HOW DO WE MEND THE INEQUITIES OF JUSTICE?

The criminal justice system is the location of our most grievous
social failures. How did it come to be that this democratic superpower
imprisons more of its own people than any other nation? What's more,
the racial characteristics of these prisoners echo patterns of bias
that have changed little since the days of our nation's white
supremacist beginnings. We are limping into the new century with the
social wounds of racial inequity.

The roots of this inequity are so extensive and so deeply embedded in
our culture, it seems increasingly clear that only a massive Marshall
Plan, justified as a structured system of reparations, can adequately
address this country's enduring racial distress. Recent studies that
showcase vast racial inequities in the criminal justice system ("And
Justice For Some," published by the Youth Law Center and "Justice on
Trial" by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights) help reveal the
dimensions of that distress.

The latest in an increasing parade of evidence detailing our racial
divisions is a report by Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected
international human-rights groups, which detailed wide disparities in
the way black and white drug offenders are treated within the system
that many have come to call the prison-industrial complex.

Specifically, the study--"Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the
War on Drugs"--found that there are five-times more white drug users than
black ones, but African-Americans are imprisoned at many times the rate of
whites. The greatest disparity is in Illinois, where blacks are imprisoned
for selling or using drugs at 57 times the rate of whites, and where
African-Americans comprise 90 percent of the inmates imprisoned for drugs.
"Black and white drug offenders get radically different treatment in the
American justice system," said the group's executive director Ken Roth at a
news conference outlining the study's conclusions. "This is not only
profoundly unfair to blacks, it also corrodes the American ideal of equal
justice for all." It's my impression that reaction to these studies tends to
split along racial lines. Many black Americans tend to applaud such reports
for documenting their charges about a biased and brutal criminal justice
system. Most white Americans seem reluctant to attribute racial disparities
in imprisonment to racism. If African-Americans are disproportionately
imprisoned, it's because they commit a disproportionate amount of crime.

Racism is the cause, say many African-Americans. Balderdash, many
whites retort; bad behavior is the cause. And here we remain. Stuck in
the great racial impasse.

Truth is, both views are right.

According to Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics,
African-Americans are victims of violent crimes (murder, robbery and
aggravated assault) at rates higher than other races. The victimizers
also are almost exclusively African-American. In fact, homicide was
the leading cause of death for young black men until HIV/AIDS took
over first place three years ago. Clearly, African-Americans have
disturbingly high rates of crime or bad behavior.

But that behavior is, in fact, a product of slavery's legacy. The
race-linked disadvantages that predispose African-Americans to social
pathology (poverty, poor education, self-hatred, resource-starved
communities, cultural isolation) were set in motion by racial slavery
and perpetuated by a culture of racial exclusion. This legacy is the
target of the call for reparations.

Centuries of enforced deprivation have had a residual effect that is
clearly evident in the negative statistics that outline
African-Americans' life chances. The influence of the criminal justice
system is just one aspect of this history, but its impact is powerful.
Among the effects of these high rates of imprisonment are devastated
families, widespread disenfranchisement of black men (13 percent
already have lost voting rights, with 30 to 40 percent of the next
generation projected to lose those rights due to felony convictions).
The list goes on.

Redress of these widespread racial disparities is possible only
through large-scale capital and cultural investments in black America,
but white Americans seem to lack the will for this ambitious
enterprise. A short look back into the past could provide some needed
perspective.

In 1947, the U.S. instituted the Marshall Plan, which provided grants,
low-interest loans and outright currency transfers totaling $13.3
billion (about $92 billion in today's dollars) to help reassemble the
remnants of 16 European countries--including former enemy
Germany--shattered by World War II.

If the U.S. thought that kind of massive aid was essential to
Europeans after five years of war, why isn't something similar
necessary for those victimized by 245 years of chattel slavery and a
century of apartheid?