Racism Revealed in Justice System

* Thank you for printing Crispin Sartwell’s insightful piece about this era’s racial flash point (“Racism Disguises Itself as the Natural Order,” Commentary, April 10). In a few short words, Sartwell is able to peel back the layers obscuring reality. Statistics from the criminal justice system merely reflect an imbalanced criminal justice system. Blacks are no more criminal by nature than are whites. Our laws and the select enforcement of them have created a skewed version of reality that unfortunately most people tend to buy into. Hopefully, the message will not only get out but the misguided mandatory minimum sentencing laws will someday be repealed.

JOSHUA MANDELL

Los Angeles

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Something about Sartwell’s column strikes me as odd. First, he argues that there’s no way to assess the claim that African Americans are far more likely than others to be criminals. He may have a point; perhaps our unconscious biases cause a higher proportion of innocent blacks to be convicted and guilty whites to be acquitted.

But in the very next paragraph, he says, “If someone says that they were mugged or that their house was robbed, most white people instantly picture an African American man as the criminal.” Surely it must be much harder to assess a claim about people’s thoughts than a claim about criminality percentages; yet Sartwell states this as if it were established fact.

I think that if Sartwell wants to lecture the rest of us on our unconscious biases, he had better start looking at his own.

ADAM BENESCHAN

Mission Viejo

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Sartwell speaks the truth. Because most of the people arrested and incarcerated in this country are black is not scientific proof that most criminals are black. It is, however, empirical evidence that if a lie is told long enough it becomes indistinguishable from truth.

ELLEN BROWN

San Diego