Responsibility

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

In a previous thread, there was a good deal of talk about "responsibility" when it comes to personal life-outcomes -- as well as truly appalling ignorance about the state of institutionalized racism in the United States.

During this exchange, I was struck by how many people took positions without any apparent knowledge of the facts on the ground.  So I would like to share some.

1) White youth are significantly more likely than African American youth to use drugs and 30 percent more likely to sell drugs, but African American youth are twice as likely to be arrested and detained for drug offenses.

2) A black youth with a drug case is more than twice as likely to be held in police custody for a drug offense as a white youth. While half of all drug arrests involving white youth result in formal processing, 75 percent of drug arrests involving black youth are prosecuted.

3) Among young people incarcerated in juvenile facilities for the first time on a drug charge, the rate of commitment among black youth is 48 times that of whites, while the rate for Latino youth is 13 times that of whites.

That's right. 48 times.

It's so funny to hear people talking about "taking responsibility for the consequences of one's actions." It is White America that needs to prepare to face the consequences of its actions -- not 16-year-old black male youth.

When America's cities start burning, it won't be because black male youth failed to fulfill the basic standards of free-market economics.  It will be because white male adults failed to fulfill the basic standards of human justice.

 

ETA: This document may be useful to those of you who would actually like to start doing some reading on this topic.

Comments

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

<--- here, I'll share mine!

[blorky.livejournal.com]

Couple of quick questions:
- "White youth are significantly more likely than African American " Incidence or prevelance?

- Did your sources distinguish between types of drug use/drig crimes?

[edit]

re: #3 - did this control for prior history?

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, black kids sell crack and smack. White kids sell weed and speed. Your point?

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Here here. People can talk about how America is "post-racial" all they want, but all it means is that white people have decided that racism is never an explanation for unfair treatment - it's all your own fault.

Racism is still there, and the justice system (especially around our ill-advised war on drugs) is the most blatant example of it. There are too many steps in the process to blame one person's racism, too. Think about it. There's discretion involved in: an arrest (police officer); the decision to press charges (police/DA's office); which charges to press (DA's office); decisions regarding plea bargains (DA's office); sentencing (depending on mandatory minimums) (judge).

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Bingo. And don't forget thre's also what happens after sentencing (correctional system), after release (probation) and during re-entry (private-sector employers).

It is still stunning to me how yesterday's thread revealed that people are in complete denial about this.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Prove that it's racism driving it, though.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Racism is still there but it's also exaggerated most of the time.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

It would be great if you could put links under the boldened parts of the text of course.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Common sense and logic and reason in a Pastorlenny post? All is right with the world. :-).

[oportet.livejournal.com]

I won't go as far to say racism has nothing to do with it, but there are other possibilities why the statistics are the way they are.

Those reasons would probably be considered racist though.

[http://users.livejournal.com/aviation_/]

o rly
what are these "other possibilities"

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

Twice, times, and significant are statistical weasel words. Your proposition is that due to this there is absolute proof of institutionalized racism. But what are the numbers and circumstances? Is it accounting for other possible criminal behavior? Is it accounting for overall locality of arrest (urban areas tend to have higher crime)?

You can't really prove racism with a number.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

^This.

[http://users.livejournal.com/aviation_/]

lol "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" is like the worst description I've heard all day. Nonfiction writers need to stop with things like that.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

This is a very good post and I agree with your points. Now as a white male, how can I help fulfill basic standards of human justice? Other than generally voting democrat, since republicans are honky-enablers and hard liners on drugs.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Did someone put a gun to their heads and make them sell or do the drugs? Were they somehow not informed that drugs were illegal?

If the answer is no they have no one to blame but themselves.

That someone else may not be punished as severely for breaking the law is irrelevant, they chose to knowingly break the law and have no right to complain for being punished for it.

Nor does it even matter that the law is a stupid one (and yes ALL forms of prohibition are stupid) you know the rules and you broke them you have to accept the consequences for that as completely your own.

[ironhawke.livejournal.com]

That someone else may not be punished as severely for breaking the law is irrelevant, they chose to knowingly break the law and have no right to complain for being punished for it.

That's fucking ridiculous. If you have a justice system that overwhelmingly convicts blacks and hispanics for identical crimes as whites, there's a MAJOR problem here.

Of course people who commit crime should be held to task for it, but these numbers are showing that blacks are far more frequently convicted more, with greater punishment than whites.

There's no justice in this. A population with 13% of the national census that represents almost 50% of the prison population shows either A: A COMPLETELY INSANE race of people hell bent on breaking the law, or B: A justice system that is far more likely to convict them than people of other races.

If people of all races who committed the same crime, got the same sentencing (on average) then I'd agree with you, but the way things are makes your comment absurd beyond comprehension.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

None of his 3 points addressed the length of sentences. All of them dealt with arrest and punishment rates, which the variance between powder and crack sentencing guidelines doesn't address.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Not too many blacks* up around here. But I think this applies across the board with all minorities and immigrants.

Using basic common sense, equality is an ideal. Disparities are bound to be commonplace.

That said I don't think whites are eternally positioned to be the dominate culture/race, yet there will likely always be a dominate culture although it might not always be based on ethnicity. Even as we blend into a chickensoup of White-Black-Yellow-Red-Purple global population there will be distinguishing factors separating the masses. In India there was a caste system. In most countries/regions there has been some sort of divide.

I think it's silly to expect equality, although it's not a bad utopia, just not realistic.

*Jamaicans, Somalians, Ethiopians, etc. but not too many Afro-Americans.

Don't do drugs; stay in school

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

Neither the post nor the added cite to the think tank study offer enough information to allow for commentary.

The think tank study seems dedicated to detailing what happens after black youths are arrested and offers little in the way of information about why they are arrested in the first place.

That reminds me of the Chris Rock video

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you've seen this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8) by Chris Rock.

In my youth it was common knowledge that if a black kid was caught with a bag of weed, he would wind up in hand cuffs, but a white kid would lose the bag to confiscation and be warned that his parents would be informed the next time. When old schoolers encounter a region where this is not the norm, they consider the state of affairs to be one of prejudice against white people.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

The idea of white privilege reeks. It's a nice way for people on the left to mimic all the trappings of being racist while having none of the social stigma.

[thies.livejournal.com]

I can't be arsed right now to put much effort into looking it up, but it would also be interesting how those numbers translate into traffickers and users

The poor alwasy get fucked

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

I think a telling statistic wiuld be "How many of those white youth's parents could afford lawyers?" when compared to "How many of those black youth'scould do the same?".

[futurebird.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd seen this when it was active. Great post.

[anewcliche.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Its sad when common sense, "DUH", posts like this are considered "major breakthroughs".