Criminal Justice and Racism

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A Challenge to “Race Realists”- Race Vs Biological Sex is an article written by Jonathan Perce. Throughout the article his main argument is the racist comments that are often made by certain commenters who seem too often get a free pass. The main argument presented by the author is that at times the issues that are presented on racial basis such as crime, low IQ levels and gun violence are often biased as other things such as the social economic status or ends are not often taken into account as a conclusion about the African Americans is made. His argument tries to counter Otto’s argument who links lower IQ and crime rates to the African Americans. Otto’s argument make it seem as if the whites are superior more than the African Americans which is racist. His claims including linking violence to genetics were unfounded as even the confounding variables were not clearly accounted for.

The author is able to counter Otto’s argument by trying to prove how he is misguided by his statics. For example, the author argues that while Otto acknowledges that African Americans have a certain percentage of Caucasian genes in them (20%), then how sure is he that it is the Caucasian genes that have an impact on intelligence while the 70% plus African American gene accounts for melanin and violence (Pearce, 2019). The author points out that there is no proof that the genes responsible for melanin is as well responsible for intelligence. There are factors that results in lower IQ among African Americans as compared to Caucasians such as the low socio-economic status that they are subjected to and not the genes as Otto tries to argue. The author also points out the issue of years of racism that the African Americans have had to encounter for years that Otto does not seem to recognize as he vilifies the African Americans as violent people and people with low IQ.

The author counters every claim that Otto presented with another argument to prove how the reasoning does not seem to be fair. Otto wants to make the Caucasian race to seem more superior than any other race. He does not generalize his argument but personally pose questions to Otto himself. For example, when Otto claimed that sub Saharan African had not invented anything and that Caucasian nations are very inventive and industrialized, Pearce asks the invention he himself has made. He wants to generalize the inventiveness of the black yet there are blacks who have invented things done so much for the society much of which he has not been able to. The author wants to portray that the attacker who is using race to vilify the blacks as useless individuals has not done anything useful himself despite having the genetic advantage that he seems to boast of.

Pearce also use other races, the Asians, to support his argument. Asians have often been seen to have a higher IQ than the whites yet they are not Caucasians as their genetic heritage is said to be from both the Neanderthals and Denivosians. By bringing in this aspect, he proves that if blacks are to be discriminated against because of their low IQ, so should the whites because the Asians surpass them when it comes to IQ levels (Pearce, 2019). The author continues to point out that because of the Asian higher IQ then they needed to be given special treatment over the whites including immigration passports. This counters Otto’s argument that just because people have lower IQ then they ought to be discriminated against because if that was the case then all Asians would be discriminating all the whites.

Pearce convince us by also including statistics in his arguments. He points out in arguing about IQ, it is wrong for Otto to choose IQ pertaining to race yet there are other factors such as sex, social-economic status, geographical location and just IQ by itself (Pearce, 2019). He quotes the article on Time by Catherine Traywick that points out that women often have a higher IQ than men. Going with this study then women should disregard all men opinion and see them as inferior as their IQ is lower (Traywick, 2012). Through the examples, the author is trying to argue that various spectrum would have been appropriate to use as a metric for IQ instead of choosing race. Pearce is condemning the idea that blacks should be discriminated against simply because they have lower IQ yet there are factors that have been used to defend this stance that portrays racism and white privilege.

The author uses examples that resonates with the leader to put his arguments across. He for example states how he may want to vilify people with disability or autistic people as people who do not bring anything to the society, but because of his human’s side he decides not to. He argues that at times we should let our human side out where we don’t have to make others feel awful about themselves because they are different. He adds on research to prove the inequality that exist between races that most people often do not want to acknowledge as they vilify the blacks as being too violent or having a lower IQ

I believe the author is able to present is arguments in a manner that is easy to understand and follow. He uses deductive reasoning where he navigates from the general concept of a paper to a more specific conclusion. Throughout the paper he wants to revoke claims made by Otto on African Americans on their nature of violence, high crime rate and low IQ among them. In doing so, he first identifies the argument Otto’s makes and then proceed to carefully refute the statement with a clearly outlined full response. He counters the arguments with facts on why the arguments are unbiased and as he concludes he wraps it up by portraying how if the reasoning used by Otto was to apply, then a lot of things would be different including the idea of who is more superior. He supports his arguments with proof and scientific research that has been done before.

Pearce incorporates other sources into his paper in order to give his paper validity. The other material incorporated helps one have an idea on the disparities that exist between the races especially in the social-economic status which ten d to explain the high crime rate as well as low IQ. In a research study by Costello and Angold, the African American children were likely to live in poverty as compared to the Caucasians or the American Indians (Akee, 2010). This supports the argument the author brings on how the Socio-Economic Status played a big role in explaining the high crime rates and low IQ. The article on Washington Post shows the huge arrest made on black kid’s vis-a-vis the white kids on ground of marijuana possession. The post portrays how more often the African Americans are targeted for arrest such as possession of marijuana and then sentenced to longer sentences than the whites (Matthews, 2019). This supports the argument that most often the system seems to favor the white as compared to the black children.

The objective that relate to this paper include how the criminal justice is biased and often African Americans are victims of the system. Through this paper I was able to identify the several ways which privilege, discrimination as well as social and economic disadvantages contributed to the various inequalities that are present in the criminal justice system. The paper has given me an insight into our how biased judgements and stereotypes that we have tend to affect our justice system. It portrays how white supremacy plays a role in ensuring that the blacks get judged more harshly than the whites at times for simple crimes, their only mistake being of a different race. I was able to understand origin of criminal behavior for example the high crime rate among African American was because of their economic status as most were poor.

There has often been statistics that will purport that crime rate is higher among African Americans, they are most likely to be violent and are most likely to possess firearms. These statistics have often generated a certain stereotype among individuals where we tend to believe that all African Americans are violent. It is such thinking that has contributed to the police brutality that is often encountered by African Americans especially the male. The number of African American men that have been killed by the police simply because they were mistaken to be criminals or thought to be carrying a weapon are staggering high. This has been fueled by the arguments made by Otto that are biased that begins to associate violence to genetics or wants to associate lower IQ to race. The criminal justice system often gets to award longer and harsher sentences to the black Americans as compared to the whites who may have committed the same crime. Huge criminal justice need to be done in order to ensure that racism does not have its place in administration of justice and that every person is treated equally.

References

Akee, Randall KQ, et al. “Parents’ incomes and children’s outcomes: a quasi-experiment using transfer payments from casino profits.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 2.1 (2010): 86-115.

Matthews, D. (2019, April 28). The black/white marijuana arrest gap, in nine charts. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/.

Pearce, J. M. S. (2019, October 12). A Challenge to “Race Realists” – Race vs Biological Sex. Retrieved from https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/09/22/a-challenge-to-race-realists-race-vs-biological-sex/.

Traywick, C. (2012, July 16). Why Women Finally Have Higher IQs than Men. Retrieved from http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/16/why-women-finally-have-higher-iqs-than-men/.