Examining the article titled No Equal Justice: The Color of Punishment by David Cole found in our Gallagher reading on Rethinking the Color Line; Cole illustrates a significant problem in sentencing. Showing the difference between sentencing of powder and crack cocaine and the incarceration rates for each, he highlights that in Minnesota alone African Americans make up 96.6 percent of those convicted for crack cocaine which accompanies a longer sentence. In conjunction with this, he highlights that compared to the white counterpart, they serve a sentence that is on average five years longer. According to Van Jones, an environmental justice activist and author of Are Blacks a Criminal Race? Surprising Statistics featured in the Huffington Post, the truth is that the reality of criminal statistics has been obscured by events such as these. Supported in the same article by Jason Zeidenberg, a member of the Justice Policy Institute; it is revealed that in a meta analysis conducted by Carl Pope and Richard Feyerherm for the Justice Department that two-thirds of the local and state juvenile justice system displayed a "race effect". Jason also shows how while only containing 17 % of the youth population African American youths are 27 % of all drug violations and are 48% of the youths detained for drug offenses. The discrimination on a basis color in arrest have lead to statistic like what is featured on the recidivism report of the Florida Department of Corrections that claims on average, black inmates are 43.6% more likely to reoffend. Even classical theorists like W.E.B Du Bois could tell that color would become a 20th century issue "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line--the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea." People who believe that African American or Latino youth are more criminal than other ethnic groups are wrong. The real facts tell us much more than stereotypes. That the majority of crack users are white (Survey from United States Public Health Services Featured in David Cole's article) and that the statistics on juvenile delinquency show a relatively stable rate of delinquency across all races.
These disparities within the sentencing and constant misrepresentation of criminal activity have created stereotypes of an uncontrolled criminal race. That If you are not white, you're most likely a criminal. Laws like the Arizona immigration law SB1070 are just the next step within race and crime genre. While this law targets illegal immigrants and allows for the police to question and detain those without papers, it is just a way to profile and target minorities. On the NAACP.org website the explanation of this laws criminal profiling is challenged. It is called morally offensive, unconstitutional and even un-American. They bring up the issue that within the criminal justice system the discrimination of profiling is well known by African Americans. The truth is the misrepresentation of minorities as being the majority of criminals has lead to increased laws in profiling, sentencing like the three strikes rule , and even constitutional support from the US Supreme court; that determined unless someone can prove intent to be discriminatory a law cannot be challenged on a basis of race. That the disparities in the law are not supported by the statistics.
Further reading and Sources
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/are-blacks-a-criminal-rac_b_8398.html
http://immigration.laws.com/arizona-immigration-law
http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/naacp-joins-legal-challenge-to-arizona-racial-profiling-law/
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