White people seem to believe that more black prisoners is a sign of an effective criminal justice system, even when they have the racial inequalities of that system waved in front of their noses. Thats according to a new study out of Stanford University, that tested how increasing white peoples awareness of disproportionate incarceration rates for whites and blacks would affect their views on incarceration laws. Two experiments, one conducted in San Francisco and the other in New York City, showed white subjects a series of mug shots. Those who saw more black faces among the mug shots were less likely to sign petitions advocating prison reform. Of the joint study, Stanford researcher Rebecca Hetey concluded, Many legal advocates and social activists seem to assume that bombarding the public with images, statistics and other evidence of racial disparities will motivate people to join the cause and fight inequality. But we found that, ironically, exposure to extreme racial disparities may make the public less, and not more, responsive to attempts to lessen the severity of policies that help maintain those disparities. It seems that when it comes to racism and the prison system, honesty may not always be the best policy.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 23:23:05 +0000
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