It does matter if you're black or white

     We all want to believe that we are living in a society where people are treated equally no matter what color they are or from what cultural background they come from.  The truth is that we are still far from reaching a color blind society where color will no longer be a factor when it comes to seeing what the individual accomplished being good or bad.  Race and ethnicity play a major factor when it comes to our criminal justice system.  There are far more minorities in jail than whites, and the numbers keep getting larger every year.  Even though there are laws against against racial profiling and racial discrimination, the Supreme Court used the Fourteenth Amendment to let police use race as a factor in discretionary decision-making.  police can use race as a factor in deciding who they want to stop and search.  Our justice system has gone so far as to say that as long as officers show the good sense as to not say "the only reason I stopped you was because you are black," courts generally turn a blind eye to patterns of discrimination by the police (Alexander, p. 221-222).
     So just how dangerous are blacks compared to whites? Tim Wise posted an article called Race, crime and statistical malpractice: How the right manipulates white fear with bogus data.  According to Wise (2013), the most recent comprehensive data published by the Justice Department on violent crime victimization was in 2008 and it states that there were approximately 3.6 million violent crimes that involved a single offender.  Out of these 3.6 million crimes, whites committed 2.1 million of them (58.4%), and blacks committed 830,000 (22.8%).  If these are the numbers that are coming straight from the Justice Department, then why are there more blacks in our prisons than whites?  If it is not plain and simple racial discrimination then what can we call it?  You can also see this type of racial discrimination when it comes to drug offenders.  When it comes to crack cocaine users, 65% are white but only 4.7% were convicted for crimes involving crack cocaine.  On the other hand, 92.6% of those convicted for crack cocaine were black and only 14% of blacks are users of the illicit drug (Cole, p. 212).  If this does not spell racial discrimination then we are more color blind now than ever.
     The saddest part is that racial discrimination starts at a young age for blacks and other minorities.  Most of them already have a record and they are not even out of high school.   Carolyn Jones wrote an article called Oakland: Study finds racial bias in boys' arrests, were she states that African American boys in Oakland, California are arrested far more often and for relatively minor offenses compared to other racial groups, according to a study done by an Oakland nonprofit (Jones, 2013).  If our children are being taught at a young age that race does matter in getting preferred treatment or being harshly punished for minor things then we are showing our future generation that color blindness will never come to pass.  As long as our government and our Justice Department keep allowing such blatant racial discrimination then we will never be able to view ourselves as true individuals instead we will always be characterized by our color and our race.


Here are the articles that were used in this blog:
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Oakland-Study-finds-racial-bias-in-boys-arrests-4765892.php

http://www.timwise.org/2013/08/race-crime-and-statistical-malpractice-how-the-right-manipulates-white-fear-with-bogus-data/