Originally Posted by
SheltonChoked
This is going to take a while because of how far back it goes and your lack of knowledge.
First to address your "points". The author of the study says, there is a "inherent bias against blacks by police". So your argument is with her not me. If it has nothing to do with skin color the why did she use the word "Black"? It is a race issue. That's why it's a bias.
High crime areas are poor areas. Poverty is what drives Crime. Look at the increased crime rate in Appalachia since the mining industry shut down. That region went from a very low crime area, to a high crime and drug use area. Do you think it's the inner city ghetto moving to Appalachia?
TL;DR Yes, it does. The system was made to keep blacks poor.
Do some research into how much more policing is done in Black communities that in white, How much more often Blacks are pulled over for minor traffic offenses than white. Read about the black codes, what they are, and why. Learn about the impact of economics and the crime rate. Read about redlining and how that affects the economics, schooling, and poverty rate of an area.
Let's begin.
It dates back to Slavery, and is even encoded into the 13th amendment. See the 13th has a slavery loophole. It allows for Slave labor for those in prison.
So in 1866, one year after the 13th Amendment was ratified (the amendment that ended slavery), Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor (peonage). This made the business of arresting Blacks very lucrative, which is why hundreds of White men were hired by these states as police officers. Their primary responsibility was to search out and arrest Blacks who were in violation of Black Codes. Once arrested, these men, women and children would be leased to plantations where they would harvest cotton, tobacco, sugar cane. Or they would be leased to work at coal mines, or railroad companies. The owners of these businesses would pay the state for every prisoner who worked for them; prison labor.
After the passing of the 13th Amendment, more than 800,000 Blacks were part of the system of peonage, or re-enslavement through the prison system. Peonage didn?t end until after World War II began, around 1940.
This is how it happened.
The 13th Amendment declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (Ratified in 1865)
Did you catch that? It says, ?neither slavery nor involuntary servitude could occur except as a punishment for a crime". Lawmakers used this phrase to make petty offenses crimes. When Blacks were found guilty of committing these crimes, they were imprisoned and then leased out to the same businesses that lost slaves after the passing of the 13th Amendment. This system of convict labor is called peonage.
The majority of White Southern farmers and business owners hated the 13th Amendment because it took away slave labor. As a way to appease them, the federal government turned a blind eye when southern states used this clause in the 13th Amendment to establish laws called Black Codes. Mississippi was the first state to pass Black Codes. Here are some examples of Black Codes:
In Mississippi, "An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen". This law allowed Blacks to rent land only within cities?effectively preventing them from earning money through independent farming. It required Blacks to present, each January, written proof of employment.
Whites could avoid the code's penalty by swearing a pauper's oath. In the case of blacks, however: "the duty of the sheriff of the proper county to hire out said freedman, free negro or mulatto, to any person who will, for the shortest period of service, pay said fine or forfeiture and all costs." The laws also levied a special tax on blacks (between ages 18 and 60); those who did not pay could be arrested for vagrancy. (FYI the top wage in MS for farm labor was less then $2/week)
In Louisiana, it was illegal for a Black man to preach to Black congregations without special permission in writing from the president of the police. If caught, he could be arrested and fined. If he could not pay the fines, which were unbelievably high, he would be forced to work for an individual, or go to jail or prison where he would work until his debt was paid off.
If a Black person did not have a job, he or she could be arrested and imprisoned on the charge of vagrancy or loitering.
This next Black Code will make you cringe. In South Carolina, if the parent of a Black child was considered vagrant, the judicial system allowed the police and/or other government agencies to ?apprentice? the child to an "employer". Males could be held until the age of 21, and females could be held until they were 18. Their owner had the legal right to inflict punishment on the child for disobedience, and to recapture them if they ran away.
This (peonage) is an example of systemic racism - Racism established and perpetuated by government systems. Slavery was made legal by the U.S. Government. Segregation, Black Codes, Jim Crow and peonage were all made legal by the government, and upheld by the judicial system. These acts of racism were built into the system, which is where the term ?Systemic Racism? is derived.
This is the part of "Black History" that most of us were never told about.
Remember Redlining?
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