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In case you missed it, a judge in New Jersey emphasized the “goodness” of an accused rapist’s family. The judge even chastised the prosecutors, saying they should have explained to the victim and her family that they were ruining an excellent (great SATs!) young man’s prospects in life.
This is outrageous, but let’s be clear. This judge wasn’t breaking social norms in his attempt to excuse away this crime. He was just doing what the majority of judges and juries in this country do. He was perpetuating racial sentencing disparities in the United States. This isn’t a flaw in the system. It IS the system.
That is, the judge’s offense wasn’t enforcing white racial solidarity. His mistake was simply telling the truth about what he was doing.
The judge wasn’t making a sentencing mistake. This was a communications error. Other than that, the judge was just doing his job.
African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, and they are more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences. African-American adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated than whites and Hispanics are 3.1 times as likely.4) As of 2001, one of every three black boys born in that year could expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as could one of every six Latinos — compared to one of every seventeen white boys.
In a way, this judge was more helpful than most. It’s only when we (I mean us white people — minorities in this country already get it) confront the ugliness of our present as well as our past that we’ll be able to start to move beyond it.
I think it’s important that we understand all the brutal, all the ugly details, because those are the things that give rise to what might actually allow us to one day claim something really beautiful.” — Bryan Stevenson