Since you introduced racism into the equation I'll throw up this for consideration. Presumably the decades immediately following the Civil War were incredibly racist and certainly far more racist than today. And yet, black unemployment rates did not differ significantly from white unemployment rates until 1940. Those that are aware of the history of the U.S. know this was a particularly difficult time for black people, given their freedom but very little education or marketable skills. One would think this is especially true in the South. If racism is a big factor in the hiring process surely it would have shown up back then as blatantly obvious since it was perfectly acceptable to discriminate and no laws protected black workers:
Interesting numbers, definitely would not have guessed that the gap was essentially nonexistent at that time. My first thought is to wonder how much black "employment" consisted of sharecropping. By today's standards, that would not be considered employment, and the system allowed a lot of exploitation and price manipulation by the wealthy landowners who lent their land out. If that figure indeed includes sharecropping (and I'm betting it does, as the sudden appearance of the gap around 1940 largely coincides with the end of sharecropping), then it would appear to be a largely mythical notion than whites and blacks had similar employment prospects during that time.
And yes, I know that there were also white sharecroppers. But one source puts the numbers at 36% of white farmers being sharecroppers (or tenant farmers) compared to 85% of black farmers (Wikipedia, talking about Mississippi in 1900).
---
I'm sorry about that, I did say I didn't have much time to respond and I rushed so I didn't have time to look at the links you provided, I do have some questions regarding those statistics though that have a big factor in arrests and don't get clarified.
Quite alright, I've done the same myself.
- We don't have any information on the quantity of Marijuana in possession, even though in one study they showed that Massachusetts decriminalised small amounts of possession the share of arrests went up with blacks compared to whites(suggesting atleast in that state Blacks are more likely to have larger quantities).
The report focuses on arrests for marijuana possession, not possession with intent to distribute, which is the charge usually levied when the perpetrator has large quantities.
Whites have significantly higher incomes it would be a better detailed study to compare Whites of similar income levels if we want to focus on Racism(So for example: Rich Whites vs Rich Blacks and Poor Whites vs Poor Blacks).
I'm not sure what that would have to do with it. Care to elaborate?
But as stated above the Massachusetts study gives an outlook that suggests that blacks are more likely to possess more Marijuana as when they stopped arresting people for small quantities in 2009 the Black proportion of arrests almost doubled.
Or, now that police had a little more wiggle room to decide what did and did not look like a "small quantity," they could more selectively decide when and who to arrest.
That interpretation is, of course, just as speculative as yours. But I'm just not buying it that with millions of data points proving the gap, that it all comes down to "black people carry more weed." What, in your mind, would be the mechanism behind that? Because again, if your answer is that they're more likely to be selling it, then you'd see more charges for intent to distribute.
Cities that are leading in most cases of Murder rates in the world wouldn't be what I would classify as a Safe First world country, but Each to their own I guess.
You're conflating "3rd world" with "safe." They're two different things. Compare the way of life in any modern American city to, say, much of Africa, and you'll find two very different realities. Safety is one small part of that. If you want to talk about violence issues in the US, and how they might be intertwined with race, fine. But let's leave the hyperbole at the door.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions in more depth.
