What's Race Got to Do with It? by Larry Elder

Author:Larry Elder
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312541477
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

It turned out that more speeders were black than white, justifying why cops pulled over black motorists so often.

Virtually no media coverage of a white victim allegedly raped by blacks, or the beating of white victims by black perpetrators. But it’s stop-the-presses time when the victim is black or Hispanic, especially if the “perpetrator” is a white cop.

Many blacks cite Driving While Black (DWB) as a prime example of racism in America. But, again, the facts get in the way.

Numerous complaints of DWB were filed by blacks driving on the New Jersey Turnpike. So the state entered into a consent decree, agreed to federal monitoring, and put their officers through “sensitivity training,” among other things. New Jersey commissioned a study, checking motorists’ speed with laser guns and photographing drivers of vehicles going fifteen miles per hour or more over the speed limit.91

The result?

It turned out that more speeders were black than white, justifying why cops pulled over black motorists so often. The U.S. Justice Department, which requested the study, did not want the results released to the public. Instead, they accused the researchers of using a “flawed methodology.”92 Why shelve a report that disproves racism? Isn’t it good news that Jersey Troopers do not willy-nilly pull blacks over? Would this not improve race relations in New Jersey? No, the facts did not fit the script.

The next year, state police “stop data” showed that, on the southern part of the turnpike, 30 percent of the drivers pulled over were minority—almost twice the 16 percent rate of minority stops elsewhere on the turnpike.93 So, amid new allegations that cops were targeting minorities, and to correct the “flawed methodology” of the previous researchers, New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey commissioned another study.94 The result? Again, it turned out a disproportionately higher percentage of drivers on that stretch of highway were black, and that blacks were more likely to drive eighty miles per hour or faster.95 Again, less than a day after this report was released, critics were complaining its methodology was “flawed.”96

So when you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger. And if you don’t like the study, blame the data.

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