JENA, O. J. AND THE JAILING OF BLACK AMERICA

THE miscarriage of justice at Jena, La. - where five black high school
students arrested for beating a white student were charged with
attempted murder - and the resulting protest march tempts us to the
view, expressed by several of the marchers, that not much has changed
in traditional American racial relations. However, a remarkable series
of high-profile incidents occurring elsewhere in the nation at about
the same time, as well as the underlying reason for the demonstrations
themselves, make it clear that the Jena case is hardly a throwback to
the 1960s, but instead speaks to issues that are very much of our times.

What exactly attracted thousands of demonstrators to the small
Louisiana town? While for some it was a simple case of righting a
grievous local injustice, and for others an opportunity to relive the
civil rights era, for most the real motive was a long overdue cry of
outrage at the use of the prison system as a means of controlling
young black men.

America has more than two million citizens behind bars, the highest
absolute and per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Black
Americans, a mere 13 percent of the population, constitute half of
this country's prisoners. A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and
35 are in jail or prison; blacks are incarcerated at over eight times
the white rate.

The effect on black communities is catastrophic: one in three male
African-Americans in their 30s now has a prison record, as do nearly
two-thirds of all black male high school dropouts. These numbers and
rates are incomparably greater than anything achieved at the height of
the Jim Crow era. What's odd is how long it has taken the
African-American community to address in a forceful and thoughtful way
this racially biased and utterly counterproductive situation.

How, after decades of undeniable racial progress, did we end up with
this virtual gulag of racial incarceration?

Part of the answer is a law enforcement system that unfairly focuses
on drug offenses and other crimes more likely to be committed by
blacks, combined with draconian mandatory sentencing and an absurdly
counterproductive retreat from rehabilitation as an integral method of
dealing with offenders. An unrealistic fear of crime that is fed in
part by politicians and the press, a tendency to emphasize punitive
measures and old-fashioned racism are all at play here.

But there is another equally important cause: the simple fact that
young black men commit a disproportionate number of crimes, especially
violent crimes, which cannot be attributed to judicial bias, racism or
economic hardships. The rate at which blacks commit homicides is seven
times that of whites.

Why is this? Several incidents serendipitously occurring at around the
same time as the march on Jena hint loudly at a possible answer.