by Kelly Amis
I think we all want to believe that race doesn't play a defining role in how people are treated in America today, but that is sadly FAR from the truth, and many astounding statistics prove it.
Here's one of the latest I came across in an USAToday article about the "Stand Your Ground" law, which is getting more scrutiny in the wake of the tragic Trayvon Martin shooting. From the article:
"According to the FBI, "34% of cases involving a white shooter killing a black person were deemed as a justifiable homicide. Meanwhile, in similar situations, when the shooter was black and the victim was white, the homicide was ruled justifiable only 3.3% of the time."
Here are a few more you may not know:
"Studies show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates. If there are significant differences in the surveys to be found, they frequently suggest that whites, particularly white youth, are more likely to engage in drug crime than people of color. (Yet) in some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men." (emphasis mine). -- Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow (a MUST-read)
Unequal treatment begins early and is perpetrated in our most "democratic" institution--the public school:
Black Students Face More Discipline - from the New York Times. (There are many studies showing that black students in particular are given much harsher, life-impacting punishments-- like expulsion or arrests--than white students for the exact same behaviors).
Thought for the day: What kind of America do you want to live in, and how can you help create it?