There's a saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
It might be a different place than in the era of KKK-cross-burnings, but it still ways from what a modern, racially just, society should be. Token black president or not.
I wrote above that blacks are for example over-represented in incarcerations, and somebody said that that's because they are over-represented in crime stats too.
Not understanding that that argument, far from being an answer ("see the law it's just doing its jobs, its just that blacks are more criminal") is a great example of racism itself.
It's a given to me, that blacks are not more criminal as a race (that is, in biological terms -- except if you agree with KKK and them having "faulty" criminal DNA etc.).
So if they are "more criminal" in actual life, this can mean mainly two things: (a) the white-dominated legal system has a prejudice against them (putting more of them in jail, giving them harsher punishment for the same crimes compared to whites etc) and (b) their life circumstances push them to commit more crimes.
And I say it's a combination of both (a) and (b).
So, let's put it this way: US would be non racist, not just when black people are less frequently shoot by the police, but when black people are less frequently participating in violent crime too.
Because that would mean that the systemic causes keeping them down and pushing them towards those means have finally been eradicated.
It might be a different place than in the era of KKK-cross-burnings, but it still ways from what a modern, racially just, society should be. Token black president or not.
I wrote above that blacks are for example over-represented in incarcerations, and somebody said that that's because they are over-represented in crime stats too.
Not understanding that that argument, far from being an answer ("see the law it's just doing its jobs, its just that blacks are more criminal") is a great example of racism itself.
It's a given to me, that blacks are not more criminal as a race (that is, in biological terms -- except if you agree with KKK and them having "faulty" criminal DNA etc.).
So if they are "more criminal" in actual life, this can mean mainly two things: (a) the white-dominated legal system has a prejudice against them (putting more of them in jail, giving them harsher punishment for the same crimes compared to whites etc) and (b) their life circumstances push them to commit more crimes.
And I say it's a combination of both (a) and (b).
So, let's put it this way: US would be non racist, not just when black people are less frequently shoot by the police, but when black people are less frequently participating in violent crime too.
Because that would mean that the systemic causes keeping them down and pushing them towards those means have finally been eradicated.