Why do so many jails in America have a higher percentage of black prisoners than any other race?
In simple terms perhaps they commit more crime but I would suggest that a lot of it has to do with social economic factors – high unemployment, teen age mothers, single parent families, lack of employment opportunities, low level of people from that community going to higher education, drug and alcohol abuse etc etc The other factors have to be with the way that black people are portrayed in media – how many young black kids look up to a gangster rapper and want what he has. In the US it also seems that the government is happier to give out a sentance than address the route causes..
I was walking around in an expensive hotel as a teenager. It was closed for anyone who wasn’t a guest, and my friend and I knew we shouldn’t be there, but we walked around anyway. We’re white. We passed a group of black guys who seemed to be minding their own business. Within about 15 minutes, security was throwing them out, right in front of us. Security didn’t even glance at us, much less say anything to us. For all I know, those black kids had been there before and caused trouble, but I doubt it. They tried to do a study about blacks being pulled over more often than whites when no crime was committed, but somebody threw it out (if I remember correctly). So until white people (including myself) have walked around for a week as a black person, or driven around at night as one, they (we) cannot possibly understand.
