2008's Ten Worst Places to be Black

the article might be of greater value were the meaning of the figures clear. i, frankly, have no idea what they are supposed to represent.

in the next hour.

For instance, the chart for the Black to White Imprisonment Ratios and Black to White Population Ratios needs clarification. Are you saying the ratio was
Iowa | 19.02 to 1 and .02 to 1
Vermont | 13.59 to 1 and .01 to 1
etc...

Could you be more dilettante, please? Remember most who will read this article DO care but DON'T crunch numbers.

From the numbers it seems as though the areas of the country that are considered to be the most liberal (North, West) have an inordinate amount of incarcerated blacks vs areas of the country that are considered to be the most conservative (South). Taken together with recent results from democratic primaries showing Obama receiving a small fraction of white voters can we assume that while liberals provide lip-service to black issues (such as their wrongful incarceration) they do not back it up with meaningful action...?

White liberals (I am one) are split pretty evenly between Obama and Clinton, and younger whites are very supportive of Obama.

That said, the majority of non-southern blacks live in big cities where the politics of racism are alive and well, and the police and "justice" system are out of control.

Here in New York, our new governor Eliot Spitzer is making the truly unpopular move of shutting down some of the smaller prisons. We've got a long way to go in New York, but that is a step in the right direction.

Has it occurred to anyone that in the states where there are the most black people, there are more black policemen and governmental employees to keep a check on racial disparities? GA may have a 30% black population, but Atlanta has even more, hence they voted in the very popular Mayor Shirley Franklin.

Hurricane Katrina; federal, state, municipal, and private sector response? Do I have to enumerate every last atrocity that happened down there?

I don't understand how Louisiana could not make the list.

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Black people are apathetic and passive, and do not fight for their self interests using the only political system that we have. When opportunities are available young people are either not prepared for them or disinterested. Too many parents keep their children in a perpetual state of childishness, don't engage them in productive and constructive activities that help them develop skills that will help them compete in this world.

All of these statistics are meaningless and have only shock value for some people. They are not going to move anybody's butt from in front of the video games long enough to get their kids involved in such things as the Boys and Girls scouts, teach them how to swim and play sports, learn right from wrong, and a do a whole host of doable things to improve their lives and their communities.

What is missing in this article is solutions. Simple solutions. Grass roots solutions. Doable solutions. But what can one expect from progressivists. They have no solutions. They criticize, but they offer no solutions. Their whole reason for existence is to try to look intelligent and knowledgeable by dragging a whole bunch of wow numbers in front of us. If there is one thing that "the Black candidate," who they love to excoriate, has said is that parents have to take responsibility for their young and turn off the TV set.

They continue to attack Obama, but don't give him credit for having risen to this point in history by having guidance at an early age that has helped him out. Growing up outside of this country to a great extent helped make that possible. The fact is there are thousands of Obamas out there. There are thousands of young men and women who were raised by single parents who do not take tomorrow for granted. There are thousands of young people who come here from some of the most depraved social conditions on Earth, yet take advantage of the opportunities that exist in America and excel. Many of them make it in these so called worst places for Black people. How do you explain that?

The vast majority of people in prison have committed nonviolent drug crimes.
The thing is, blacks don't use drugs at higher rates than whites, they just get arrested at higher rates and imprisoned for longer.

One thing to keep in mind is that the place where the sentence is handed down is not necessarily where the sentence will be served. American Radio Works as well as Corpwatch.org have material on the fact that inmates are shipped here and there for various reasons. One might be convicted in Ohio but serve parts of one's sentence in 5 other states. Especially if it's is a private prison or public-private partnership. Terry, do the time for the crime is correct but prisoners are actually more like livestock rather than citizens being required to pay their debt to society. Will America be better off by treating its citizens this way?

"There are thousands of young people who come here from some of the most depraved social conditions on Earth, yet take advantage of the opportunities that exist in America and excel. Many of them make it in these so called worst places for Black people. How do you explain that?"

The productivity of some foreign nationals achieve in this country is purely a result of coincidence and circumstance and not the result of natural selection. This system was not designed to benefit the mass demographic of the 'rainbow' - particularly African Americans. However, if a percentage can maneuver their way while acquiring some meaningful success through a system which was originally designed for whites to maintain a level of white privilege, then a small demographic has achieved the "American dream" - an exception to the rule.

I can add one comment. About the depth of white americans' belief in incarceration as a solution. It really took off with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the institutionalization of incarcerating potential suicides whose behavior is also sometimes murderous. Because it was the Reagan years. And not only could the head-docs not treat alcoholism, they couldn't admit that, and they wouldn't make money if courts ordered them to try to treat it. However, MADD’s campaign insured only individual devastation - while probably failing to actually reduce the carnage on the highways – whereas the post-Reagan imprisonment of African-Americans has perpetuated as well as caused the devastation of whole communities.

And today? After what B.D. identifies as the Bush1 precipice... there's literally hundreds of books published every year on penology, imprisonment, punishment, etc. You can find the categories at Amazon.com. But who reads the books? Quite a few white, liberal publishing-house editors, evidently. But, literally, almost no one else. Maybe one title makes the top hundred in sales every few years.

As someone involved in litigation on behalf of prisoners who are abused, beaten, denied medical care, and incarcerated beyond their sentences, this article is extremely useful. Thank you for compiling it.

However, it is important to understand that this situation is no accident. Young black men are being arrested, convicted and incarcerated at exponentially higher rates than young white men involved in the same behavior. It is a means of controlling a chunk of the population for which our rulers have no use, a group the nazis referred to as "useless eaters." No amount of "reentry" funding will change this situation.

Although an individual prison sentence is often the result of an individual's bad behavior, taken collectively the mass incarceration of black men is not simply a collection of character flaws. It is deliberate social policy, funded and enforced by the political elite. Organize, organize, organize. Who you gonna vote for to change this debacle?

Geronimo:

On the face of it, Sam L's comment would be meaningless. But that is not how it works.

Let me use my hometown, Milwaukee, as an example. Only 6% of Wisconsin's total population is Black. Until two decades ago, the figure hovered closer to 4 - 5%.

The majority of urban Blacks lived in the southeastern Milwaukee/Racine area and in Madison (south central), mostly in rough inner-city neighborhoods where crime was rampant.

Having such a small pool of Blacks statewide coupled with a long history of high incarceration and arrest rates means that a larger number of Wisconsin's Blacks are ineligible for police work simply because they don't have a spotless criminal record.

If that alone were the problem, measures could have been taken to attract minority candidates from other places. The powers-that-were chose not to.

The Milwaukee police department was hostile to non-white male and women recruits prior to sometime in the 1980s. The rank-and-file and leadership behaved as if the force were a club for white working-class men. (MPD was famous for its use of excessive force in minority communities.) Only the passage of time, and a change in leadership in the position of police chief has made the force friendlier to such recruits. An important note: the MPD was a fiefdom governed for 20 years by a long-time chief who answered to no one - not the mayor, the media or the public. He was like a U.S. Supreme Court justice - he could not be fired. Couple that with the city having had the same mayor for 20 years. Every four years, the battle cry rang out: fire Maier (mayor) and retire Brier (police chief).

I think they might well have titled this article: Ten Worst States to Be a Black Criminal.
Sure, way too many blacks are getting locked up, and for too long periods of time, also...but, nontheless, "Do the crime, do the time."

Best way to avoid going to prison is to obey the law.
Is it possible that blacks tend to break the law at a much higher rate than do whites? I don't know...but, sure seems possible.

Tom Rollen,
I think the point of the article is that blacks and whites commit crimes at about the same rates, yet more blacks are arrested and incarcerated for their crimes than whites. Blacks and whites use drugs at the same rate (proportional to population), yet blacks are much more likely to be incarcerated than whites for non-violent drug user offenses. This means that black non-violent drug offenders are more likely to end up with felony convictions and return to their communities with no support in place to assist with the readjustment and disenfranchisement problems that ex-convicts must face.

There doesn't have to be a "secret mission" or a conspiracy among whites to oppress blacks--selective enforcement of existing laws will do in a society as polarized and fearful as ours. Pick a community that has experienced de-industrialization and job loss. Look at the proportion of blacks to whites in that community. Compare the incarceration rate of black drug users in that community to that of
whites in the same community. You will then understand why your statement "[e]ither it's okay for everybody to do it or no one should be able to do it" does not describe the typical practice.

I personally witnessed and experiences police brutality. I witnessed my family members (Males) get harassed by the local police force. I’ve come to the conclusion, that if you’re afraid of them they will continue to harass you. If you stand up to them with legal grounds, the fear they are trying to put in you will fall back on them (basically it’s a spiritual battle). I remember an occasion where a young black man (early 20s) was driving down the road, going to the store, and a police office got behind his car and started riding on his bumper. The police office sped up faster and faster, causing the young man to speed. Once his speed was above the speed limit, he put his siren on for him to pull over. Instead of the young man becoming afraid, he used common sense and drove home (with the police officer following him with his siren on). The police office was in a rage. The young man remained peaceful. The police office tried to get him to pull his car back on the public road but the young man said “no, this is private property”. The police office was out of control with anger. So the young man pulled his car on the road in front of his home. At that point, people were stand around watching. The office angrily gave him a ticket. The young man refused to pay for it and went to court and defended his self and WON. He won because he exposed the police office for what he was doing. He told the judge the exact same story and they dropped the ticket. I say this to let black men know, STAND UP FOR YOURSELF and SPEAK THE TRUTH! Be quick to think and slow to anger. If someone shows you with their actions they have ill plans for you pull over to a place where you feel safe (somewhere with a lot of witness). Use wise judgment based on this persons actions towards you. The only way we can expose them for what they are doing is with proof. Detailed accounts of their actions towards an individual or a video camera.

The very argument of the paper is BS. If crime rates have gone up only slightly AND incarceration rates have multiplied, one can imagine that if we HADN'T started locking people up MORE then there would have been that much more crime. Also it says nothing really about racial disparities, and no real evidence is shown for the claim that whites and blacks commit similar proportions of criminal acts.

By the way, as for the death penalty thing: the bias is there, but it is there in the sense that a white victim will get you fried more often than a black one. HOWEVER, since blacks kill blacks more often (and the same for whites), correcting our lack of concern for black victims would result in MORE blacks on death row!

Final summary: apart from drug laws, blacks don't have that much to complain about with regard to criminal prosecution.

On October 5, 2008, the CW Network premiered a new drama from the creators of The Sopranos. The new show, called Easy Money, is said to be about a family who owns and operates a “high-interest loan” business called Prestige Payday Loans. It’s always great to see shows being produced in an effort to bring underrepresented cultures or things into the limelight; as long as it constitutes a fair and balanced portrayal of the subject matter at hand. However, by taking one look at the trailers for the new drama, as well as a few of the episode synopses, my biggest fear is that the premise for the show is based solely on vicious media stereotypes. With this in mind, think of the last time that you viewed a news story either online or on television news talking about the payday loan industry. Chances are the story you saw or read wove tales of “real” persons’ woes fueled by their getting bogged down in an “endless cycle of debt.” Worst of all, according to such “articles,” it all started when they needed to borrow money to fix their car or pick up the tab on another unexpected bill. Such stories are further proof that, for the sake of winning the ratings wars, news networks will latch on to and report only the juiciest, most scandalous aspects of any big story and completely ignore everything else. It seems as if the CW network is following suit in an effort to recover viewers lost during the Writer’s Strike. One, for instance, opens with the tag line, “for this family of loan sharks, money is easy.” Surely, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not the CW or the show’s creators learned what the industry is really about. Chances are, probably not.

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