Message to George Will: Racism Ignored is Justice Denied

Recently, Washington Post opinion writer, George Will, wrote a column about how racism is not a determining factor in who goes to prison in the United States. This particularly irked me.
Will's piece "More prisoners, Less Crime"completely misinforms the public and purposely gives life to a pernicious theory that institutional racism does not taint the criminal justice system. What especially pisses (hat-tip to the late George Carlin) me off is how a respected journalist like Will cited politically-tinged statistics and manipulated the data to fit his worldview. He takes statistical information from a right-wing organization and manipulates it to fit his own preconceived notion that being black or Latino has nothing to do with winding up behind bars. In trying to prove his point, he cited Manhattan Institute fellow, Heather MacDonald and her article, "Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist?"

This article posits that the high percentage of blacks and Latinos behind bars reflects crime rates, not bigotry. Well, I am sure that neither he nor she ever sat in a prison yard and witnessed first-hand the sea of black and brown faces locked up behind prison walls. I have. Will even denounces our future president Barack Obama's past comments that "more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities and we have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives." He then tries to negate this reality by citing more of MacDonald's argument.

George can cite all the nonsense he wants from skewed statistics in an attempt to negate the well-known fact that racism in the criminal justice system does indeed exist. African Americans and Latinos go to jail at an alarmingly disproportionate rate compared to whites. There is no denying this. This is especially true in regards to drug arrests.

The knee-jerk conclusion by some is that more black and brown people are in prison because the commit the majority of the crimes. But a closer inspection paints a vastly different picture.

According to numerous studies, including one from the Human Rights Watch African Americans are incarcerated for drug offenses at 12 times the rates of white people despite similar rates of drug use. In New York, 91 percent of those incarcerated under the Rockefeller Drug Laws are black or Latino.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Sentencing Commission addressed the racial impact of crack cocaine laws when they both made historic decisions to correct the racial disparities in drug sentencing.

Whether through targeted policing or ingrained racism in the judicial system which railroads defendants of color on a daily basis, institutional racism lives and thrives in the criminal justice system. It is a well-documented fact that routinely is ignored by Will and his ilk.

The longer "respected intellectuals" like George Will ignore the reality of institutional racism, the longer it will take for the problem to be addressed and resolved.

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Comments

[MARTYB]

I am probably gonna catch it for this, but in my neighborhood it is Latino, Black, and Korean/other Asian, and Whites. I see /experience/read about misdemeano­rs/assault­s/ murders on a weekly if not a daily basis. I will give you 2 guesses who is commiting all these crimes that i see and experience. And i will say nobody is putting a gun to their heads to commit said crimes. Before anybody gets a twist in their undies, i am Black, of mixed heritage. Now i am old enough to know that yes, there is bias in the criminal justice system but we sure as hell don't help the situation by commiting crimes way out of proportion to our population and some of the most heinous and dumb crimes that can be
commited, it did not use to be this way. And i don't need to hear about "the system" forcing our people to commit crimes 'mostly" against our own, i can't/won't buy it. So as much as i hate to admit it G. Will has a pretty valid argument viewed from street level.

[sparkandy]

What people fail to notice, and that you've pointed out, is that crime is usually white on white, black on black, Mexican on Mexican. When young black people are killed in gang violence, it's other black kids that do it. White meth heads beat up other white meth heads. Mexicans stab other Mexicans at Salsa clubs. It's heartbreaking to see a mother lose her child to death or prison because of somehing like this. We need to address the root causes instead of whining about the unfairness of it all.

[RepublicanBrain]

I'm surprised. You say that the system is racist because there are X amount of people of one race or other, but don't offer supporting evidence. An opinion column from the New York Times is not evidence. By a long shot. You claim things that are not proven. I won't through out your theory, because I honestly don't know much about it, but I will claim that you lack evidence and cannot support it.

[larry278]

Maybe Geo Will can write a preface for a new edition of HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS. He has a way with words.

[HeevenSteven]

Same ol' George --a professional sophist who has somehow managed to get a "respected journalist" moniker. He's been at this game a long time, and he's not getting any better at it from what I can see. Right-wing intellectual too often is an oxymoron.

[Nommo]

You'll have to be patient with George, Anthony. He is still trying to come to terms with the Negro Leagues.

[HeevenSteven]

lol!

[SanityClaus]

White women like Cindy McGrandpa belong in prison as much as any other citizen who steals drugs.