In the archives of cinematic memoir, Yance Ford's "Strong Island" stands to be one of the most influential and ruminating pieces of visual arts that eloquently presents the disparity in

As much as we would love to live in a color-blind society, sometimes we do not see the world, or act in it, in ways that we may like. In a study done among white Americans, almost 90% of white people in America who took an Implicit Association Test show an inherent racial bias for white people versus black people. Inherent racial bias delves deeper than studies and association tests. Inherent racial bias lives in our socioeconomic, educational, and criminal justice systems. However, the largest racial bias tends to lie within the lines of the criminal justice system and police brutality.

The effect of inherent racial bias and the criminal justice system is deafening, discouraging, and leaves millions of African-Americans in a futile state.

Researchers at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found that, in a sophisticated and carefully weighted questionnaire with a range of possible answers that evaluated up to seven different characteristics about a variety of groups, religions and ethnicities, more than half the survey respondents rated African-Americans as less intelligent than whites.

When we are oppressed and seen as inferior humans to our fellow Americans, African-Americans fight, daily, to beat the odds against the system that is the United States criminal justice system.

The results of millions of studies, the acts of companies, such as Google, who in February 2017 pledged $11.5 million dollars towards fighting racial bias in policing and sentencing, all tell their own personal story of how we are not living in a post-racial society. The racial disparity is still very much an issue in America today and in a visually compelling masterpiece, Yance Ford explains the accounts of which she experienced racial bias indirectly through his, now deceased, brother

Yance Ford, the creator, director, and producer of "Strong Island," a documentary that Ford teamed up with Netflix on to discuss the tragic events that transpired after losing his brother, William Ford Jr., a 24-year-old high school math teacher and a recent hero for the detainment of an armed robber, on April 14th, 1992 to gun violence.

His killer was 19-year-old Mark Reilly, a mechanic at Super Stang Auto Body in Central Islip, New York. Reilly, who is white, was charged with manslaughter, however, he claimed self-defense against Ford, who is African-American. As the case went to trial, Ford's mother stated in the documentary that she felt she wasn't being treated as a family of a victim, and Ford's friends shared the same sentiments.

When Ford's best friend, Kevin Myers, was being questioned by police on the night of the murder, Myers recalls the police asking, not of the situation, but of Ford's character, body build, strength, and temperament. This, in itself, painted a picture for Kevin, and for Ford's family, that William Ford was not being treated as a victim, but as a suspect, someone to blame for his own murder.

The issue with the way the New York Police Department handled this case, among thousands of other cases, was indeed based on racial bias. Because Ford was a strongly built African-American male, in contrast to Reilly's build, the police saw Ford as the threat, even though Reilly was the individual holding the gun and took the shot. The inherent racial bias eventually trickled down to the jury of Ford's case. In an all-white grand jury, they decided not to indict Mark Reilly on the charge of manslaughter.

It kind of beckons the question of, "If William Ford Jr. had been white, would Mark Reilly have gone to jail?"

My answer? YES.

Why? Because the inherent bias against white people is not as sizable as the inherent bias towards the minorities of the United States of America. Statistics show that African-Americans are 3.79 times more likely to be racially profiled by police. Branching off of racial profiling, the issue of being racially profiled while driving is also a major issue for African-Americans, in the face of implicit racial bias.

In a 2014 analysis from the Illinois Department of Transportation data by the American Civil Liberties Union found the following: “African-American and Latino drivers are nearly twice as likely as white drivers to be asked during a routine traffic stop for ‘consent’ to have their car searched. Yet white motorists are 49% more likely than African-American motorists to have contraband discovered during a consent search by law enforcement, and 56% more likely when compared to Latinos.”

These staggering statistics prove that for the life of an African-American, or a minority in general, every day we are subject to some sort of racial bias or profiling. No matter how we may talk, dress, act, or the occupation we may hold, in the eyes of the law, we are seen as just a minority, by the color of our skin.

The painful reactions of Yance Ford, and his family, towards the investigator's insubstantial recollections of the Ford case truly made me realize how much this country is a disservice to African-Americans when it comes to the criminal justice system and the judicial system of the United States.

In a Netflix documentary of the same candor and cinematic subject, Ava DuVernay's 13th tells the story of how racial profiling and racial bias has played a major role in the mass incarceration of millions of minorities in America.

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

These are the words of the 13th amendment, which was passed and enacted January 31st, 1865. It was a day African-Americans could rejoice, as slavery had been abolished and they were finally free to be citizens of the United States. Little did they know, it was only short-lived. With centuries to come and the 70s growing nearer, America would again see the effects of slavery. Not in the public eye, but behind the concrete walls and steel bars of the United States prison system.

The meaning of mass incarceration was coined in the United States because we currently hold the largest prison population in the world with more than 2.4 million locked up in the country’s prison system. Just how did mass incarceration begin? In June 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs.”

During this time period, crack/cocaine and marijuana were being heavily used by Americans throughout the country. In response, Nixon increased the presence of federal drug control agencies, mandatory sentencing, and no-knock warrants. The problem, however, was the association with these illegal substances.

People began to link crack/cocaine with black people and marijuana with hippies, seeing as this was also the “Flower Power” era. With the stereotypes and prejudice lingering in the air, law enforcement, along with other government affiliated protection agencies, began heavily arresting hippies and African-Americans, thus increasing the population rate in the U.S. prison system.

Statistics show that nearly 40% of the prisons are being occupied by African-Americans. It’s one thing to hear the outcry of people, pleading, to fix the crime rate in America, but it’s another to muffle, almost silence, the voices of those who are being locked up for small, petty crimes. Having their lives stripped away from them before they have a chance to defend themselves.

One of the main reasons African-Americans hold the highest rate of prisons is because of racial bias and profiling. Racial profiling not only leads to jail time and long sentencing, but also leads to the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of minorities in America. Law enforcement has been known for police brutality, in the 90s, and even in modern-day society.

The height of police brutality began when Rodney King, who became internationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department. Another reason why African-Americans have been targeted, is because the prison system has essentially become a business.

The prison and judicial system make more money by giving African-Americans, and Latinos, a high bail because the system knows they won’t be able to pay it and go to trial, thus saving them money from going on trial and hiring attorneys. The way they see it, the less prisoners that go to trial, the more they can make.

The prison industry complex is a fast-growing industry in the United States with investors from Wall Street. Companies such as IBM, Boeing, Motorola, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Nordstrom’s Macy’s, Target Stores, and many more, all invest millions of dollars into the prison industry, as well as supporting prison labor. The correlation of prison labor to slavery in the 1800s is quite similar.

The corporations and prison system (Master) come to an agreement and have the prisoners (Slaves) partake in free labor. Prisoners are responsible for the creation of the famous Idaho potatoes, manufacturing and packaging of clothing and accessories for JCPenny’s or popular department stores such as Victoria’s Secret.

This just goes to show how greed supersedes the welfare of a human being. Corporations would rather take advantage of thousands of prisons, while making millions in the process, instead of having legitimate factories/production locations and pay the workers a reasonable wage. This, in a sense, is modern-day slavery.

Taking advantage of prisoners, forcing them to do labor, and at what cost? It’s not enough to serve time, sometimes for crimes they did not commit, or petty crimes, and have your psychological psyche disturbed. There is no consideration or regard for these individuals because America, as well as the government and these corporations, just see them as what they are labeled as, “criminals.” Nothing more and nothing less.

Without mass incarceration, the prison industry and many multi-million dollar corporations would suffer and drown in their own greed. Prisons would lose investments, eventually leading to the closing of prisons on all levels.

It's sad to say that the government, corporations, and the judicial system reap benefits from racial profiling and racial biases. Racial bias, as well as mass incarceration is a societal issue that should be abolished or fixed, but is instead used to the advance of companies and corporations.

Because of racial biases, William Ford Jr.'s death went in vain, but Yance Ford did not give up hope and wanted everyone to know that, for the record, William Ford was not who the investigators and other law enforcement officers proclaimed him to be. I am deeply saddened by William Ford Jr.'s unfortunate and untimely death, but hopefully, "Strong Island" will open the eyes of millions, to the everyday possibilities we are subject to as minorities in The United States of America.