Racism in America

November 4, 2008 was a night I’ll remember the rest of my life.   The United States had elected a bi-racial President.

Foolishly, I imagined that this was the beginning of the end of racism in America. Because the President was described as “black”, even though he was half “white,” I perceived that people who were racist would be afraid to publicly acknowledge their racist attitudes. No longer would it be acceptable in American culture to be a bigot…or so I thought. The reality seems to be that there is now more blatant racism than before. Perhaps we are simply more aware of the outrageous behavior, but it is even more offensive now that the majority of American have spoken, and our candidate was, and continues to be, the “black guy.” When we see examples of racism in our police departments and law enforcement officials it is even more outrageous, and repugnant.

The Trayvon Martin case brought this type of racism to the public consciousness. The murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman represented an example of racism at it’s worst. Zimmerman’s description of Martin as a “fucking coon” was caught on tape and vividly demonstrated the attitude of the shooter.

It is interesting that Zimmerman has sued NBC over its editing of the recording of his 9-11 call from the night of the shooting, but he hasn’t sued CNN.

However as outrageous as the shooting was, the outrageous part of the case was the willingness of the Sanford police department to allow Zimmerman to walk away, even though he admitted killing an unarmed teenager out to buy Skittles for his brother.

If not for the public outcry, Zimmerman would never have been charged. In a comment left yesterday, “Becky” brought to our attention this article. The article is a long account regarding the hundreds, or perhaps thousands, or people convicted of crimes in Mississippi as a result of two corrupt “experts” who testified on a regular basis in criminal trials regarding “forensic evidence” that was not evidence at all. Instead their testimony represented totally fictitious opinions about the guilt of people arrested and charged with the crimes. While the focus of the article was the murder of Kathy Mabry, a black woman who had been known to use drugs, the article highlight the extent of the corruption that surrounded many other criminal investigations.

Having read this article, I am reminded of the Chavis Carter case that I reported on months ago. That was the case of a black man, handcuffed in the back of a police car, with his hands restrained behind his back, and who purportedly shot himself in the head.   As demonstrated in that article, the autopsy report confirmed that the trajectory of the bullet through Mr. Carter’s brain was impossible to recreate is the bullet was fired from a gun held by Mr. Carter while handcuffed behind his back. Yet in spite of bringing this to the attention of the local police, and the FBI, nothing has been done. In fact when one blogger filed a FOIA request, seeking evidence regarding the investigation by the FBI, he instead received a threatening letter from the FBI requesting his own personal information.

Racism is alive and well in America. 

1) The middle class White family earns almost 18% more then the middle class Black family.

2) About 72%, of white middle class families own their homes, while only about 46% of the middle class Black families own theirs.

3) Unemployment is for Black people is double then it is for White people.

4) Some companies hire mostly White people. An example is Microsoft. In the 2000, there were 20,000 White people working for Microsoft, and only 544 Black people.

5) Racial discrimination is a serious problem in the Judicial System. About 98% of the Judges are White.

6) Black men are 8 times more likely to be put in prison then White men.

7) 74% of death sentences are given to Black men.

8) In a study, co-authored by Jennifer Eberhardt, an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University, Americans were determined to subconsciously associated Black people with apes. Also, this study showed that many people thought violence against Black people was more acceptable then White people.

9) A Dec. 2011 study by CNN determined that:

a. Black and white Americans are still miles apart regarding their perceptions of equality or inequality among blacks and whites.

b. Racial bias was identified as a potential reason for that difference in perception.

c. When asked how much discrimination currently exists in America, 56.4% of black respondents said there was “a lot.” But only 16% of white respondents said they thought “a lot” of discrimination existed in today’s America. The majority of white respondents said there was either “some” (44.4%) or “a little” (39.5%) discrimination.

d. Many whites disbelieve the claims of Blacks that discrimination is still prevalent.

e.  As of 2007, white life expectancy at birth was 4.8 years higher than for blacks.

f.  The infant mortality rate among black women was almost two and a half times higher than for white women.

g.  The asthma rate among black children is double that of white children.

h.  More than two-thirds of black people surveyed (67%) believed that black people in general make less money than whites. But the majority of whites (59%) believed that they made about the same. According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, blacks’ median weekly earnings were as much as $500 less than the median earnings of whites between 2009 and 2011.

i.  One our of every nine black families has a close relative in prison.

j.  Even though use of illegal drugs is roughly the same along racial lines, and blacks constitute 13% of drug users, 38% of people arrested for drug offenses, and 59% of those convicted, are black.

k.   Of blacks convicted of drug crimes 71% are incarcerated, compared to 63% of whites. 

It seems that the state of Mississippi may be one of the worst offenders. The case of Kathy Mabry and the forensic frauds came from Mississippi. The warrant out for the arrest of Chavis Carter was in Mississippi. Mississippi is the state that has a church that has recently prohibited a black couple from marrying in their church.  

The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members. If this is the test, America fails miserably.

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