paullud
Veteran Expediter
There's really no point. Conclusions drawn from statistics are opinions. If I post something that states the opposite of what you believe the statistics to mean, you'll either dismiss it or find some fault with it. But when you see the raw statistics of the crime rates in poor back neighborhoods versus poor white neighborhoods, and see they're virtually the same, traditional conclusions must be questioned. Factor in the white bias of already believing that blacks commit a much higher percentage of crime than they actually commit, and that will influence the conclusions drawn from statistics. Further factor in the biased policing that goes on in black neighborhoods and the statistics begin to show something other than the traditional conclusions. But here's a study from The Ohio State University for you to discredit or dismiss.
As is noted in this piece, "There is no way in this country to discuss crime statistics without including in that discussion the myriad ways in which those statistics are informed and influenced by the systemic effects of racial distortion." And that's hard to do when 70% of white Americans believe the criminal justice system is color blind, and that there are no racial biases whatysoever in law enforcement, much less any kind of systemic bias.
That study isn't the opposite of what I believe, it's actually exactly what I expected. The stats prove that blacks are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime and that's not really a debatable point. The stats I used are based solely on race and that's what my comment was limited to. It does not mean that blacks commit more crimes simply because they are black which is what the study you shared gets into. That's what I meant before when I said it seems like you guys are debating different topics and aren't actually on the same page.
The article I posted mentioned that it's difficult to compare things on an equal level in poor neighborhoods based on race for the reasons listed in the study you posted. I don't think we will ever have a way to truly compare disadvantaged neighborhoods because there are mental conditioning issues at play as well which aren't likely in a white neighborhood. I believe that racism is still around and will never go away no matter what because there are different shades of people. I do not believe that it is at a point that it will stop a black person from being successful though and we have plenty of proof of that. Right now I think the biggest problem in black neighborhoods is fighting the feeling of defeat. We are still dealing with the after effects of racism and haven't made it far enough away where there is a feeling that success is available to those that strive for it. We will probably need another generation before the scars of the past fade.