Black people in prison/death row

[isoFlux]

You do not choose to live a life of crime, poverty, and inadequate education. Period. I did not choose to grow up in Torrance. Friends of mine did not choose to grow up in Compton, the City of Industry, or Salinas. It\'s not quite a caste system, but in many cases resembles one.

One of it\'s many forms is the \"downward spiral\" effect. A poor neighborhood has poor schools (due to low-value housing producing limited property taxes, the main income for the US public school system), and therefore produces inadequatly prepared graduates. It is less likely for a poorly educated person to get a high-paying job or enter a university. The low-income graduates that do make it into a university or higher-paying job do so outside of their low-income birthplace (because the high-income jobs are elsewhere). The low-income communities stay low-income and the quality of education and social programs never increases, never giving inhabitants of those communities the chance to improve.

\"So why not move?\" Its expensive to move to begin with. On top of that, move to where? Another low-income community? Most likely they won\'t have the education, skills, or reputation to secure a high-income job and pay to live in a high-income area (actually, most teachers in high-income areas rarely live in those areas: they do not make living wage for the communities they teach in.)

As much as we deny it, or try to prevent it, there are social strata that limit upward mobility, especially of low-income workers and families. It is possible to move up, but there are many road-blocks that hinder people \"breaking away\" from the social echelon of their families and moving upward.

And since black people form a huge chunk of low-income workers and families, we see a disproportional ammount of black people in prison, lacking education, and never \"making it big\".

The_Punisher Wrote:If you did some realty research, you would see that I am indeed correct.

Not only is this a HUGE fallacy, it\'s plain retarded. If your \"research\" proves you correct/right/whatever in EVERY way, lets see it. Cite. If you this claim about your research, back it up and give us a bibliography. It would also be nice if your sources are peer-reviewed. Regardless of whether you actually do, I will compile a list of peer-reviewed articles, journals and summaries that support my claims for every point you ask me to.

Your research doesn\'t prove your point. YOU do. Your research validates your conclusions, not the other way around.

isoFlux Wrote:Many races and cultures have been the target of descrimination and descriminatory legislation throughout US history. None of them compare to the enslavement of Africans.

I revise this statement. None of them compare, with the exception of the extermination and oppression of the Native-Americans.