On Sep 28, 2011, at 10:14 AM, // ravi wrote:
> On Sep 28, 2011, at 7:16 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>> On Sep 28, 2011, at 2:16 AM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
>>
>>> People of color are disporportionately jailed and punished for
>>> crimes that white people walk away from. Of course, they are also
>>> poor. But if poverty were the only variable, then there wouldn't
>>> be the disproportion.
>>>
>>> How do I talk about this without talking about prejudice against
>>> people of color?
>>
>> It's the "prejudice" problem. Having identified it, what do you do
>> about it?
>
>
> It is only because we have identified it that we can do something
> about it, no? What do we do? Any of a number of things, I would
> guess: ongoing measurement of statistical disparity, training of
> police and other arms of the law, changes to law and jurisprudence
> that attempt to correct the results, make people aware of hidden
> bias, perhaps even statistical weighting of sentences, so on.
It's the War, my friends. The War On Drugs. Many millions of poor blacks and whites in jail and under probation. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Colombians murdered. Untold billions stolen by the most racist element of the population--the narcs, their bosses, the prison guard "unions," the enabling demagogues. Any "antiracism/ antiimperialism" that fails to make opposition to the War On Drugs its number one priority is merely a smokescreen to hide the real Racism and Imperialism.
If this be libertarianism, make the most of it.
Shane Mage
"scientific discovery is basically recognition of obvious realities that self-interest or ideology have kept everybody from paying attention to"