him. His driving the dog mad and thus allegedly having precipitated the dog's attack as argued by the prosecutor is irrelevant and immaterial! Has not a man the right of self-defense? Besides, he was only a dog prone by dog-nature to go mad. Had he not been a dog he would not have been driven mad in the first place! For, if his master had not shot him the dog would have lived to attack one of us, our wives, our elders, our fair-haired little children. What does it matter how he became mad? What does it matter if one mad dog is no longer disturbing the peace and posing a threat to law and order? Master John did the world a favor. For that we should honor him, not persecute him." The jury of his peers found him not guilty.

Thus began the strange career of Master John whose single-minded purpose in life became that of breeding mad dogs and executing them in self-defense. He thereby gained great reputation and honored status among his neighbors who he protected from mad dogs running loose in the streets. He became an expert at breeding, apprehending, and executing mad dogs. To increase yield and therewith his remuneration — for this was by now a very lucrative business — he penned his trained mad dogs in with the not-so-mad dogs, many of whom themselves became mad and in escaping their confines, threatened the peace. Mad dogs were everywhere. The neighbors in their fear and terror became incapable of distinguishing the mad dogs from the not-so-mad dogs. All dogs, even the ones who were "members of the family" — even Cassie, the model dog, who everyone thought was near-human — aroused their suspicions. Thus as a preventative measure the village was lamentably forced to liquidate all dogs, regardless of their social status or mental state. After all, a dog is a dog, is a dog. They even formed a society for the eradication of all dogs everywhere. That is why on any quiet night of the week you can no longer hear a single dog baying at the full moon in Canineville today.

THE CRIMINAL IS one to whom an opprobrious label has been successfully attached. Labeling not only prescribes the behavior of others toward the one labeled criminal, or only negatively seeks to characterize him. It also tends to transform his self-concept and behavior in such ways that incarnates or substantiates the criminal appellation.

If to be criminalized, especially when the objective basis for such a designation does not exist, is to be dehumanized and to be related to as such by "significant others," then the criminalization of the African American male can be arguably said to have begun with the need of White Americans to justify their enslavement of Africans, and continues concomitant with their need to capitalize on unending African politico-economic subordination.

The cursing (a form of labeling) of another is tantamount to his dehumanization. It is usually a ritualistic prelude and justification for the other's subordination, or assault, or murder of another. The criminalization of Black people, particularly of the Black male, is a prelude for the rationalization of his economic exploitation, and ultimately, a prelude to the Eurocentric murder of the African population.