3 ms·

What? This makes no sense to me.

tpxl 5y ago
There is a difference between rules and laws being racist (systemic racism) and people being racist (boring old normal racism).
- breakyerself 5y ago
  This reminds me of the debate between micro evolution and macro evolution. Nobody is confused that often these disparate outcomes are the cumulative effect of the decisions of many biased decisions by people inside the systems. It's still systemic racism because the outcome of all those peoples behavior is a system that discriminates. No racist intention needs to be spelled out in any rule or law for systemic racism to exist.
nec4b 5y ago
Most of the examples were about police targeting black people disproportionately compared to other races concluding that is because of systemic racism. Is there a law that compels police officers to behave in such a way? The answer is none. Therefore it can't be systemic. The targeting comes from individual decisions by individual officers. Whether this is from prejudice or bad experience or plain racism is unknown. For that you would have to divide individuals officers into buckets by their race in see the statics for each bucket. For example do black officers also arrest disproportionate number of black people? You would need all the combinations from different buckets to get a sense of underlying reasons.
- epakai 5y ago
  What if a certain group of laws (say drug laws) was created specifically so police could target certain minorities? There isn't any particular motivation in the law to arrest more black people for marijuana use, but despite similar usage by race (2-4% difference https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/08/11/charts-of-the-week-marijuana-use-by-race/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/08/11/char...) arrests for Blacks happen at 3-6 times Whites. There's lots to suggest the war on drugs is racially motivated, but it criminalizes drug use and possession, not race (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_the_war_on_drugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_the_war_on_drugs)
  - nec4b 5y ago
    >What if a certain group of laws (say drug laws) was created specifically so police could target certain minorities? Could you point to such a law or even better cite a paragraph from such a law where you feel it targets certain minorities? How do police officers from minority background do their job?
    - breakyerself 5y ago
      Are you not aware of the sentencing disparities between crack and cocain? Also the war on drugs started under the Nixon admin was an intentional effort to target black people and anti-war activists. https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-anti-left-anti-black-war-on-drugs-2019-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-ant...
      - nec4b 5y ago
        Could you provide a link to a law that requires harsher sentencing for black people (specific paragraph would be appreciated)? Do you also have statistics on how harsh judges from different races are towards black people when sentencing?

tpxl 5y ago

There is a difference between rules and laws being racist (systemic racism) and people being racist (boring old normal racism).

breakyerself 5y ago
This reminds me of the debate between micro evolution and macro evolution. Nobody is confused that often these disparate outcomes are the cumulative effect of the decisions of many biased decisions by people inside the systems. It's still systemic racism because the outcome of all those peoples behavior is a system that discriminates. No racist intention needs to be spelled out in any rule or law for systemic racism to exist.

nec4b 5y ago

Most of the examples were about police targeting black people disproportionately compared to other races concluding that is because of systemic racism. Is there a law that compels police officers to behave in such a way? The answer is none. Therefore it can't be systemic. The targeting comes from individual decisions by individual officers. Whether this is from prejudice or bad experience or plain racism is unknown. For that you would have to divide individuals officers into buckets by their race in see the statics for each bucket. For example do black officers also arrest disproportionate number of black people? You would need all the combinations from different buckets to get a sense of underlying reasons.

epakai 5y ago
What if a certain group of laws (say drug laws) was created specifically so police could target certain minorities? There isn't any particular motivation in the law to arrest more black people for marijuana use, but despite similar usage by race (2-4% difference https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/08/11/charts-of-the-week-marijuana-use-by-race/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/08/11/char...) arrests for Blacks happen at 3-6 times Whites. There's lots to suggest the war on drugs is racially motivated, but it criminalizes drug use and possession, not race (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_the_war_on_drugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_the_war_on_drugs)
- nec4b 5y ago
  >What if a certain group of laws (say drug laws) was created specifically so police could target certain minorities? Could you point to such a law or even better cite a paragraph from such a law where you feel it targets certain minorities? How do police officers from minority background do their job?
  - breakyerself 5y ago
    Are you not aware of the sentencing disparities between crack and cocain? Also the war on drugs started under the Nixon admin was an intentional effort to target black people and anti-war activists. https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-anti-left-anti-black-war-on-drugs-2019-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-ant...
    - nec4b 5y ago
      Could you provide a link to a law that requires harsher sentencing for black people (specific paragraph would be appreciated)? Do you also have statistics on how harsh judges from different races are towards black people when sentencing?