The Disconnect pt3

An Obvious Bias

This bias that we see played out by the numbers related to drug arrests alone shows a troubling trend. For whatever reason, black people are finding themselves behind bars more frequently than they should. Am I saying that our law enforcement officers are actively seeking out blacks? To deny that any member of law enforcement may be consciously biased would be foolish. Our police departments hire from the same pool as society. Some who make it onto the force will be biased. It is human nature; we all have some form of bias. However, I doubt that the number of overtly racist people who make into and last in the force is high enough to have a noticeable, nationwide impact like this.

Some of our laws need to be looked at and fixed to bring about a more even effect. Just to reuse the example from above: why should crack be punished so much heavier than cocaine? We’ve seen in the numbers that blacks do tend to commit crime at a higher rate than whites. This rate is not high enough to justify the wide disparity that we see reflected in the numbers. What do I think is the cause? I think it goes far back in history and as soon as I mention it, most will write me off as just another black man trying to blame white people and society for his problems. But, if you will hear me through, I hope to at least give you something to think about.

Way back in the 1600’s, black people were bought from Africa and sold into slavery here. This is nothing new. We all know about it. We also are well aware of the Emancipation Proclamation being signed in 1865, even if it really didn’t affect any actual change. The abolishment of slavery did not suddenly open a world of opportunity to black people. Newly freed slaves were released into a world that remained hostile towards them with little to no education and little to no opportunity to gain any (Does Poverty Cause Crime?, 2010). Things didn’t improve for a long time. Many states instituted poll taxes or literacy tests in order to vote. Blacks, being both poor and largely uneducated, could not pay the tax or pass the test. To avoid locking out the poor and uneducated white voters, most places also included a grandfather clause (Race, Segregation, and Voting Rights: Techniques of Direct Disenfranchisement 1880-1965). When poll taxes or literacy tests couldn’t be enacted, oftentimes violence was the answer. It was not until 1954 that it was decided that segregating the schools was not an acceptable practice (Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 1954). Segregation still remained the norm throughout the South however. It took until the mid-1960s before the majority of the Jim Crow laws would be removed. The Supreme Court was unable to rule out segregation in private institutions such as restaurants and diners. These eventually went away as public opinion began changing. Things didn’t really start getting turned around until the 1970s. So, despite what many may say, black people have not had 140 years to get on their feet. Slavery still has its echoes today. One thing I’ve noticed from a lot of the reading I’ve done for this paper as well as from talking to a number of black people ranging in age from early twenties through to their mid sixties is that there is still a sense of distrust in certain areas towards white America. Coming from the checkered past that blacks have had in America, it makes sense. Looking at the numbers presented throughout this report, it is understandable why black people might not trust the system or the people seen as being responsible for the implementation of the system.

Where Do We Go From Here?

It is my belief that in order to correct the problem and keep blacks from being locked up at such a high rate, we will need a multi-tiered approach. This is not a simple question and there can be no simple answers. I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but for a start, we need to revise our war on drugs. As it sits, it’s been too heavily influenced by false and exaggerated media coverage. That is the only explanation for why crack would be punished so much more severely than any other. With 33-37% of all drug arrests being black people, just correcting this will make a large impact. We need to focus more on rehabilitation for drug offenders. This will have a widespread impact. Catch a man with drugs and toss him in lock up, he’ll go right back to drugs when he gets out. If you help him to kick the habit, his chances for success and staying clean increase. We also need to create opportunities for those living in poverty to further their education and be able to compete on equal footing with white people when interviewing for jobs. Affirmative action helps no one. We don’t need extra points for our skin tone, we need to be equally qualified so that when a black man gets hired or promoted, there is no question as to how he attained that position. In conjunction with increased opportunities for higher education, we need to educate the younger generation to finish school and strive for that extra education. Scholarships do no good if there is no one qualified to take them. Also, if these young blacks get through their schooling and can move on to college, they will be more able to get decent paying jobs and less likely to feel the need to supplement a minimum wage job with dealing crack. This then leads me to the most difficult part: removing the barriers between the races. No matter what people may think since the election of President Barack Obama, race is still an issue. As I stated, many blacks still are uncomfortable around white people. This of course goes both ways. Blacks are seen, through the lens of popular culture, as being more violent, and this can make some white people uneasy as well. There is no need for this and I don’t have an answer for how to repair it. The leader of the profiled crack gang had an education, he had gone to work for a successful ad firm, but said he felt out of place, “like a white man working at Afro-Sheen headquarters.” (Levitt, 2009) He had an opportunity, he could’ve made a handsome living without resorting to selling crack, but that barrier was there. The only suggestion I could make would be to assist in moving more black people out of the ghetto so the kids don’t grow up in isolation, without exposure to other cultures. But, we’ve seen that tried a few times in the past, and there hasn’t been a method found yet that works. First, there was bussing kids from the ghetto into white school districts and white kids from the suburbs into ghetto schools. That didn’t work so great. Then in the early 1990s, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were formed and given the directive to qualify more minorities as minorities tend to have lower credit scores. That led to increased home ownership amongst those who likely wouldn’t have qualified in the past, but it also has been one of the big factors taking the blame for the current economic crisis.

Conclusion

The number of black men currently locked up in prison or with felony convictions taking away their right to vote is appalling. No matter your opinion on crime, for 12% of the population to make up over 40% of the prison population has to tell you there is a serious problem. We’ve explored a few possible causes and looked at where those ideas go astray. Poverty may be related to increased crime rates, however poverty does not cause crime. Contrary to popular belief, drug dealers are not necessarily living the high life. We looked at the differing crime rates, arrest statistics, and conviction rates and saw that blacks still make up too great a proportion of arrestees and convicts. I’ve put forth my ideas for how to correct the system, but most importantly, I hope I’ve provided some new information and maybe shed some light on a problem that you may not have realized the depth of.

Works Cited

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Bowman, B. (2010). A Portrait of Black America on the Eve of the 2010 Census. The Root .

Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483 (US Supreme Court May 17, 1954).

Crime in the US, 2009. (2010, September). Retrieved September 2011, from US FBI: http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_03.html

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Levitt, S. D. (2009). Drug Dealers Living With Their Moms. In S. D. Levitt, Freakonomics (p. 296). New York: Harper Perennial.

Mac Donald, H. (2010). A Crime Theory Demolished . Wall Street Journal .

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Race, Segregation, and Voting Rights: Techniques of Direct Disenfranchisement 1880-1965. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2011, from Univeristy of Michigan: http://www.umich.edu/~lawrace/disenfranchise1.htm

The EFFECTIVE NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY 1999. (1999). Retrieved September 2011, from Common Sense for Drug Policy: http://www.csdp.org/edcs/page30.htm

US Prison Population Tops 2.4 Million. (2011, August 9). Retrieved September 2011, from PressTV: http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/193137.html

Williams, J. (2007). Poverty and Crime. Retrieved September 2011, from Christian Association for Prison Aftercare: http://capaassociation.org/newsletter_N009/Articles/PovertyCrime.htm

World Prison Population 2011. (2011, July 11). Retrieved September 2011, from Harm Reduction International: http://www.ihra.net/contents/1055