INCARCERATED BY ILLUSIONS?

I think it was the great American philosopher and psychologist William
James who said (and I'm paraphrasing): some people think they are thinking
when really they are only re-arranging their prejudices.

Such "thinking" colors the popular "debate" on race and the American
criminal justice system. Whenever I write a column that highlights the
numerous studies, indicating that anti-black racism is part and parcel of
our criminal "Justice" system, some self-proclaimed "conservative" writes
me to point out the "obvious" reason there are a disproportionate number of
blacks behind bars: blacks commit more crime than white people do! (Is that
so? How enlightening).

It's that kind of thinking - if it even deserves to be called thinking -
that probably led J.S. Mill to. say: "Although it is not true that all
conservatives are stupid people, it is true that all stupid people are
conservative. "I think that's a little unfair but the point is well taken.

It's easier to follow the status quo than it is to critically examine the
ideological assumptions that undergird state-sponsored violence and
oppression. Imagine if a white South African, during Apartheid, said the
reason there were so many blacks in prison in their country is because the
custodians of their legal system were simply doing their job: locking up
criminals.

Any outside observer, with even a slight sense of history, would at least
raise a skeptical eyebrow, understanding that there is a high probability
that the numbers are skewed because of a thing called white-skin privilege.

Are we to believe white supremicism has been completely wiped out?

In 1950, whites accounted for 65 percent of all state and federal
prisoners. Nonwhites made up the other 35 percent. Today, nearly 50 percent
of all inmates in American prisons are black, even though African Americans
are only 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Of course people should be protected from violent criminals. What is at
issue, as the distinguished sociologist William Chambliss points out, is
that police flagrantly focus their crime-fighting resources on black
communities, i.e. the "war on drugs." This, in spite of the empirical fact
that whites consume far more drugs than do blacks.

"Police look for crimes in the ghetto, and that's where they find them,"
Charnbliss told Boston Globe reporter Louise Palmer. In other words, we
have millions of white illicit drug users who get "treatment" and
widespread sympathy for their drug problem but it's
three-strikes-you're-out for the blacks who supply white drug users!

When you combine market-morality with the indisputable fact that "the black
underclass" has been effectively locked-out of our "booming economy" - as
study after study has shown - is it any wonder that drug dealing is so
appealing?

Largely because of the mental and moral laziness of our politicians and
policy-makers, a systematic effort at black disempowerment and
disenfranchisement is being carried out. (Continued felons can't vote.)
such ethically and intellectually indefensible policies should be opposed
by all people of good will if we are to have some semblance of civilization.

In their fight to end affirmative action programs, right-wing brothers and
sisters love to quote Dr. King (almost always out of context) - individuals
should be judged "not by the color of their skin but by the content of
their character."

I Well, here's another quote from Dr. King worth pondering: "There is
nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of
people in that society who feel that they have noththing to lose. People
who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they
don't' have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it."

And pundits have the nerve to label my generation stupid and lazy!

- -Sean Gonsalves, a former Oakland resident, writes for the Cape Cod Times.