In Black and White...

According to the NYT, A rash of recent studies have demonstrated again what most of us already know: "Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics,and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups."



Why? "First, the high rate of incarceration and attendant flood of former offenders into neighborhoods have become major impediments. Men with criminal records tend to be shunned by employers, and young blacks with clean records suffer by association, studies have found."

Add this to what we know about policing strategies and arrest patterns and I think some people could be excused for seeing in these tea leaves a vast (maybe even right wing) conspiracy.