Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sunday Globe Special: I Was Born a Poor Black Child

I know, I know, I'm such a jerk -- but t least I'm not a racist.

"Advocates address rising poverty among black children" by Krissah Thompson, Washington Post / January 23, 2011

WASHINGTON — According to the 2010 Census, black children are three times as likely to be poor as white children. Forty percent of black children are born to poor families, compared with 8 percent of white children. And a black boy born in the past decade has a 1-in-3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime.  

Need to get more bankers, Wall Street-types, and war criminals in the cells, know what I mean?

Of course, many are in there nonviolent drug crimes that carry a mandatory minimum as rapists, robbers, and murderers are let out.  Maybe we need less laws, huh?

And how odd that I never look at the color, just the crime.

“We’ve got great models, but it’s not helpful to the nation when we’re saving 2,000 kids and we’re losing hundreds of thousands,’’ said Geoffrey Canada, president of the Harlem Children’s Zone, a program that has created a web of community services in Harlem to aid impoverished children and their families....   

Aren't you guys embarrassed that Charlie Rangel is still your representative?  

And hey, the Army always needs recruits.

Michelle Alexander, a professor at Ohio State University’s college of law and author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,’’ gave a presentation about her book, in which she contends that high incarceration rates among African-Americans is tantamount to discrimination in the Jim Crow South.   

Promoting a book, huh?

The advocates face a major challenge as the federal government and state officials look to cut costs during the economic crisis....  

I thought the crisis was over. I mean, we have been told growth the last seven quarters, blah, blah, blah.

--more--"  

At least you can grow up to serve as a corporate shill.