Exponentially better | Walk left, stand right | Bon vivant | Flaneur | Tweets are my opinions

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Twitter conversation about the some of the history behind some crime statistics


Do you hear versions of this question a lot?




It drives me nuts. So, I began to answer the question.








Then this was volleyed at me:




To which I replied:



For good measure, here's a third:  http://www.shmoop.com/early-american-immigration/race.html







The extension of slavery through the prison complex has disproportionately targeted black communities. And, as each wave of non-English white people came to North America, they experienced exclusion (similar circumstances that the Irish faced were also experienced by Germans, Italians and others). These groups had to "earn their whiteness" and then formed, whether directly or incidentally, a bulwark against black mobility and uplift.

So, yes the statistics may be disproportionate, but there is a well-documented history of systemic oppression that targeted black communities and disconnected them from progress and mobility, and this history is part of why black communities are where they are, and aren't, today. 


Any discussion of the modern state of the black community that fails, or refuses, to recognize the degree to which this history not only limited black progress but continues to limit black progress, is disingenuous and likely to be dismissed altogether.


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List of Works

McDonald, Art. PhD. How the Irish Became White. University of Pittsburgh.
McKenna, Patrick. (Februray 12, 2013).  "When the Irish Became White." The Irish Times.
Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Race in Early American Immigration.
Williams, Paige. (November 17, 2014).  "Double Jeopardy." The New Yorker.











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