This just in:  Racism, to me, is discrimination and/or belief against or about someone because of the color of their skin or their choice of religion/lifestyle.  That’s quite a mouthful but that’s what I get when trying to put a broadband issue into a single sentence.

Let’s simplify this issue and then see what we have.

Situation: A black man is more likely to be arrested for a crime than a white man.

Why is this?

I have 3 possible choices for you to consider…

Choice #1:  Black people are genetically predisposed to crime.

I want to state right up front that this is nonsense but…let me continue.

This option rests entirely on the idea that black people are inferior and there is nothing that can be done about it since this inferiority is at the DNA level. Their genetics give imbue them with traits that lead to crime.  These include: A predisposition to be lazy, to lie, to cheat.   They are not smart enough to make it through life abiding by the law.  Their DNA makes them take drugs at a higher rate.  They are irresponsible etc.

Genetically Predisposed says the racists are correct:  Black people are inferior because God made them that way.

Choice #2: Alien or unknown influence.

Maybe black people get arrested at a higher rate because some outside influence reached out and made them more likely to be criminal.  By “outside influence” I am relieving society of all guilt.  I’m saying, “It’s not genetics and its not society but rather some unseen and unknown force that is the cause of the black man being arrested at a higher rate than the white man.”

So, the people of Mars have reached out to their Earth experiment and said, “Let’s make black people inferior or more criminal and see what happens.”

Before I get to Choice #3, let me recap.  The black man is inferior because he is genetically created that way, or some unknowable influence is making him that way.

Choice #3:  Society

Suppose that black man is somehow held back by society.  He starts his life with a single mother that is unable to feed or clothe him.  He grows up in a neighborhood where crime is not only prevalent but an acceptable way of “getting by.”  His school is rundown and underfunded.  When he is old enough to look towards his future, he sees little hope for himself in a society that sees and treats him as an inferior.

Reason #3 says that the black man being arrested is our fault; that racism is our fault.

Someone will now stand up and say, “Hey!  That man had all the same opportunities that I had and yet I am not a criminal.  I worked hard and got an education.  He could do the same”

My response is, “You are wrong.  He did have opportunities but when you were choosing your college, he was trying to keep his younger siblings out of gangs.  While you were studying in school, he was home wondering where his next meal was going to come from.  When you moved to a nicer neighborhood, he was told that blacks were not wanted there.  When you applied for your job, you were interviewed by a white man…as was he.”

Yes, there are plenty of whites that grew up poor and made a success of their life.  This can also be said of some blacks.

But…We do not all have the same opportunities.  Life is not fair.  Some of us are smart and others, less so.  Some of us are tall and some are not.  Some are wealthy while others are poor.  Some are black and some are white.

Let’s look at it another way….A white man and a black man are going to run a 100 yard race.  They both have to run fast to win.  They both have to run the same distance.  They both had the opportunity to train and to learn how to run.   But only one of them has his shoelaces tied together.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim