Race and Opportunity in the US

[*michaelsean*]

(03-23-2018, 10:44 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: I was listening to The Daily from the New York Times, this morning, and they talked about this study that was recently released.

This was a very interesting listen and then read, and I thought I would share it for discussion on here. One thing that I found interesting that I am certain some will point to with earnest is that the 1% of places where this racial inequality of opportunity does not prevail tend to have something in common. The commonality is the presence of black male father figures for young black men. They may not be a father in their own household, but they are present in the surrounding neighborhood. I found this to be an interesting connection to what I read in The New Jim Crow in discussing how the War on Drugs and the policies of mass incarceration that disproportionately affect minorities (and in particular black men) are taking away these role models. These father figures are being removed through these policies and this implicit structural racism and that is perpetuating this cycle of inequality.

It was just some interesting stuff that I am sure will face plenty of disagreement on here, but I wanted to share.

The fixes at the end seem doable.  Get rid of the war on drugs for one although that's probably easier said than done.