Reply #17: I mentioned Race as a Factor, but economics seems to be a larger Factor

[happyslug]

Remember more blacks are in the lowest part of the US Economy, but we also have whites in that group. Prior to the "Welfare Reforms" of the mid-1990s they were more Whites in Welfare then Blacks (Welfare Reform reversed that, given that it was easier for whites to be hired than blacks).

My point is while Race was a Factor, given the FACT that blacks, as a groups, are POORER than whites, the reason more blacks are in jail is economics than just mere race. I watch a documentary once about East St Louis and its Suburbs and how if a car with blacks went into those suburbs it was pulled over, but Whites were rarely pulled over. Was this race or economics? East St Louis was MUCH poorer than its suburbs and the Police in those suburbs justified they stopping the cars on Criminal Grounds (Through Racial profile were the key). Were the Blacks being pulled over do to Race, or the fact if you are black you are most likely to be poor? Georgia and Mississippi having the LOWEST black to white race in the 48 Continental states, sounds to me those two states may be arresting a lot of POOR WHITES in addition to Poor Blacks. Thus in the South it may be economics NOT race (i.e. The Suburban Police just do not like poor people in their neighborhood and arrest them). A further factor is that it is harder
for poor people to hire an attorney, and thus more likely to cop a plea, and this is true as to whites and it is Blacks and Hispanics (The the lower Black to White Ratio in Georgia and Mississippi).

Thus racism may be the bigger factor in the East Coast and Mid-West, it seems to be less of a Factor in the South where I suspect Economics is the bigger factor.