Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man

by Emmanuel Acho

Well, check out some of the statistics from the report An Unjust Burden: The Disparate Treatment of Black Americans in the Criminal Justice System: Black men comprise about 13 percent of the U.S. male population, but nearly 35 percent of all men who are under state or federal jurisdiction with a sentence of more than one year. One in three black men born in 2001 can expect to be incarcerated in his lifetime, compared to 1 in 6 Latino men and 1 in 17 white men. Black people are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate 5.1 times greater than that of white people. One in 18 black women born in 2001 will be incarcerated sometime in her life, compared to 1 in 45 Latina women and 1 in 111 white women. Forty-four percent of incarcerated women are black, although black women make up about 13 percent of the female U.S. population.