Challenging Assumptions: Exploring Institutional Racism and Socioeconomic Factors in the Justice System

You mentioned that you don’t think there’s any institutional, institutional racism left in this country, and I think that’s a pretty strong statement that I don’t necessarily agree with. Especially in our justice system, where the United States Sentencing Commission actually contends that 19, like, black men are 19% more likely to be sentenced, um, have longer sentences for similar crimes. And that’s when every other demographic factors accounted for, like age, income, I guess, area within society. So I was wondering what you think about that, particularly because there is that imbalance, and I would regard that as, um, institutional. is the quality of their legal representation factored into the study? Um, I’m actually, I can’t speak to that cause I don’t know. It’s not. So, for example, if LeBron James committed a crime, he’d have pretty good lawyers, right? Most likely, yeah. Yeah. So maybe it’s an income and or legal quality point, not a race point, right? Here’s my. Here’s my contention. My contention is the following. There are other reasons to blame disparities other than discrimination. A lot. And one of my biggest learning moments today on campus is how almost everything gets attributed to racism or discrimination. There’s a fabulous book I encourage all of you to read. It should be required reading by black economist Thomas Sowell called discriminations and disparities. It might be the other way around. Disparities, whatever. I think it is. Discrimination, disparities. And he makes the argument there are hundreds Of other potential explanations for not just racial groups, but sub, you know, smaller than racial groups, how you go locally, linguistically, and all this. So I encourage you to look at that, and, um, you have to factor that in. I don’t think for a second. Then you wouldn’t either. That Oprah Winfrey, who has a house right down the street, if she committed a crime, that somehow she would not be able to get the best legal help. It’s not about skin color as much as it is income, which is not about race. It’s about other choices, such as, is there a father in the home? For example, if a black has a mom and a dad present, that family and that child has a higher chance of all objective facts of success, college attendance low, likely to committing crimes, than a white child that has just a single mother. You see, fatherhood transcends color lines. And what we have Learned through massive macroeconomic studies. Is that when blacks have fathers around, not only did they succeed as much, they succeed even more sometimes than white families. And that is my contention. Thank you for being here.