Racism is Real

"You want to know how INSANELY racism skews and law enforcement tactics and responses to crime? In 2009, the NYPD stopped and frisked approximately 575,000 New Yorkers. Of those stopped, approximately 490,000 were black or Latino, and approximately 53,000 were white. Even though NINE TIMES AS MANY people of color were stopped, the NYPD found that, of all people stopped, WHITE PEOPLE were MOST likely to be carrying contraband--illegal drugs, illegally concealed weapons, drug paraphernalia, etc.

What was the NYPD's response to this data? In 2010, they stopped even MORE blacks and Latinos. So even though their own data indicated that they should be stopping more white people, they, instead, stopped more people of color. And do you know why? Because they, just like everyone else in the world, ignore the FACTS when it comes to race and crime, and act on PERCEPTION. Because the FACTS can't be dealt with without an admission of a crime on the part of the person with the misconception. And no one, NO ONE, wants to admit that they're racist.

FIRST, we have to talk about the racist system that has demonized black folk and made it seem as though black folk are WORSE, more criminal than any other American--which is a blatant lie. When you're ONLY policing the black neighborhoods; when you're policing the illegal drugs on the street in Brooklyn, but not the illegal drugs on the Columbia University campus; when you're arresting the black person involved in the domestic dispute, but letting the white person involved in the domestic dispute off with a warning; when you're sending the black person involved in a violent crime to prison, but putting the white person involved in a violent crime on probation (or shipping him out of the country or moving his case to where he's least likely to get a conviction); when we're ready to hold the racist criminal justice system to the same unrelenting, exacting standards that we're eager to hold black people to, THEN, and only then, can we talk about the black community and what we need to do about crimes that take place there."-Son of Baldwin