The stance that minorities, in particular African Americans, are inherently more criminal than whites is one that's enjoyed by many members of this board. However, with a little critical thought and research, one can discover the truth about the state of the American policing and judicial systems. As I read over more of the asinine arguments being made on other threads, I'll add to this one to provide empirical data in one place, since others seem incapable/unwilling to do the research themselves. Claim #1: Minority cultures glorify criminal behaviors such as drug use. This is inherently false: according to a yearly study conducted by "Monitoring the Future," "contrary to popular assumption, at all three grade levels African American youth have substantially lower rates of use of most licit and illicit drugs than do Whites. These include any illicit drug use, most of the specific illicit drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. In fact, African AmericansÂ’ use of cigarettes is dramatically lower than for Whites, and this is a difference that emerged largely during the life of the study (i.e., since 1975)." (1) If this supposed glorification of drug use was actually taking place and having a measurable effect on behaviors of minority youth, we would see significant differences in usage of illicit drugs among those youth. Claim #2: The judicial system is inherently fair and void of any racial bias. This is false as well: " According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, among youths aged 12 to 17, the rate of current illicit drug use was 11.1 % among whites, and 9.3% among African Americans. In a previous year, the same survey found that white youth aged 12 to 17 are more than a third more likely to have sold drugs than African American youth. The Monitoring the Future Survey of high school seniors shows that white students annually use cocaine at 4.6 times the rate of African Americans students, use crack cocaine at 1.5times the rate of African Americans students, and use heroin at the same rate of African Americans students, and that white youth report annual use of marijuana at a rate 46% higher than African American youth. However African American youth are arrested for drug offenses at about twice the rate (African American 314 per 100,000, white 175 per 100,000) times that of whites, and African American youth represent nearly half (48%) of all the youth incarcerated for a drug offense in the juvenile justice system." "According to the Center on Disease Control's annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey, in 2001 whites and African Americans reported similar rates of carrying a weapon (whites 17.9%, African Americans 15.2%), and similar rates of carrying a gun (whites 5.5%, and African Americans, 6.5%). [10] African American youth represent 32% of all weapons arrests, and were arrested for weapons offenses at a rate twice that of whites (69 per 100,000, versus 30 per 100,000)." (2) The above research clearly demonstrates a disparity in enforcement, conviction, and incarceration rates that skew towards disproportionate targeting of a specific race. (1) http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/overview2004.pdf (2) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/are-blacks-a-criminal-rac_b_8398.html#note3
All well and good. Numbers are numbers and don't lie, but don't always tell the whole story either. The stats you posted are awesome but don't disprove what I think the initial allegation was: that blacks commit more crime per capita than other races. For instance, the percentage of people carrying a gun were 5.5% for whites and 6.5% for blacks. First of all, the percentages themselves are almost identical, but because there are more whites than blacks, you have to compare the percentage to the actual population in numbers to see the result. Furthermore, what is the percentage of violent crimesitted per race? That would be a more telling stat. Which race, white or black, is more likely to commit a crime with that weapon? Numbers are good but a well rounded suite of statistics is going to give you a better argument. Maybe those stats would back your premise, maybe not.
The stats above prove that statistics such as "violent crime arrests/convictions" are inherently biased based on subconscious prejudices within our policing and judicial systems. Read Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller, Blink. He has a couple interesting anecdotal stories backed up by research that show how our subconscious prejudices influence behaviors in ways that are both startling and telling.
That's fine, but not my point. I wasn't agreeing or disagreeing with either particular stance. Just pointing out that numbers are almost always skewed to favor whatever your position. I'm sure I could google stats to support sending cats to the moon. Whether the judicial system is racially biased is relevant. I would love to see numbers to reflect the race of the law enforcer vs the race of the suspect in cases. That would be very interesting.
5 Myths of the "Racist" Criminal Justice System Calling America's criminal justice system "racist" is not confined to "civil rights leaders" like the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Then-Sen. Barack Obama, during the 2008 presidential campaign, said it, too. Blacks and whites, said Obama, "are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates (and) receive very different sentences ... for the same crime." When the man who became president of the United States says this -- the No. 1 law enforcement officer -- it must, therefore, be true. Let's examine five major assumptions behind this assertion. 1) Blacks are arrested at higher rates compared to whites -- but wrongly so. Not true. While only 13 percent of the population, blacks accounted for 28 percent of nationwide arrests in 2010 and 38.1 percent of arrests for violent crime (murders, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault). But are they unfairly arrested? Studies find that arrest rates by race are comparable to the race of suspect identification by victims. For example, in a given city, x number of robbery victims describe their assailants as black -- whether or not the suspect has been apprehended. It turns out that the race of those arrested matches the percentage given by victims. This has been found repeatedly across the country, in all categories of crime where the race of an assailant is identified. So unless the victims are deliberately misidentifying their assailants -- unconcerned about whether the suspect is apprehended and knowingly give a false race -- blacks are not being "over-arrested." 2) Blacks are convicted at higher rates and given longer sentences than whites for the same crime. Not true. Differences in conviction and sentencing rates by race are due to differences in the gravity of the criminal offenses, prior records or other legal variables. A 1994 Justice Department survey of felony cases in the country's 75 largest urban areas actually found lower felony prosecution rates for blacks than whites and that blacks were less likely to be found guilty at trial. 3) The sentence disparity between powder and crack cocaine is racist and accounts for a large percentage of imprisoned blacks. Not true. Concerned about the deadly effect of crack within their own communities, black members of Congress led the charge to pass the 1986 federal drug laws. The bill that was passed -- which included the crack/powder sentencing disparity -- did so with the support of the majority of black congresspersons. None at the time objected to the sentencing disparity as "racist." In 2006, the feds tried 5,619 crack sellers, and 4,495 of them were black -- out of the 562,000 blacks in state and federal prisons at the end of that year. Add in county and city jails, and the figure rises to 858,000. And states' crack cocaine laws are not the culprits. Only 13 states employ differing sentencing guidelines for crack vs. powder -- and their differential is much smaller than that of the feds. 4) The "War on Drugs" accounts for a large number of blacks behind bars. Not true. In 2010, blacks were 31.8 percent of all arrests for drug crimes. But arrests for drug offenses are only 12.4 percent of all non-traffic arrests in the country and accounted for 14.2 percent of the offenses for which blacks were arrested. 5) More blacks are in jail than in college. Not true. "More blacks (are) in jail than college, in every state," said Jesse Jackson in 2007. That same year, presidential candidate Sen. Obama, echoed: "More young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities across America." If Jackson and Obama refer to black men of the usual college-age years, their claim is not even remotely true. The Washington Post "Fact Checker" wrote: "According to 2005 Census Bureau statistics, the male African-American population of the United States aged between 18 and 24 numbered 1,896,000. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 106,000 African-Americans in this age group were in federal or state prisons at the end of 2005. ... If you add the numbers in local jail (measured in mid-2006), you arrive at a grand total of 193,000 incarcerated young black males, or slightly over 10 percent. "According to the same census data, 530,000 of these African-American males, or 28 percent, were enrolled in colleges or universities ... in 2005. That is five times the number of young black men in federal and state prisons and two and a half times the total number incarcerated. If you expanded the age group to include African-American males up to 30 or 35, the college attendees would still outnumber the prisoners." Racism against blacks exists, but it is no longer a meaningful obstacle to success. People are not angels. Some people are rotten. Humans make mistakes -- and always will. But the facts do not show a "racist criminal justice system." There may be votes in teaching people to think like victicrats. But the problem of the high rates of black imprisonment will not be solved by falsely screaming racism. http://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2012/04/19/creators_oped/page/full/ Oh, and a black guy wrote this, so you can't criticize it or him without getting that "icky" feeling that white liberals get.
You can't go to jail if you don't do anything wrong. Also: Blacks make up 13% of the population. Whites including white hispanics make up over 75% of the population. Same story with food stamps. The percentage of white and blacks on food stamps are nearly the same (38% to 39%) and there are roughly 55 million people on food stamps. If blacks make up 40% of food stamp receipients and whites make up 40% of food stamp recepients and the black population is estimated to be around 40 million in total, this means that nearly half of the black population in america are on food stamps. Same concept applies to crime.
LoL, I was typing a response to give you kudos for your candor on your response, but then I read your last line... but it's a good start.
Why are you assuming that the a black law enforcer doesn't have an unconscious bias against black people? "The huge IAT database contains troubling findings that have been highly publicized. For example, more than three-quarters of white and Asian test takers in the United States display an unconscious tendency to value white people over black people. Roughly half of black test takers show a pro-white bias as well. Many people who complete the IAT exhibit implicit inclinations for young versus old people and unconsciously favor men over women." http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2006/05/you-might-be-a-racist-if/
The blog you posted provided no work cited or reference section, meaning the statistics cannot be validated. Try not citing a blog next time. - - - Updated - - - "New Study Predicts Wrongful Conviction Rate in U.S. at 5,000 to 10,000 Per Year" http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2012/04/19/new-study-predicts-wrongful-conviction-rate-in-u-s-at-5000-to-10000-per-year/ Oops.
Good point, many think you are inferior and need government help to succeed. I think you are like anyone else and would never insult you by telling you need government intervention to succeed.
Point about bias law enforcement well taken. If black law enforcemt persons are biased against blacks in general, that begs the question, WHY? Sounds like something bigger at work that could dispel a lot of myths.
He cites the Census and Justice Department survey results that are a matter of public record. I understand your desire to dismiss the source, though. You are genetically incapable of accepting the obvious fact, backed up by every Government crime statistic, that blacks commit more crime, especially violent crime, than any other race relative to population size. You need blacks to appear as the victims of the racist white man's system, because blacks are incapable of doing wrong in your eyes.
your numbers are close, but the total number on welfare (which includes welfare, food stamps, and unemployment ins.) is 56,600,000 (2012) white - 22,074,000, black - 22,640,000, hispanic - 8,886,200, asian - 1,358,400, other - 1,867,800. While yes around half of black people are on some type of welfare, there is half that is not; just like more than 3/4 of whites are not on some type of welfare. Does the number on welfare translate into the amount of crime? I would probably take a gander and say yes, so fix the welfare, and you will probably fix the crime. http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/
Old prejudices die hard; less than one hundred years ago, African Americans were viewed as an "inferior race." How long do you think it takes for such stigma to be washed away? How much media attention is given to the positive stories about young black men, as opposed to the ones that are used to demonize an entire subsection of the population? If people keep telling you you're s*** based on the color of your skin, is it any surprise that you may have a negative impression of others with the same skin color as yourself? - - - Updated - - - Come back when you have the following: 1) Reliable sources 2) An argument that doesn't involve strawmen.
Running off memory. If there's one thing I am knowledgeable about it's demographics. But I'd wager welfare isn't the cause for black crime, I'd say it's a lack of opportunity. People simply do not want to hire blacks to their businesses. It's why you see so many blacks working city and government jobs, because the government can't discriminate. The hard truth here is that blacks need to shrug off the idea that they need other people to make it. They need to fix their communities and open businesses there, and maybe it'll attract outside business to their communities. I've over heard many many black people make this same exact claim, in fact that's where I got that idea from. And you know what? They're right! There's nothing we can do to help them, it's on them to help themselves.
Once again, Larry Elder gets it right. This man was the single biggest influence in getting me interested in politics. He's a brilliant guy. His book The Ten Things You Can't Say in America changed my life.
