Critique of Black Culture

[elSicomoro]

Watching white people try to discuss black culture is funny.

Here is the link to Mr. Martin's post.

This is what Mr. Martin is referring to:

Brothers behind bars
The "alarming overrepresentation" of black men in the U.S. penal system concerns Rep. Charles B. Rangel, outspoken New York Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The congressman from Harlem notes that two-thirds of the U.S. prison population is made up of racial and ethnic minorities — and for black men in their 20s "one in every eight is in prison or jail on any given day."

"Even more upsetting is that African-American males born today have a one-in-three chance of going to prison during their lifetime, compared to a one-in-17 chance for white males," Mr. Rangel notes. "At year-end 2003, African-American inmates represented an estimated 44 percent of all inmates with sentences of more than one year."

That causes Mr. Rangel to wonder if the sentencing system is truly colorblind.

"Despite the notion that the scales of justice is blind, it is no secret that racial bias plays a deplorable role in the disproportionate conviction and sentencing of African-American men, compared to their racial counterparts, who are charged with the same or a similar offense," he notes.

In fact, the United States is experiencing a decrease in crime rates, yet the overall prison population — federal, state and local — is increasing, particularly among blacks. This is said to be because of "truth-in-sentencing" laws that limit early releases, impose mandatory sentences for drug offenses, and set "three strikes and you're out" laws for repeat offenders.

More than 2 million Americans are behind bars.

I share Rep. Rangel's concerns, though racial bias in the justice system is just one of the many problems that needs to be addressed. Mr. Martin is reaching just a little bit...he accuses Rangel of a knee-jerk reaction, when he seems to be doing the same thing.

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by sycamore

Mr. Martin is reaching just a little bit...he accuses Rangel of a knee-jerk reaction, when he seems to be doing the same thing.

When I compare Rangel's opinion with Martin's what I see is one person looking at the symptoms of the problem and forecasting that the problem will get no better for the current generation of black men and one person looking at the causes and possible solutions to the problem.

So, if you are a young black man (10 years old let's say), you have Rangel telling you that one out of thee black men will find themselves behind bars (i.e., your future is shit) OR you have Martin and Cosby, et al saying stay in school, don't have babies you can't raise, stay out of gangs, don't do drugs and to visualize a positive future, who you gonna listen to? The guy that excuses every bad thing that happens to you (enabler) or the guy that says "yeah, the playing field ain't level but life ain't fair - but we made it and you can too!!!"

A leader of black people who predicts that one in three black men will be behind bars in ten years is pretty much insuring that he will be proven correct because he is already saying its not your fault. Nice.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by sycamore

Watching white people try to discuss black culture is funny.

So speaketh the honorary negro ... (just you know I love you dude.)

I know that I perhaps view the world through a naive suburban white woman's rose-colored prescription glasses, but might not the demographic imbalance in prison be representative of a demographic imbalance in the number of crimes committed by whites vs. persons of other races/ethnicities?

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by wolf

So speaketh the honorary negro

I carry my Righteous Whitey card on me at all times.

I know that I perhaps view the world through a naive suburban white woman's rose-colored prescription glasses, but might not the demographic imbalance in prison be representative of a demographic imbalance in the number of crimes committed by whites vs. persons of other races/ethnicities?

We know that there are more blacks than whites in prisons (source), but then we'd have to factor in probations, suspended sentences, etc. I'd say whites outnumber blacks in the end, but blacks are disproportionately represented.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by sycamore

We know that there are more blacks than whites in prisons (source), but then we'd have to factor in probations, suspended sentences, etc. I'd say whites outnumber blacks in the end, but blacks are disproportionately represented.

I have a feeling that minorities are involved more with the crimes that have been targeted for stiff sentencing. Of course those crimes may have been targeted because of minority involvement.

[wolf]

The FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2000 has a lot of numbers.

Because they have chosen to release it as a .pdf file, it's a pain in the ass to reference specific pages ...

What we are looking at here is Section IV Persons Arrested

Head directly for Table 43 Arrests by Race 2000.

Looking at just the aggregate number of arrests for all index crimes, we find that there are 72.1 % of whites arrested, 25.1% of blacks.

The 2000 Census informs us that 77.1% of persons reported as white, and 12.9% reported as black.

I'm not getting into any complex statistical transforms here ... just looking at the raw percentages.

I'm trying to find a good way to phrase this and keep coming up short ... basically what I'm getting from this is that whites are offending proportionaly to their percentage of population, while blacks are committing (or getting caught committing crimes) at a much higher rate, in fact about twice the rate that would be expected if all other factors were equal.

(on the UCRs it is interesting to see the varience overall in the racial breakdown in the commission of certain types of crimes ... blacks and whites murder at nearly equal rates, but whites are more likely to perpetrate forcible rape, vandalism, arson, DUI, fraud, embezzlement, and forgery, among others.

Blacks lead in robbery, gambling, and have a probably statistically insignificant lead in murder and manslaughter.)

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I have a feeling that minorities are involved more with the crimes that have been targeted for stiff sentencing. Of course those crimes may have been targeted because of minority involvement.

White collar crime is handled in such a way that much less time as a whole is spent in prison. I'm betting that that goes a long way towards skewing the in prison representation of of whites versus minorities.

Additionally, money makes a case much easier to get pled off or successfully fought.

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by sycamore

Watching white people try to discuss black culture is funny.

Why? Because they actually give it more study than its participants?

[lookout123]

white people talking about conditions in minority communities = ignorance, racism, or both.

members of minority groups discussing white people = witty social commentary.

[russotto]

Well, you can hardly write a critique of white American culture, because as everyone knows, that's a contradiction in terms.

[lookout123]

touche

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by russotto

Well, you can hardly write a critique of white American culture, because as everyone knows, that's a contradiction in terms.

Afraid not, WAC is actually the plagerized and remarketed aggregate of all of the other cultures it comes in touch with. Why do you think the french are trying to keep it out of france?

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by lookout123

white people talking about conditions in minority communities = ignorance, racism, or both.

Quite possible.

members of minority groups discussing white people = witty social commentary.

Not necessarily...let me fix your equation for you:

sycamore discussing any and all people = always witty social commentary

[lookout123]

yeah, you and dave chappelle.

[ladysycamore]

Originally Posted by sycamore
Watching white people try to discuss black culture is funny.

It sure is.

Originally Posted by Troubleshooter

Why? Because they actually give it more study than its participants?

You'd be amazed at what black folks are talking about these days (and I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of people here wouldn't like it one bit).