Letters to the Editor: Alleging racism; Jeffress’ Hannity interview

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RE: Voices: When racism is alleged, whom do you believe?

Dear Mr. Nash:

You start with a huge error that infects the race debate, as many others, which is that you ask “Whom do you believe?”

Believe? No!

You must look at the most credible sources on both sides of the debate, you must have control of the “facts,” which means that you must fact check the “alleged” facts.

For example:

You (Nash) “believe”: “We blame poverty and violence in poor black communities on the absence of a traditional family yet shield our eyes from the fact that mass incarceration of black men in our country (for crimes that get white men mere citations) has kept fathers out of families for generations.”

You reverse reality.

Clearly, the traditional family broke down prior to mass incarceration, not because of it. As the facts confirm (fact check), the US did not begin the massive increase of prisons until after the crime rate went out of control. You reversed the reality of cause and effect.

Also, mass incarceration has affected several races/ethnicities and “has kept fathers out of families for generations.”


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Now, view this context:

Race, ethnicity and crime statistics.

For the White–Black comparisons, the Black level is 12.7 times greater than the White level for homicide, 15.6 times greater for robbery, 6.7 times greater for rape, and 4.5 times greater for aggravated assault.

For the Hispanic-White comparison, the Hispanic level is 4.0 times greater than the White level for homicide, 3.8 times greater for robbery, 2.8 times greater for rape, and 2.3 times greater for aggravated assault.

For the Hispanic–Black comparison, the Black level is 3.1 times greater than the Hispanic level for homicide, 4.1 times greater for robbery, 2.4 times greater for rape, and 1.9 times greater for aggravated assault.

“Recent studies suggest a decline in the relative Black effect on violent crime in recent decades and interpret this decline as resulting from greater upward mobility among African Americans during the past several decades.”

“However, other assessments of racial stratification in American society suggest at least as much durability as change in Black social mobility since the 1980s.”

When correcting for the Hispanic effect:

“Results suggest that little overall change has occurred in the Black share of violent offending in both UCR and NCVS estimates during the last 30 years.”

From

REASSESSING TRENDS IN BLACK VIOLENT CRIME, 1980.2008: SORTING OUT THE “HISPANIC EFFECT” IN UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS ARRESTS, NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY OFFENDER ESTIMATES, AND U.S. PRISONER COUNTS, See pages 208-209, FN 5, DARRELL STEFFENSMEIER, BEN FELDMEYER, CASEY T. HARRIS, JEFFERY T. ULMER, Criminology, Volume 49, Issue 1, Article first published online: 24 FEB 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00222.x/pdf

Now, fact check.

Dudley Sharp
Houston, Texas

 

RE: Commentary: Why pastor Robert Jeffress’ interview with Sean Hannity was so maddening to so many

Are we to put our head in the sand? We are Jesus Christ’s movers and shakers.  He empowered us with God’s Holy Spirit to be so, to point people to a saving relationship with Christ. The world is, on a rapidly increasing pace, being dominated by anti-Christ policies and leadership. We must shed the light of Jesus and be His salt to a world overcome by sin. Isolating ourselves from media, political and institutional formats would greatly diminish that salt and light. Especially when so many are fixated on television and politics. Robert Jeffress is the bold leader we need fighting against the massive tide of anti-Christ sentiment and political efforts in this country and the world.

Troy Clay
Watervliet, Mich.


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