Stereotypes

* Re “White America Doesn’t Know Us,” Voices, March 18: I take umbrage at a few things in Robin Yaesha Deane’s essay. Repeating statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, she says that black males have a 29% chance of serving time in prison. Is she suggesting that the reason is that the judicial system is biased and unfair? I was under the impression that you had to break the law to go to prison; I did not realize you just ended up there by chance.

Although Deane writes beautifully on how white Americans in this country are afraid of blacks and stereotype the group as criminals, it is funny how that serves to stereotype whites, too.

KIRA RUBIN

Cypress