the Real Cause Of The Problem

Re: "Is justice system in U.S. truly colorblind?" (Tuesday City & State), Lisa Falkenberg largely accepts the premise of author Michelle Alexander that the incarceration of black men is caused only by white racism, and then goes on to exclusively cite the "compelling" statistics provided by Alexander to prove it. Except of course, that the statistics are a tired rehash of Liberal demagoguery going back at least 40 years.

For the most part, the basic statistics themselves are not in dispute: black men are disproportionately represented as a percentage of people accused of, convicted and sentenced for drug crimes. What is seriously in dispute are the reasons as to why, and the contention that black males are no more likely to engage in drug crime than others. For Alexander and Falkenberg, the issue is Black and White: institutional white racism in our criminal justice system is the cause, period, end of statement. Nowhere in the narrative they weave is there room for any other explanation. Let me offer a few that thoughtful conservatives have been putting forth for generations:
 

- Marriage is near-extinct in the Black community.

 

- Less than 40% of black men grow up with a father in their home.

 

- We are now up to three generations of institutionalized welfare dependency for the majority of black youth in our cities.

 

- Less than 1/3rd of black men who drop out of high school in their 20s are employed.

 

- The most prominent cultural influence on young black men is the Thug Life, which glorifies crime, gangs and violence, primarily through Rap music.

 

It is worth noting that the problems with illegitimacy, missing fathers, welfare dependency and dropouts all preceded the mass incarceration of black men, and it is more than plausible that these pathologies are the major cause of the incarceration problem. As to Alexander's claim that black males are disproportionately imprisoned, even she would have to admit that the concentration of America's drug culture is in our big cities, where blacks are a disproportionate percentage of the populace. It is also more than plausible that these problems were exacerbated by the well-meaning social policies implemented and executed largely by Liberals, since the bulk of our big cities came under the political control of the Democratic Party in the 60s, and remain so to this day.

 

As to the timing of the issue, the War On Drugs did not "begin" with the Reagan Administration in any meaningful sense, including the incarceration of black men. It actually began with the Johnson Administration with the creation of agencies specifically devoted to fighting drug crime, and the passage of the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act in 1970 under Nixon. The Reagan Administration did formalize the imposition of mandatory sentences, but federal convictions represent only a small percentage of all drug convictions, and the criminal justice policies implemented in the 60s and 70s are far more responsible for the high imprisonment rate.

 

Bottom line, the majority of young black males are dysfunctional before they get caught up in crime, and the bulk of those have embraced the Thug Life long before they get caught up in the Drug Life. This isn't the first time that the "institutionalized white racism" argument has been trotted out to explain away the failures of Liberal policies, and it won't be the last. But until these realities are embraced by Liberal apologists, there will be no improvement in the Black condition.

Pete Smith
Cypress