Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Tell Them It's A Lie!


I know you have heard that there are more black men in jail and prison than in college before.


There are NOT more black men in this nation's jails and prisons than in college...not if you compare like groups. According to the American Council on Education, in 2004, there were 470,000 black men between the ages of 18 to 24 in college. That's the group against which the comparison is made with black men who are in jail and prison.


Those who make this comparison count black men of ALL ages who are incarcerated, not just those who are in the 18 to 24 college age group. If you compare black men of the same age group, you will find that there were more than twice as many black men in college in 2004, than in jails and prisons.


Have you heard that blacks are more violent than whites?


According to the FBI's annual "Crime in the United States" report, whites were approximately 69 percent of all people arrested in the country between 1996 and 2004. Blacks were roughly 29 percent of the people arrested during this time. At the end of this 9 year period, blacks were 43 percent of the 1,948,000 people in this nation's jails and prisons.


The interesting thing about this is that while whites were arrested more than blacks, blacks were convicted more often than whites. So maybe it's not the police that have the problem but the Judicial System. (duh) I wonder how many blacks Clarence Thomas has convicted?
So when you hear someone saying these things about you. Tell them it's a Lie. Ya see any freshman in college can tell you that, one can say whatever they want to say with statistics. If you're smart you'll ask questions and examine the groups to ensure that the results are using like groups.

4 comments:

Frederick Smith said...

Thanks for posting this because I hear people all the time dooming and glooming black men. I know we're a lot more successful and ambitious than what some may say about us!
fs
:-)

Arch City Expatriate said...

I agree with Frederick.

Also, thanks for posting the arrest stat. I have always known about the first stat - black males/college/jail - and somewhat about the second stat.

I've known that white people commit more crime in this country in raw numbers, but some downplay that by suggesting that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime, which gives the impression blacks commit more crime. Most people have no clue about the distinctions.

N4R said...

Thanks for sharing those stats.
I know better but most don't!

BronzeBuckaroo said...

Now I can really look certain folk straight in the eye and correct them with confidence. The general media should do its own job better when quoting statistics.