Oppression via the ruling power has long been an issue of the world. Today, minority groups all over the world experience this. For example, take religious minorities, like the South Korean church, Shincheonji Church of Jesus. As a religious minority group, they face daily persecution, harassment and even abuse because the public and other church groups deem them a “cult”. Racial minority is a large issue that plagues the world, especially in the Western world, due to colonialism. Take Black and Brown minority groups, for example, who face much societal oppression.
The role of colonialism in the creation of an inherent Brown and Black criminality and the ways in which the early emergence of Black and Brown as a construct occurred by the controlling of indigenous people through law, land resources dominated as a mean of westward expansionism as well as eradicating native customs of living while establishing social control and order. Due to this outburst of conquest, Black and Brown criminality exists because early European settlers systematically stigmatized and oppressed these groups of people for over several decades.
Human rights were stripped and a dangerous narrative was painted over it. For instance, Luana Ross gives an explanation on how the function of colonialism has made a massive impact on how natives were criminalized by Euro-American law. Due to this conflict, Natives had difficulty in allowing the U.S. to assimilate to their laws and policies as a result of controlling them through means of power and control.
The function of colonialism also dealt with the construction of slavery because the Euro-Americans saw the natives as an “inferior and savage race” that had no understanding of the land they were living in. Instead, the U.S. took advantage of the natives and turned their land to profits and created trade markets with other settlers in order to make a flourishing economy. Through this accumulation of capital, U.S. settlers were able to seize control of the land that Natives once had while criminalizing them as a means of punishment if they did not follow the established laws.
Therefore, the excessive use of force had contributed through the construction of slavery and criminality since policing tactics were practiced towards Black and Brown people. Although the 13th Amendment was passed through Congress, it still did not guarantee Blacks the right to freedom since crime was listed as a federal offense in the Constitution. Due to this outcome, the establishment of law created criminals which went toward the repetitive cycle in blacks becoming criminalized.
This discovery was also similar to Cheryl Harris’s article on Whiteness as Property because “Becoming white meant gaining access to a whole set of public and private privileges that materially and permanently guaranteed basic subsistence needs and, therefore, survival”. This moment in history established racial inequality. The consequences of colonialism led to the relationship between race and property as a system of dominance over Black and Brown people.
These advantages ultimately led to the criminalization of Black and Brown people because they were part of a global movement through forced migration and settlement. Therefore, the significance between the two events paved the way for Euro-Americans to gain access to resources they felt entitled to given the fact that being white became a valuable asset and have gained benefits overtime due to this racial inequality and privilege.
