The New Jim Crow

I just read a column by Leonard Pitts Jr. in our local paper, which prompted me to start writing this. At first I thought it was a column by William Raspberry, but then Wikipedia points out that William retired in 2005. So I got them confused. They are both black, and their columns sometimes show up on the opinion page.

Anyway, today's column (Google found it here) is about how the justice system is effectively persecuting blacks. The civil war was, what? 150 years ago. Since then there have been several landmark bits of legislation that have attempted to make blacks equal with whites. I suppose the last one was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I am beginning to wonder if we are fighting a loosing battle against human nature.

I like to think that I am not a racist, but then I live in an all white suburb in all white city in an all white state. I would have to go pretty far out of my way to discriminate against a black person. Now there are some things that are associated with blacks that I don't like (that whole gangsta / hip-hop thing mostly), but there are also things that are associated with whites that I don't like (opera, symphonies, art museums). Mostly I don't discriminate based on color. I mostly like people I know, and don't like people I don't know, never mind what color they are.

America is founded on certain principles, and they have served us very well. Well, most of us anyway. Some blacks have been able to succeed in our society, but apparently most haven't. Every time you turn around some one has uncovered another concerted effort to screw the black man. So I am beginning to wonder if we aren't trying to push big a rock up a hill, and the rock just doesn't want to go. Maybe it would be better if we were separated.

Then again, part of human nature is to wage war on our neighbors. The biggest sport among the South Seas Islanders was attacking neighboring tribes. Same with American Indians. Western Europeans did the same thing, but they did it on a bigger scale, and we made up some speeches full of fine words to justify it. We weren't simply slaughtering our neighbors, we were showing them the light, or the error of their ways, or more likely, eliminating heretical vermin from the earth.

So maybe we just don't have enough outlets for violence, especially for the police, who are trained in all sorts of violent techniques, but then are told never to use them unless circumstances warrant, and then they are supposed to pull these techniques out and dispense violence at a moments notice. Maybe that's why we still have laws against drugs. It provides an excuse to wage war on your neighbors. But we have a rule that lets people be excused from playing. If you aren't dealing drugs, we aren't going to bother you, but if you are, you are fair game. And if you hang with people who deal drugs, well, hey, we thought he was a dealer, that's why we shot him.