General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Dear White Folks - great piece in Ebony [View all]Ka hrnt
(308 posts)"As the largest racial group, whites commit the majority of crimes in America."
This of course, makes sense; more people = more crime. But the problem here isn't about the sheer number of crimes, the problem with this case was the profiling (or at least appearance thereof). And this comes down to probabilities (rates), not the sheer number of crimes.
"With respect to aggravated assault, whites led blacks 2-1 in arrests; in forcible-rape cases, whites led all racial and ethnic groups by more than 2-1. And in larceny theft, whites led blacks, again, more than 2-1. "
The author has put out a lot of numbers (which carry authority) to distract the issue. The article has gone off the rails by a lie of omission: Whites outnumber all other races by a much larger ratio than 2-1. For example, whites outnumber blacks 6-1 (72.4-12.6, using Wikipedia's numbers). Therefore whites "should" outnumber blacks by at least 6-1; other races the ratio "should" be much larger.
"What Will, Steele and O'Reilly failed to mention is the exacting truth that white Americans are just as likely to be killed by other whites. According to Justice Department statistics (pdf), 84 percent of white people killed every year are killed by other whites. "
Again...serious math abuse here. 84% of whites are killed by whites, who make up 72% of the population. Compare that to 93% of blacks being killed by blacks, who make up 12.6% of the population. The article's own source (The Department of Justice report) points out the flaw in their argument on page 11 under "Trends by Race":
"In 2008, the offending rate for blacks (24.7 offenders per 100,000) was 7 times higher than the rate for whites (3.4 offenders per 100,000)"