because we destroyed ourselves
November 2nd, 2010Although only about 12% of the American population is black, about half of the two-million Americans locked up in prison are black. And although only 14% of all illicit drug users are black, blacks make up over half of those in prison for drug offenses. A black man is eight-times as likely as a white man to be locked up at some point in his life. At any one time in America, almost a third of black American males in their twenties are under some form of “correctional supervision” – if not actually incarcerated, then either on probation or on parole, meaning they’ve recently passed through the American penal system.4
This means that as of 1996, a sixteen-year-old kid in America would have nearly a one-in-three chance of spending some time behind bars if he was unlucky enough to have been born black. If he happened to be born white, he’d only face a 4% chance of incarceration – a disparity that’s been steadily increasing since then. In Chicago’s home state there’re 10,000 more black prisoners than black college students, and for every two black students enrolled in college there are five elsewhere in the state either locked up or on parole.5
Our prison system has created a nearly inescapable gyre of poverty and despair, as other than race the most unifying characteristic of our prison population might be that some 50% of American prisoners are both illiterate, and have a family member who’s also been incarcerated at some point.
If anything whites use drugs at a slightly higher rate than blacks, and yet two-thirds of those imprisoned for drug possession are black, and the rate of black drug arrests is four-times the white rate. Nearly half of all drug arrests in America are for simple marijuana offenses, and during the ’90s arrests for simple marijuana possession accounted for almost 80% of the increase in drug arrests. These statistical realities should do much more than stagger you.
If you’re black – they terrify you.
Throughout history, social uprising have coincided with high levels of economic disparity. The American Revolution, the French Revolution, China’s Cultural Revolution, both of Russia’s modern revolutions, and even the ’79 Iranian Revolution all received a heavy push from economic discontent. It seems as if the poor have some unseen threshold, like they can only get so poor before they lash out violently against the system. Like the odds a social uprising will occur increases in tandem with the level of economic disparity.
And for going on two generations now, America’s level of economic disparity has been steadily rising. This ongoing financial crisis may be what finally causes it to crest over.
The precise era that saw a drug-law fueled explosion in our prison population, the early 1970s, are the exact same years that the economic situation of blacks began to starkly worsen and that the gap between rich and poor is wrenched wide open. Beginning in those years and continuing into today, “the economic status of black compared to that of whites has, on average, stagnated or deteriorated.”6
Up until 1973, the precise year the Rockefeller drug laws were passed, the difference between black and white median income had been closing. But then that year it changed course, and in “an ominous bellwether… the gap between black and white incomes started to grow wider again, in both absolute and relative terms.”7 Direct empirical research into incarceration’s economic effects weren’t done until recently, when a Pew Charitable Trusts research paper showed that prior to imprisonment two-thirds of male inmates were employed and half were their family’s primary source of income. Additionally, upon release an ex-con’s annual earnings were reduced by 40%
In the nearly forty years since America’s modern drug laws were passed, there has been a massive increase in economic inequality by any measure. In the early 1970’s not only did the income gap between black and white begin to widen again, it also becomes much more top-heavily favored to the very rich – who happen to be almost exclusively white as well.
One way to capture it is by examining what portion of America’s total income the top 1% of earners receive. The share of that top 1% has nearly doubled since 1970, and it’s now the same size as the income earned by everyone in the bottom 40% of earners combined.8
So the very few families who make up the top 1% of all earners have a combined income that matches the incomes of all the families in the bottom 40% of earners.
Looking at economic well-being another way, in terms of financial wealth or “stocks, bonds, real estate, businesses, and other financial instruments,” as of 1998 the top 1% of families controlled nearly half of that pie, with the top 20% controlling fully 93% of it. Meanwhile, the bottom 40% of families actually have negative financial wealth – their debts actually surpass their assets.9
Category: Uncategorized 9 comments »
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 am
Please post references to what the books you’re helping to sell actually refer to. I’m sure those books on amazon are good, but I’m more interested in talking to other people about some of the incredible things you’re saying and I’d like to actually be able to back up my story.
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
EXCELLENT article!
Amerikkka…fine tuning racism.
Republicans (i.e. conservatives) are not solely to blame either. Democrats, including California Democrats as well as President Obama (shame on you BO!) continue to perpetuate the problem.
Ask yourself, would George W. Bush have been elected President if he had been exposed as a cocaine user that he was? Would Clinton or Obama have been elected if they had been busted smoking grass? Likely not! They’re lives would have taken a definite turn for the worse.
What’s more, a person convicted of drug possession in the USA is currently ineligible for federal student loans while a paroled murderer or rapist is still eligible.
SICK! SICK! SICK SOCIETY!
March 16th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Yeah, I would really love to see the studies and sources of the statistics you are referencing from the books. Referencing the entire books isn’t very helpful. This was an amazing article, and I would just love to read the studies myself.
March 18th, 2011 at 11:29 am
If the majority of blacks commit a certain type of crime, you must legalize it or its a racist law! Everything that blacks want to do, however immoral, should be accepted. And that’s regardless if they they want to smoke crack or cut your throat. According to this author, criminal blacks are angels, and the ones making laws to protect society are evil.
March 18th, 2011 at 1:43 pm
good article, but when you say “a third more likely”, do you mean 3 times as likely or 1/3 more likely (which would actually be less likely)?
TtD: 133% more likely, sorry the phrasing was unclear.
March 18th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Dude, keep on kicking ass. Your writing has gotten even better from the ol’ RMMB days.
March 18th, 2011 at 8:16 pm
Hi,
I’m not racist. I’m white. I have black friends.
I would like to see some of the data you used. I think the top 1% of the income group really throws off the average data. I’m assuming a large portion of the wealthiest people are white.
It would be nice to know how things stack up when the wealthiest 5% are removed from the numbers. I think the whites would have 2x the wealth of blacks.
Still bad, but not as bad as 10x. I just find that hard to believe.
March 24th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Maybe blacks just get caught more? They fall asleep in the get away car.
March 25th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Superb job. I’m a little surprised at the questioning of the statistics, they’re pretty easy to verify via our good friend Google. Keep up the great work.