[Magdalen] Yet another case of race abuse?

[Sibyl Smirl]

On 10/1/15 8:50 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford wrote:
> The number of Blacks in prison is far and away greater than their actual
> behavior.  It's a matter of give the white boy a pass and when the Black
> kid comes before the bar, throw the damn key away.
>
> When I taught in prison, it was like it was a Black prison.  I could be the
> only white face in sight, excepting, of course all the white guards (they
> hate being called guards.  They prefer to be called correction officers.)

That's odd.  The people who go to jail from here are almost all white, 
or maybe Latino.  We're doing race in this thread, so I should mention 
that the "whites" here are frequently part Indian, but they usually 
don't _look_ Indian at all, unlike the Latinos.  I see the pictures in 
the papers.  They go for everything from drugs (meth, usually, around 
here, lots of kitchens, though we have some grass kicking around too), 
burglary, drunk driving with resulting death, domestic violence, on up 
to murder.  We do get some nasty stuff happening, like the boy who went 
to prison last summer (white).  He got badly beaten up at a beer party, 
by a somewhat older young man, went home and got his gun, went back to 
the party, and shot him.  The picture in the paper at the kid's arrest 
(I think he's 19-20) showed the battered condition of his face from the 
beating.  I got the impression from the newspaper stories that it was 
one of those post-adolescent macho pride things.  Admittedly, we don't 
have a high proportion of black people, but not one of my friend Joyce's 
dozen or so kids (black) have ever been in prison (that I know of).  I 
don't know a black person in this county (of course, I don't know 
everyone in the county) who has been in jail.


-- 
Sibyl Smirl
I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net