I must say, this was a great personal piece, and it tied together the two topics dominating everyone’s Facebooks right now really well. However, I must say, in your response to a racist user, you lost A LOT of “points” in an attempt to comfort those who have been afforded a bit too much already (i.e., white racists).

Black people do NOT commit MORE crimes than white people. It simply is not true. What is true, however, is that communities with higher black populations certainly are more heavily patrolled, and, therefore, black people are caught more often. Black people are stopped and frisked more often due to the explicit instructions officers are given to stop minority men of a certain age. Black people are, quite unfortunately, lied on and blamed more often for the crimes of white people. Black people are given no leniency and are not afforded the benefit of the doubt that each of us deserves.

This is not opinion. It is fact that even in pre-schools, black children are suspended at an alarmingly higher rate than white children for the same childish behavior white children (ALL children) exhibit. We’ve seen this. Dylan Roof was given Burger King on his way to the station after killing 9 black people in the Charleston shooting. Brock Turner, the swimmer rapist, was given leniency (3 mo. for rape) because the judge saw a poor boy with a future in his blue eyes.

So charts and statistics about who is jailed more often are not truly representative of racial behavior, and it is irresponsible to rely on those stats in a truly broken system.

Otherwise, great post. Truly. Don’t give in to the silly anti-black rhetoric so easily.