Are drug laws a vestigial white resistance to black criminality?
by Christopher Donovan The respectable Stuart Taylor, Jr. of the National Journal makes sound points in a recent column about the absurdity of Jena as a rallying point for “civil rights.” The bigger injustice, he says, are harsh drug laws that put huge numbers of young black males in prison: they account for 40 percent of the 2.2 million people locked up in the United States. Taylor refreshingly acknowledges (referencing a recent column by black Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson) the unavoidable fact that blacks simply commit more crime significantly more. But is white “racism” still a factor? Says Taylor: “The absurdly excessive penalties for possessing or selling crack cocaine could be seen as evidence that many white voters and legislators are subconsciously more willing to throw away the lives of small-time black offenders than small-time white offenders. You can call that racism, but only by stretching the word.” “Racism,” of course, is a pejorative term that at times is appli
