Racism in America's Legal System: Structural Inequality

Introduction: The Legal System as a Racial Institution

Every few decades, our assumptions about the progress we have made in terms of racial sensitivity are undermined by a disturbing and racially motivated miscarriage of justice. Much as the Rodney King trial did two decades ago, the verdict in the Trayvon Martin murder trial demonstrated that our legal system remains deeply reflective of the racial inequality that pervades American culture and society. Indeed, the legal system as a social institution is today, as it has always been, demonstrative of the racial hierarchy that impedes the advancement of African Americans.

The Civil Rights Era and the Illusion of Legal Equality

This is an extremely troubling assertion given the perceived steps taken both during and since the Civil Rights Era. During that period, the vast majority of laws explicitly constructed to prevent equal treatment of African Americans before the law were dismantled. The legal system has, by stated design, sought to achieve a greater degree of racial equality in its procedures and orientation. However, it can be argued that these changes have been in name only and not in practice.

As Vega and Maeda (2006) indicate, "the elimination of rigid laws of exclusion, which seems to have eradicated the most overt signs and symbols of racism, implies that we are living in a racial democracy. But the fact is that systems that preserve and reinscribe racial hierarchies are as intact today as they were during the height of U.S. racial apartheid" (p. 1). The legal system thus continues to serve as a mechanism for imposing harsher penalties on African American defendants, while simultaneously offering greater leniency in cases where African Americans are the victims.

The Trayvon Martin Case and Stand Your Ground Law

This dynamic could not have been made clearer than in the trial of George Zimmerman, a white defendant charged with the murder of an innocent and unarmed Black youth. Employing the highly questionable Stand Your Ground law in Florida, Zimmerman's defense team argued that their client had been accosted by the victim and therefore had a legal right to use lethal force. Zimmerman was acquitted in spite of ample evidence of his actions and despite several correspondences sent by the young Trayvon Martin to family members indicating that he was being followed by the eventual perpetrator.

The outcome of the case laid bare the racial discord that continues to pervade the legal system. With the Zimmerman-Martin case, one can see how the system's inequality has evolved over time: in place of explicit laws enforcing racial hierarchies are processes shaped by a deeply entrenched implicit bias.

Conclusion: Racial Hierarchy Under a New Guise

This suggests, and the Martin case further reinforces, that racial inequality remains a powerful force in American culture and society. Moreover, because the explicit dimensions of racialist law have been dismantled, a false impression prevails that some meaningful measure of racial equality has been achieved. Unfortunately, the details and outcome of the Trayvon Martin trial suggest beyond a reasonable doubt that the legal system continues to serve the same racial hierarchy it has upheld since the era of Jim Crow — now concealed beneath the language of colorblindness and procedural neutrality.

Works Cited

Rachlinski, J. J., Johnson, S. L., Wistrich, A. J., & Guthrie, C. (2009). Does unconscious racial bias affect trial judges? Notre Dame Law Review, 84(3), 1195–1246.

Vega, E., & Maeda, W. (2006). Colorblindness: Challenging the discourse of contemporary U.S. racism. In Ethnic America: Readings in race, class, and gender.