A TOOL IN THE WAR ON DRUGS: BIAS

Black Americans are far more likely than white people to be imprisoned for
drug offenses, even though five times as many white people use drugs, the
advocacy group Human Rights Watch reported this week.

This is classified as "news," although it really isn't. Black Americans
treated unfairly by the justice system? Wow. Stop the presses.

But don't get me wrong. I'm actually thrilled by the report.

Not about what it says about American justice, of course. That's disgusting
and tragic.

But black Americans have suspected all along that the justice system is
calibrated to pick us out more readily and punish us more severely -- yet we
keep right on walking into the meat grinder. Voluntarily.

Each time a young black hoodlum gets hauled off a drug corner in handcuffs,
another one takes his place thinking he'll beat the same system that nailed
his predecessor.

We know the cop is watching. We know the judge is scowling. We know the
jailer is beckoning. We know the employers are turning up their noses at rap
sheets.

It's a trap, not simply undisguised, but illuminated with bright lights and
neon -- this report just raises the candlepower. Yet our kids keep walking
right up and springing it anyway.

I understand the concern -- by sentencing young black people so severely,
the justice system is callously ruining the lives of many who could be
straightened out with proper intervention. Also, disparities in crack and
powdered cocaine penalties seem designed to punish black people more
severely for similar crimes.

But we must not lose context: This isn't about bias against black people
trying to live right. It's about folks who in most cases -- truth be told --
have chosen to break the law. And it's about black families and communities
that haven't yet developed the force of will necessary to divert our youth
from a path of certain doom.

Nationwide, black people make up 62 percent of drug offenders sent to state
prisons. Yet we're only 12 percent of the population and about 13 percent of
drug users.

Black men are 13 times more likely than white men to be sent to prison for a
drug offense. In Illinois, it's 57 times more likely.

You've heard how one in three young black men is in prison, on parole or on
probation? Almost two of every five are there on a drug charge.

"But for the war on drugs," the Rights Watch report points out, "the extent
of black incarceration would be significantly lower."

America's police officers, prosecutors, judges and politicians involved in
setting and executing drug enforcement policy should consider this report a
screeching denouncement.

Black Americans, however, should consider it a clarion call to action -- not
only to fight for better treatment of our young defendants, but to work
harder to keep our kids from becoming defendants in the first place.

That's because drug dealing hurts black people more when the players don't
get caught.

Every successful drug buy nudges another wide-eyed black child closer to
deciding to give the illicit trade a go and makes the legitimate economy
appear that much less attractive.

Each completed transaction produces another egomaniac eager to flaunt his
fine lifestyle. Each unpunished exchange magnifies the lie that breaking the
rules makes more sense than mastering them. It's a bad lesson for anyone,
but especially so for young black Americans, who need to realize that their
mistakes are far less likely to be forgiven than mistakes others make.

So I'd like to say I'm upset by the Human Rights Watch report, but I'm not.
I'd accept just about anything that discourages black kids from getting
involved in drugs -- even prejudice.