> Doug Henwood wrote:
>> boddhisatva wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, but Doug that 25% probability does not represent laughing chance.
>>> Certainly we can agree that a great preponderance of the black males
>>> who do get locked up do the crimes they are accused of.
>> And many don't, but that's not the question. Unless you believe in some
>> innate predisposition to criminality - a belief that would be grounds
>> for explusion from civilized society - then you have to ask why so many
>> black men turn to crime. I don't think the answer is very complicated -
>> the heritage of slavery and pervasive racism, which most white people
>> won't admit to. And that, as I said earlier, is seriously fucked up.
>
> Doug: You are being to kind to the above racist, reactionary statement.
>
> I expect to hear statements about "black males who do get locked up do
> the crimes they are accused of" on Rush Limbaugh's show, or right wing
> radio, not on the LBO list. A vast majority of people who have been put
> in prison have been put there by a racist political and criminal justice
> system. I'm sure we'd see a lot more middle class white people behind
> bars if the system went after white collar crimes and DUI crimes with
> equal vigor.
Chuck, your statements really don't work as a response to the above.
First of all, take your statement "A vast majority of people who have been put in prison have been put there by a racist political and criminal justice system." Well, that's true; in fact, _all_ of the people in prison would be put there by the justice system, whether it's racist or not. (They probably wouldn't be put there by a racist _sanitation_ system, for example.)
But if you're saying that this "vast majority" is there _because_ of the justice system's racism, that's another matter entirely. That'd be difficult to prove. For one thing, under almost any justice system, some innocent people will be incarcerated. Not a good thing, nor is this an excuse for it happening, but it's bound to happen just because people ain't perfect. For another, can you actually prove that a majority of black inmates are innocent? That'd have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Your third statement, "I'm sure we'd see a lot more middle class white people behind bars if the system went after white collar crimes and DUI crimes with equal vigor," is extremely odd in this context. Are you saying that black people don't commit DUI crimes, or that they don't commit white-collar crimes? Or that white people commit _these_ crimes at the same frequency that black people commit other crimes?
And if black people and white people commit different kinds of crimes, then one must consider that different crimes have different sentences. Driving while intoxicated isn't the same as, say, murder or rape or whatever. If one group of people commits more heinous crimes, then that group will be more frequently represented in prisons. I don't know what the breakdown is for race and crimes committed, but if Chuck's claiming that white people commit different kinds of crimes than black people, it's up to him to provide evidence of this.
For the record, I think it's obvious that our justice system is biased against black people; studies show that black people are more likely to draw hard time than white people over the same kinds of crime. But Chuck's argument just doesn't hold together as an argument.