A Study on The Different Opinions About Human Categorization Based on Physical Traits and Sexual Orientation

Society’s Characterization of the Condemned

Although we like to have a promising view on our own mortals, we and our society can be cruel and unforgiving even when we don’t expect it. We see our viewpoints of classes, races, and sexes all being similar coexisting in in a world of equality, but our decisions on who to put on death row and who gets to walk will always be apparent to our personal prejudices. The truth is, our brains are incapable of judging somebody solely for their actions, and not taking anything from their physical appearance to the sexual identity into that judgement. If we were to decide a person’s fate without seeing them or hearing anything about them besides the crime they’ve committed, our prison and death row inmates would be a completely different cast of people. But, since we’re exposed to the race and gender of everyone put on trial, our judgements reflect the qualities of these people in the harshest of ways.

The race or sexual identity of an individual involved in any certain situation can completely compromised by the society around them, and that stands true with inmates on death row. In our country, a white female going on trial for murder will have a completely different outcome than a black male convicted of doing the same thing. For a lot of people, whether or not they know it, the race or sexually identity of the accused can greatly affect their punishment, regardless of the crime they commit. Separate human beings have separate subconscious desires to punish or defend one class of individuals differently than others, and this prejudice holds true in even the most extreme of situations. Nobody can completely ignore the details of person placed in front of them, everyone has their own dark opinions that greatly affect any situation. When those opinions spread across a community and take hold of entire societies, many may seem racist or sexisttrials as “normal”, and judge them according to the expectations of their neighboring peers. Because of this, a single person can be put to death while being judged from one society, but freed if they were judged by another, different society. In some instances, the identity of the person who committed the crime affects the outcome more than the crime itself.

Of course, this prejudice does not only fall into place in established countries. This is a phenomenon happening around the world, with some dilemnas being more extreme than others. A great example of this was in the article Uganda’s Death Penalty for Gays, in an entire culture is attacked, threatened, and harshly judged more than others. In Uganda, homosexuals are punished for any kind of gay behavior, no matter what the context or situation. Gays are outcasts here, and are treated as such. The entire community has a clear hatred for this specific type of person, and that opinion is heavily reflected on their laws and punishments. From these rules and terms, we have the right to assume the people of Uganda exercise these prejudices in their daily lives and behavior. Their characterization of who they’re killing and for what reasons don’t just apply to their culture, but are most likely influenced by it.

Even though it’s not nearly as extreme, what’s happening in Uganda is similar to what’s happening to the African Americans in our country. There are no laws strictly tailored against the black community, yet America is commonly blamed for using excessive force and punishment against African Americans and people of foreign countries. Looking at the statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center, we can see that 75% of murder victims in cases leading to an execution were white, even though only roughly 50% of murder victims in total were white. Assisting this information, only 43% of inmates on death row are white, even though 72% of our country’s population is white. Although we promote equality for all races, our society seems to judge the ethnic community harsher than caucasians and females, and the punishments we choose to inflict on one race may not apply to another, regardless of the crime.

That being said, we also tend to make the punishments for men much more cruel than those towards women. If a woman rapes or murders someone else, the chances of her being put on death row is much slimmer than if a man did the same. In contrast to this, some countries in the Middle East will murder a woman for talking back to a man. All these small details over who the person is generally overshadow what the person has done, and that’s something that can greatly change the outcome of somebody’s entire life.

Every community has different values, and your punishment for any crime would probably change based on where in the world you were standing. In a perfect world, all races and genders would be treated equally, everywhere. Unfortunately, every society has prejudices they can’t escape from, and the subtle repercussions from those may be the difference between life and death.