The only one who really has brought any rationality to this thread is
@IAHawk2011, so good for him. There are a whole lot of problems with these arguments above which are all based on hurt feelings, prejudice, and confirmation bias rather than facts, so let’s dig in...
1) The biggest faulty premise is looking at these statistics as reasoning in the first place. These stats about the rate of crime come from convictions. As
@IAHawk2011 noted (and you all should go back and read his posts), blacks face massive discrepancies in law enforcement and sentencing. You know another important statistic left out? Black men are also the most exonerated group. So this argument is basically “the justice system isn’t racist because look at all these black convictions in the justice system.” Any Logic 101 instructor would tell you that’s “circular reasoning” and a false premise.
2) The “Absent black father” is mostly myth. There is zero difference between the rate of involved fathers of blacks and whites when looking at their economic status. And this goes to what so many miss about these stats: These stats used by white supremacists or apologists turn out to be FAR more about poverty than skin or racial culture. So realize that black people (with notable exceptions) have been stuck in poverty at higher rates since the end of slavery. So addressing poverty, and not blame the poor for being “lazy” and “dependent”, and you begin to address this problem...
3) The famous study through Harvard that showed no link between death by police and race, also showed that blacks were subjected to more “brutality” as in police were more aggressive and physical when taking them into custody. Add this in to the rates IAHawk mentioned that show whites get away with much more from police (and our state is sadly the worst in the nation in these disparities) and it is no wonder Black America has this perception. The “lives” they talk about are quality of life and a life not likely incarcerated much longer for a similar crime than a white person, or to be more likely beaten by an officer, or pulled/over searched more, or less likely to be given a job with the same qualifications, etc.
4) To insinuate that blacks haven’t put blood, sweat, and tears into black-on-black crime like
@Hawkeye_311 is pure ignorance, and probably the worst tell of a racist. No note of the increasing amount of black prosecutors, black police, black lawmakers, black mentors, not to mention community organizers (like some like to crap on) as seen in The Interruptors documentary working nearly every day on this problem. The great irony of this is that the people who talk like this are going off an image of black portrayal in the very mainstream media they pretend to be so critical of. And to suggest THEY need to deal with it and that we as simply fellow humans need to deal with it collectively is pathetic.
To start laying blame all at the feet of the victims of these disparities, to plug our ears and not listen to our own former players, is inexcusable. Especially when our program has a proud history of black pioneers in the game (the first black college HOF member, the first TWO black linemen in the NFL, the first black athlete on the cover of SI, the first black Outland Trophy Winner, etc.) And the mere fact that the proposed “Kinnick-Slater Stadium” had to drop the “Slater” out of fear of backlash from white Iowans saddens me and says a lot about how we need to look honestly at this and our prejudices as Iowans.