The Valley of the Shadow of Death, by Alexander, Gerould, and Snipes
Relating the valley to modern U.S history
Introduction
"The Valley of the Shadow of Death" is a true-crime story and Kermit Alexander gives an account of a senseless murder of his mother, sister, and nephews. All these incidents happened in 1983 in South Central Los Angele. Police conducted the investigation and arrested three men. Alexander encounters a painful experience in that he moved from a professional athlete to a victim. He notes that South Central Los Angeles was full of segregation, crime, and racial restrictive covenant. The Valley of the Shadow of Death goes beyond the description of a man's adversity to explain the life of African Americans, social-political history in Los Angeles, the color of justice, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, among other issues that people of color experience in America. The Valley of the Shadow of Death reveals a racist society that created slavery, separation, broken homes, abusive police treatment, and capital punishment. It also reveals the Southern life, the struggles that blacks, Hispanics and Asians went through in Los Angeles.
Black Histories of Los Angeles
It is important to note that the settlers on Los Angles were from many multiracial groups and 26 groups were of African origin (Kun & Pulido, 2014). The idea that Los Angeles is racially diverse helps us understand that there were relationships issues between black and whites and the hatred still exist in contemporary society. African-origin people and Mexicans dominated until 1848 when the U.S conquested Alta California. Mexicans working class was pushed out of the land by whites. By 1920, many African Americans had begun to relocate to Los Angeles where they build communities despite racial hostility (Kun & Pulido, 2014). During the Second World War, the racial landscape in Los Angeles transformed in that black southerners from other areas such as Texas, Oklahoma among other regions relocated to Los Angeles in large numbers. There was division in race relations in other areas of the United State and the hostility toward African Americans developed in Los Angeles. By the 1970s, there was a political and economic ideology, along with deindustrialization and neo-liberalism (Kun & Pulido, 2014). People of color were affected by these ideologies as they caused a decrease in middle-class jobs. Only a few numbers were employed in the few industries and they were paid low-wages.
Race and African Americans
Alexander says that when he started sports in the 1950s, he experienced racial segregation. For example, black players such as Ollie Matson and Burl Toler were denied bowl bid. Blacks were only allowed to play in northern cities and they could not go to the South (Alexander et al, 2016). If they went to the South, they were segregated since they could not share meals or rooms with other teams. Just before the Second World War, African Americans had owned homes in Los Angles but still, they were uncertain about the future. Nevertheless, they were free from physical violence since they lived in interracial neighborhoods and their children attended racial intermixture schools (Sides, 2006). Despite the benefits that Africans Americans experienced, there were restrictive covenants that restricted blacks to own properties. Thus, African Americans who owned a house were arrested. Even though the organized labor created new policies that supported racial equality, African Americans were forced to live in poverty; they had no political representation, and worked in low-paying jobs. During post-World War 2, the rural black racial group moved to Los Angele and other cities (Sides, 2006). Los Angeles city government acted against the overcrowded neighborhoods. Two decades after the war, African Americans improved their lives by entering into stable careers and high incomes. Black women moved from domestic services to manufacturing jobs and office jobs. Between 1950-1960, the rate of unemployment in black females and males decreased by 10.9% and 8.7% respectively (Sides, 2006). However, by 1960, the industrial jobs for African Americans started to disappear and the black male started working on manual labor. During the post-war period, there was an employment opportunity gap in that white gained more employment opportunities than blacks. Remarkably, Shelley v. Kraemer's court decisions was against the restrictive covenants and it allowed the blacks to buy homes. Therefore, Shelley v. Kramer allowed blacks to integrate into communities where they found dignity and opportunities. However, white opponents were against the integration and perceived it as a threat. They argued that integration affected the property values and it was a path to miscegenation (Sides, 2006). Since whites supported restrictive covenant, they used various tactics to ensure that black moved out of the neighborhoods. The police force, estate boards, and federal government supported white efforts to exclude black. The pressure deepened segregation and created 'hyper-segregated black Americans'. This means that blacks in Southern California were forced to live in their neighborhoods and communities. Blacks in Los Angles also were concentrated in certain areas.
Color of justice
During the William trial, the court said that the murderers were given sixty thousand dollars to kill but they killed the wrong people by mistake. Even though the defense counsel argued that the killing was a great tragedy since the killers annihilated a whole family, the defense attorney said that the killers should not be given the death penalty (Alexander et al, 2016). The U.S criminal justice reflects on the Rodney King riots of 1992 in Los Angeles. Long Angeles police officers beat an innocent African American man. Africans Americans started the riot and caused mass death. The riot by African Americans was also influenced by the recession of the 1980s that causes rampant unemployment, healthcare became unaffordable, and poverty increased (Gallagher & Lippard, 2014). In addition, the Kerner Commission Report in 1968 stated the two unequal classes; black and white. There was a cultural lag where black communities were alienated. Their cultural norms were regarded as inappropriate. South Central Los Angeles had a culture of disobedience and disturbance and this motivated the black community to demonstrate their grievances and demand for welfare benefits (Gallagher & Lippard, 2014). Despite the grievances, the Rodney incident shows that the criminal justice system has racism and bias. In the Rodney incident, the police officers showed racial bias toward African Americans. The racial bias motivated police officers to use excessive force, discriminatory treatment, and harassment toward minorities (Banks, 2009). It is evident that the modern criminal justice system has two justice systems; one for whites and another one for minorities. The justice system shows inequality and injustice toward people of color. Court officers treat minorities with disrespect and lack of courtesy compared to whites.
The Valley of the Shadow of Death reveals that the police system, as well as the criminal system, is full of racial profiling (Alexander et al, 2016). Recent research and studied have confirmed that police have negative perceptions toward the people of color compared to whites. They use verbal persuasion, deadly force, disrespectfulness, physical force and other behaviors that show bias and violence toward minorities (Egharevba, 2017). This means that police officers disproportionately target people of color due to their status. For example, between the 1980s-1990s, there was a bias reporting from the media that minorities used cocaine. Thus, police officers disproportionately target minority communities (Egharevba, 2017). Today, racial profiling still exists not only in the societies but also in the correctional institutions where minority prisoners are treated differently.
Street Gangs in Black Los Angeles
It is important to note that people from black communities went through a valley of the shadow of death and this motivated them to create street gangs to address the issues of segregation and discrimination. In the 1940s, blacks created the Central-Vernon community where all blacks migrated after world war one (Hunt & Ramón, 2010). Blacks who did not afford accommodation in the Central Avenue community and they were forced to live outside the neighborhood where there were racially restricted.
It is important to note that African American culture was not associated with gangs. However, there were many gangs in cities such as Los Angeles, Newyork, and others areas where blacks lived. When African Americas migrated to Los Angeles in 1781, Los Angeles had tolerance over nonwhites and therefore they experienced less racial tension and they had the right to vote, right to attend integrated schools, right to win real estates, right to own homes, economic benefits, among other benefits (Vigil & Moore, 2003). However, the benefits lasted until the 1920s when the community cohesiveness broke. The 'Great Migration' affected the breakdown of cohesion. The level of intra-ethnic difference was high and whites could not integrate with blacks. Due to the population growth, there were restrictive housing covenants that placed blacks in isolated areas known as the spatial ghetto (Vigil & Moore, 2003). Blacks were also displaced by white and Japanese in industrial jobs. The residential segregation gave rise to the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Note that Los Angeles had restricted blacks from municipal swimming pools, beaches; they were also restricted in Pacific Electric Railroad. Thus, the role of the Ku Klux Klan was to express the black sentiments against racial discrimination, high level of unemployment, among other issues (Vigil & Moore, 2003). Such incidents motivated the formation of street gangs to defend themselves against white violence. Example of South Central gangs was Slausons, Watts, Rebel Rousers, and others. However, these gangs could not alleviate social problems such as unemployment and discrimination. Even though they managed to work in the shipyard and aircraft industry, they could not get employment in other industries, which could offer high-paying positions (Vigil & Moore, 2003). The discrimination heightened when the white soldiers came back from the war. Restrictive covenants became stronger and blacks experienced hiring discrimination and housing discrimination.
Conclusion
In the 'Valley of the shadow of death', Alexander shared a painful story when three men murdered his loved ones. After the incidents, things went sour as he went through the wilderness of despair. He was isolated; he became depressed, and experienced many challenges before rebuilding his family and finding peace. From the analysis, the story moves beyond what Alexander experienced to reveal the life of African Americans in the South. During the Great Migration, African Americans moved from southern cities to northern cities to escape segregation and Jim Crow discrimination, racial prejudice, political intolerance, and social challenges. However, they did not meet their expectations since the relief was temporary. Discrimination and injustice manifested themselves in the new neighborhoods. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans thought that they would achieve their destination. However, they experienced more racial incidents that manipulated them to create gangs against white violence. African Americans valued their identity and they wanted to eliminate the racism and class factors. The story also reveals that there were no race relations in the criminal justice system. The police, as well as the justice system, had negative perceptions toward the people of color and they treat them with abuse and harassment due to their race, sex, among other differences. Through the story, the reader can capture the challenges and difficulties African Americans went through to the extent of forming gangs for protecting themselves from the violence.
References
Alexander K., Gerould Alex., & Snips Jeff. (2016). The Valley of the Shadow of Death: A Tale
of Tragedy and Redemption. Simon and Schuster
In Gallagher, C. A., & In Lippard, C. D. (2014). Race and racism in the United States: An
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Kun, J., & Pulido, L. (2014). Black and brown in Los Angeles: Beyond conflict and coalition.
In Hunt, D. M., & In Ramón, A.-C. (2010). Black Los Angeles: American dreams and racial
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Sides, J. (2006). L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to
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Vigil, J. D., & Moore, J. W. (2003). A rainbow of gangs: Street cultures in the mega-city. Austin,
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