high numbers of blacks in prison...

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Tue Oct 29 09:15:35 PST 2002


On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:


> I think that high black incarceration rate has more to do with the cult
> of violence that grew like a cancre in black community (with the
> encouragement of white enertainment industry and
> let's-look-the-other-way attitudes of black leaders and progressive
> activists) than with racism or economy.

Woj,

What do you think of the fact that African American felons receive longer sentences than whites, even after controlling for criminal history, geographical region on the U.S., type of crime, and severity of crime? What do you think of the fact that regular users of illegal drugs are about nine times more likely to serve time if they're black as opposed to white? The archival research here is very clear: the deviant behavior of blacks is more likely to lead to harsh sanctions than similar behavior of whites. Hypotheses about an African-American "culture of violence" are both unnecessary and irrelevant here.

Miles



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list