Race and Opportunity in the US

[Belsnickel]

(03-23-2018, 11:10 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Kind of "chicken and egg" questions.

Are black communities suffering more long term poverty due to a high level of drug traffic or is there a high level of drug traffic in black communities due to long term poverty?

Is gang membership a result of desperation and a feeling of helplessness, or is a high level of gang membership causing desperation and a feeling of helplessness?

There are lots of problems with the criminal justice system that make things worse for African Americans, but even statistics based on victim surveys (not arrests and convictions) indicate that African Americans commit crimes at a much higher level than whites. So there is more to the "mass incarceration" issue than just racism in the criminal justice system (which does exist).

This is obviously going in a different direction that just the equality of opportunity discussion, but the idea of systemic racism in the criminal justice system is more obvious when it involves drug crimes. Those arrested for drug crimes make up the majority of the population in our prisons, not perpetrators of crimes against others. The data from studies on drug use in the United States show that members of all racial groups use drugs at similar rates, but African Americans are arrested and convicted at much higher rates than other racial groups. In addition to that, they are sentenced more harshly than white defendants in drug cases.

The War on Drugs is the main driver of the increase in our prison populations, and that has targeted the African American community in a disproportionate way. Violent crime rates have not changed in a way that could explain the massive increase in our prisoner populations in this country in the last 30-40 years. These are just observations, not even judgement calls or discussions of motive behind this issue.