Tapsearch Com EditorJena and black incarceration
October 2nd 2007 22:31
Heather Mac Donald responds to Orlando Patterson, who actually wrote a piece pretty similar to her recent one. With the Jena 6 case as a jumping-off point, she argued that activists were using racism allegations to hide the fact of black crime.
Her new point:
Actually, I thought Patterson did a perfectly good job in offering a balanced picture. The average white tends to think negatively of blacks, and this bias probably affects the justice system -- this can be true right alongside the fact that blacks are locked up more primarily because they commit more crimes.
And what's a little baffling is the Jena 6 connection. The issue in that case is whether town officials treated blacks and whites differently (both behaved badly) -- of what importance to that debate is the fact that blacks do tend to commit more crimes? It's a bit unfair to use a alleged white racism story as an excuse to harp on black crime.
Her new point:
While Patterson does manage to squeeze out some previously taboo truths about black criminality, he hedges those truths with so much politically correct boilerplate about a racist justice system as to almost entirely blunt their impact.
Actually, I thought Patterson did a perfectly good job in offering a balanced picture. The average white tends to think negatively of blacks, and this bias probably affects the justice system -- this can be true right alongside the fact that blacks are locked up more primarily because they commit more crimes.
And what's a little baffling is the Jena 6 connection. The issue in that case is whether town officials treated blacks and whites differently (both behaved badly) -- of what importance to that debate is the fact that blacks do tend to commit more crimes? It's a bit unfair to use a alleged white racism story as an excuse to harp on black crime.
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