Yes, but since the labor market is highly segmented by race, gender, education, etc., what happens to poor black women does not necessarily directly affect poor black men economically. John's argument, it seems to me, is mainly that the increasing incarceration of young black men probably helped to make un-jailed black men (of the same strata as jailed black men) achieve stronger employment & earning gains than otherwise.
At the same time, we might revisit Wojtek's oft-repeated anecdotes of his black middle-strata peers in the inner city of Baltimore concurring with him on the necessary evil (or necessary good for Wojtek?) of the wars on crimes & drugs. Do his anecdotes not have _a grain of truth_, unpalatable as they may be? In Columbus, Ohio, there is a group called BREAD (Building Responsibility, Equality and Dignity), an interfaith, multi-denominational group (mainly middle-strata African-Americans, whites, & Jews) who seek to address "core public issues pertaining to crime, safety, jobs, poverty, and education" (see its home page at <http://www.nabrit.com/bread/>). While they have done some good work in the areas of meeting transportation needs of the urban poor who want suburban jobs (though, alas, in the context of making the welfare-to-work program "work"), introducing reading programs in urban public schools, enforcing housing & sanitation codes in dilapidated neighborhoods, etc., their "achievements" include winning "[I]ncreased police presence resulting in reduction of juvenile crime due to curfew violations in Hudson-Weber area safe zone"; "500,000 in funding allocated for two mobile police 'crack-busting' units"; "ACE funding secured [for] undercover sting operations in Corpus Christi safe zone resulting in a reduction of violent crime perpetrated upon Senior Citizens"; and so forth (at <http://www.nabrit.com/bread/factsheet.htm>). Isn't it true that a good number of middle-strata African Americans, too, have (or at least believe they have) _benefited_, economically & psychologically, from the massive jailing of the poor, even though this is _a highly mixed blessing_ for them, since they too -- not just the black poor -- may become victims of racial profiling & police brutality, unlike Wojtek who is white (see, for instance, "U.S. Department of Justice Charges Police with Racial Profiling in Columbus, Ohio" at <http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/w062900a.html>)?
As for liberal feminist & GLBT activists, have they not also increasingly become accomplices in the repressive arms of neoliberalism? Have their recent "reform" efforts not concentrated on adding their concerns to the war on crimes & repressive arms of the State in general: hate crime legislations; "Take Back the Street" marches; inclusion of gay men & lesbians in the armed forces; use of RICO to bust anti-abortion terrorists; NATO bombings to help "protect" Bosnian Muslim women -- victims of "Serbs" who use "rape as a weapon of ethnic cleansing"; and so forth? Isn't this trend a reflection of their adapting their agenda to neoliberalism? Isn't this the main reason for their serving as shock troops to crush -- through guilt-tripping -- insurgents on the Left (however puny they may turn out to be), on behalf of the Democratic Party? Isn't this less a matter of so-called "false consciousness" than their rational short-term interests (and "in the long run, we are all dead")? For the Clinton years, after all, have been good for the Black & Feminist & GLBT Talented Tenth: good jobs; safer & cleaner cities; important cabinet appointments; reproductive rights & affirmative action for the Talented Tenth; humanitarian interventions in Haiti & Yugoslavia to their liberal hearts' content; etc.
Yoshie