But people are not being locked up just because they are black, or poor. They are committing crimes, and pleading or being found guilty.
I have a friend, someone that has been my friend for 30 years, who is in prison right now for drugs.
He wasn't incarcerated because he's black. He was incarcerated because he was caught selling marijuana and laundering money.
I, on the other hand, chose a different path in life. I made the decision to not get involved with the things that he was doing. I have no criminal record and I'm every bit as black as he is.
I agree that fatherlessness is the key component here. The best predictor of criminality in young people is the presence of a father in the home. This holds true across racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The large number of single parent households in the black community has a lot to do with the high levels of crime in the inner cities.
There are two somewhat different problems... high levels of crime, and different levels of law enforcement for equivalent crimes. We have both. Moreover, unequal enforcement contributes to the crime rate. People continually harassed and jailed for petty crimes can't hold steady jobs, so they wind up moving up the crime ladder just to make a living.
I have a friend, someone that has been my friend for 30 years, who is in prison right now for drugs.
He wasn't incarcerated because he's black. He was incarcerated because he was caught selling marijuana and laundering money.
I, on the other hand, chose a different path in life. I made the decision to not get involved with the things that he was doing. I have no criminal record and I'm every bit as black as he is.
I agree that fatherlessness is the key component here. The best predictor of criminality in young people is the presence of a father in the home. This holds true across racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The large number of single parent households in the black community has a lot to do with the high levels of crime in the inner cities.