There seems to be a new mantra that has taken hold of our popular psyche these days, that of "systemic racism" and the role it plays in policing. I humbly submit that instead of calling it "systemic racism," we would be much more accurate if it was called systemic prejudice.
DOJ numbers show that in 2019 there were 7,964 Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter arrests made in the U.S*. Of that number 3,650 of people arrested were white and 4,078 were black. Although the black population makes up around 13% of the population, they accounted for a bit over 52% of the murder arrests.
Another category, there were 108,847 arrests for the possession of weapons, or carrying illegal weapons. Arrests of white people clocked in at 60,494 and Black (notice I capitalized Black in a nod to the AP) subjects counted 45,530. Again, while comprising 13 percent of the population, they constituted about 42% of the arrests.
Prejudice is based on past experience and knowledge. From my experience, I know that a dog that is showing certain signs has a high likelihood to bite. I'm prejudiced against dogs that exhibit those signs and treat it differently than I do other dogs. If I'm out an about and see a group of Black teens, wearing hoodies and leaning against a Chrysler 300 with tinted windows, knowledge, experience and the prejudice it creates is going to make me view them differently than three old white ladies standing around a mini van with a Jesus saves bumper sticker. Racist? No. Prejudiced? Yes.
My question is, which came first, "systemic racism" which in reality is "systemic prejudice," or systemic criminality which caused the prejudice?
* https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/20 ... s/table-43
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The Chicken Or The Egg...
The Chicken Or The Egg...
New York and Chicago were all in with respect to their sanctuary status — until they were hit with the challenge of actually providing sanctuary. In other words, typical liberal hypocrisy.
Re: The Chicken Or The Egg...
I have been brewing on this for a while, and I have to be honest, Bryce is saying a lot of things people think but they try to deny or stuff down.
For a long time, I was like a lot of people who do that. Its uncomfortable having an internal struggle about this issue. On one side, you want to be a good person and like Dr. King said, judge people by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin. On the other, when there is a common profile characteristic of people that appears to result in the odds being significantly greater of violent criminal behavior, then you are foolish to not take that under consideration. Correlation does not equal causation, no, but when you're looking across different races as an independent variable and see significantly greater criminal activity in one, that's more causal-comparative in nature, and a responsible person will take that into consideration.
There are qualities that do cause me to prejudge a person, and yes, race is one of the main qualities. But age, apparent socio-economic status, gender are all factors that lump in with it. If I see a young Black man whose style of dress hints to me that he idolizes rappers rather than good citizens, then I will want nothing to do with that person. I would expect every second of my interaction with them to be an opportunity to size me up for how they could steal from me. Granted, a young White girl dressed like a college kid could also have designs on stealing from me, but that is much less likely.
What I am trying to say here is that the numbers are indicative of the need for people to be smart, truly smart, about the amount of trust they give people, and that profile characteristics can be instrumental in saving yourself from a robbery or other type of violence. Don't act willfully ignorant of the threat posed by young men who grew up in poverty, surrounded by crime, and with poor education, that learned that taking things is better than working for them early on. The reasons why things are how they are and how they can be fixed is an entirely separate discussion.
Stop being foolish and start being safe.
For a long time, I was like a lot of people who do that. Its uncomfortable having an internal struggle about this issue. On one side, you want to be a good person and like Dr. King said, judge people by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin. On the other, when there is a common profile characteristic of people that appears to result in the odds being significantly greater of violent criminal behavior, then you are foolish to not take that under consideration. Correlation does not equal causation, no, but when you're looking across different races as an independent variable and see significantly greater criminal activity in one, that's more causal-comparative in nature, and a responsible person will take that into consideration.
There are qualities that do cause me to prejudge a person, and yes, race is one of the main qualities. But age, apparent socio-economic status, gender are all factors that lump in with it. If I see a young Black man whose style of dress hints to me that he idolizes rappers rather than good citizens, then I will want nothing to do with that person. I would expect every second of my interaction with them to be an opportunity to size me up for how they could steal from me. Granted, a young White girl dressed like a college kid could also have designs on stealing from me, but that is much less likely.
What I am trying to say here is that the numbers are indicative of the need for people to be smart, truly smart, about the amount of trust they give people, and that profile characteristics can be instrumental in saving yourself from a robbery or other type of violence. Don't act willfully ignorant of the threat posed by young men who grew up in poverty, surrounded by crime, and with poor education, that learned that taking things is better than working for them early on. The reasons why things are how they are and how they can be fixed is an entirely separate discussion.
Stop being foolish and start being safe.