Another set of contemporary issues has to do loosely with power: addressing racism in the criminal justice system, increasing voting power and political representation, combating hate speech, and striving for recognition of language rights. On any given day, over 60 percent of the black men in the District of Columbia are enmeshed in the criminal justice system—in jail or prison, on probation or parole, or wanted on a warrant. In East Los Angeles, 50 percent of young Mexican American men suffer the same fate. Black men who murder whites are executed at a rate nearly ten times that of whites who murder blacks. And as most readers of this book will know, the number of young black men in prison or jail is larger than the number attending college.
Many progressive people seek to understand the meaning of these figures and search for ways to combat the conditions that create them. Critical race theory’s contribution has taken a number of forms. Building on the work of radical criminologists, one race crit shows that the disproportionate criminalization of African Americans is a product, in large part, of the way we define crime. Many lethal acts, such as marketing defective automobiles, alcohol, or phar- maceuticals or waging undeclared wars, are not considered crimes at all. By the same token, many things that young black and Latino men are prone to do, such as congregating on street corners, cruising in low-rider cars, or scrawling graffiti in public places, are energetically policed. Crack cocaine offenses receive harsher penalties than those that apply to powder cocaine. Figures show that white-collar crime, including embezzlement, consumer fraud, bribery, insider trading, and price fixing, causes more deaths and property loss, even on a per capita basis, than all street crime combined.
Other critical race scholars urge jury nullification to combat the disproportionate incarceration of young black men. In jury nullification, the jury, which in most large cities will contain people of color, uses its judgment, sometimes contravening instructions from the judge, on whether to convict a defendant who has committed a nonviolent offense, such as shoplifting or possession of a small amount of drugs. If the jury believes that the police system is racist or that the young man is of more use to the community free than behind bars, it will vote to acquit.
