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Sarah Frazier
Professor Paul Price
Sociology 001
November 20, 2016
Video Analysis: The Racket of Racism
The Racket of Racism is a video produced and narrated by Romany Malco which covers
the history of the prison industrial complex in the U.S. He provides a history of several factors
that have led to the disproportionate number of African American men incarcerated in our prison
system. The Convict Lease System is largely to blame for the mass incarceration of Black men
and was made possible thanks to the U.S. Constitution. Malco covers the political and economic
factors that enabled private prisons in the U.S. to use legally lease convicts to other private
companies practically for free. This practice of leasing out prisoners began in the 19th century
and persists today. Due to the profitability of the Convict Lease System, private prisons have
been able to invest millions of dollars into pushing for harsher laws and longer prison sentences
related to drug trafficking, which in turn provides laborers for their Convict Lease System. The
history of discrimination, prejudice and racism against African Americans have done nothing but
help maintain the Convict Lease System and perpetuate the constant influx of Black men into the
private prison system. Malco not only provides the details of the systematic incarceration of
African American men, he also informs the viewer on how it impacts more than just that one
demographic. The Convict Lease System is taking potential jobs away from law-abiding
Americans and giving them to incarcerated convicts for pennies on the dollar. The main purpose
of Malcos video is to raise awareness about the history of the prison industrial complex and

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systematic racism and discrimination against African American men, which has been largely
ignored by the mainstream media and therefore by society as a whole.
Mark, Durkheim and Comte would all offer varying and interesting insights and
perspectives on The Racket of Racism. Karl Marx, being a conflict theorist, believed that society
operated based on the constant struggle for social, political and material resources. Conflict arose
as a result of the bourgeois and the proletariat competing for control of these resources.
Inequalities develop as a result of the social institutions which are influenced and controlled by
the wealthy bourgeois, who actively seek to ensure the working-class proletariat remain
dependent and powerless. Marx would see the private prison system working with social
institutions such as government to maintain control of a valuable resource: labor. Due to the
unequal distribution of power and resources, the socially subordinate group, in this case the
African American men, are nearly powerless against the influence of those who dominate society
politically and financially. Marx may also assert that the concept of false consciousness is at
work and plays a role in why the discriminatory practices used against Black men were not
protested by the masses. The dominate ideology in the U.S. regarding the justifiable
incarceration of African American men has been supported by racism for over a century. The fact
that many American may be losing jobs to the Convict Lease System has not impacted the public
consciousness enough to result in the social structure which supports mass incarceration of
African American men for non-violent offences.
Emile Durkheim, a functionalist, may argue that the role of the prison industrial complex
is a direct result of the mass incarceration of the population. Durkheim view society as an
interdependent organization of institutions and argues that each part of society fulfils a specific
need of its constituents. The issue of the disproportionate number of African American men

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would be viewed as a symptom of a broken system and the prison industrial complex is the
societal answer to that problem. Not only do we have a place for the convicts to live, they can
still contribute to the societal organ by being a resource for private companies to utilize.
The Racket of Racism is best represented by conflict theory. The systematic mass
incarceration of African American men is an example of how social inequalities will benefit one
part of the population, the dominant bourgeois, at the detriment of another part of the population,
the subordinate proletariat. The video also provides an example of the competition for resources,
wealth, social clout and political influence, all work to the benefit of those who already hold the
power.