Systemic Racism is non-existent.

"If you look at the definition of systematic, It says: done or acting according to a fixed plan or system; methodical. " "The action of the people that cause that discrepancy is not according to any U. S. Law system that exists, So it could not be defined as systematic. " My opponent is not looking at the ending of the definition: methodical. Now, I don"t want to get lost in definitions, But When I read this debate, Before accepting, Since no definitions were given by my opponent, My interpretation of the word "systematic" was a regular occurrence, Something that happens very often as if it was part of a system. The definition of methodical is as Merriam Webster defines it "arranged, Characterized by, Or performed with method or order. " In fact, The synonyms Merriam Webster gives are: "neat, Orderly, Organized, Regular, Systematic, Systematized. " Notice the word regular? Well, That was my interpretation of the word "systematic". My opponent was interesting in a direct link to the claims made by the NAACP. Here they are: https://www. Politifact. Com/rhode-island/statements/2014/mar/16/naacp/new-england-naacp-says-african-americans-us-are-ar/ https://www. Naacp. Org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/ "But the laws don't call for racism, Therefore there is no way to define it as systematic. Just people in the system who COULD be racist. Again, Those numbers don't necessarily tell us who is racist, Or how many people are racist. " Once again, If one interprets the word systematic as regular, One can clearly that the US justice system is systematically incarcerating African Americans at higher rates than white Americans. Also, Knowing the specific amount of people racist in the US legal/justice system wouldn"t be in any way helpful. If let"s say, I could tell you that 26. 84 % of US legal/justice system workers were racist, This wouldn"t solve this problem. In fact, Often, It"s not that a worker is a racist, It"s that the worker has a bias, An accidental bias, But this bias contributes or is the leading cause of the worker's racism. "The best way to combat what you're suspecting is to wait for people in the justice system to do something racist And then punish them for it. That'll happen 1 by 1 if it does, Not a big purge of justice system workers. " I have never suggested a purge of justice system workers, But this one by one approach is quite ridiculous. First of all, How often does one hear of justice system workers being fired because of racism? Not often at all, So there is no proof that time will solve this problem. Also, There is no need to "wait for people in the justice system to do something racist", As my statistics show there is already racism happening in the justice system. Police are part of the justice system and if you want, Let me talk about racist police and I promise I will offer a solution at the end. According to the Huffington Post: "The police stop blacks and Latinos at rates that are much higher than whites. In New York City, Where people of color make up about half of the population, 80% of the NYPD stops were of blacks and Latinos. When whites were stopped, Only 8% were frisked. When blacks and Latinos are stopped 85% were frisked according to information provided by the NYPD. The same is true most other places as well. In a California study, The ACLU found blacks are three times more likely to be stopped than whites. " As my opponent stated, African American commit more crimes, But even the statistics that the opponent provided didn"t show that Latinos and African Americans committed 80% of crimes. Do these statistics show that some police officers are racist? Absolutely. A good question is what do we do now, That we know, That there are racist cops. Do we just wait and hope that all racist cops are convicted of racism before they commit a heinous crime? That would be ridiculous. What solution do I propose? https://www. Huffingtonpost. Com/bill-quigley/fourteen-examples-of-raci_b_658947. Html Dr. Phillip Goff is a professor at the University of California Los Angeles. He runs a center that studies the police, The Center for Policing Equity. The Daily Show did a great interview with him. I suggest the Instigator watches it: https://www. Youtube. Com/watch? V=3QIWolLM9i8&t=198s The interview starts at 2:48. It backs up my claim about the cause of worker"s racism being bias. What Dr. Goff suggests and also organizes are classes that try to make police officers less biased, So that the statistics that the Huffington Post showed become much lower. My opponent keeps bringing up a point, A point that I forgot to talk about in my previous argument. The point is that since African Americans commit more crimes than White Americans, Therefore there are more African Americans incarcerated than White Americans. This is an indisputable fact, But all the statistics that I provided don"t talk about how many African Americans are incarcerated. They all talk about how when African Americans are caught doing something illegal, Their punishments are much harsher than if a White American is caught doing that same illegal activity. Let me even give an example. Imagine there are two people, One is an African American, Joe, And the other is a White American, Bob. Both Joe and Bob do drugs and one day both of them are caught. The chances of Joe going to prison are much higher, 6 times higher to be precise, Than Bob"s chances, Even though they committed the same crime, Joe may go to prison for 6 years and Bob will only go for a year. This is a gross violation of the Constitution that in the 14th amendment guarantees equal protection of the laws, Meaning that everyone has to be treated the same under the law no matter their gender, Race, Income etc. I would also like to make a distinction. I gave two statistics on drugs. One stated that "African-Americans continue to be arrested at nearly three and one-half times the rate of whites on marijuana charges. " and the other stated that "The imprisonment rate of African Americans for drug charges is almost 6 times that of whites. " One is about drugs and the other is about marijuana specifically. " These statistics are supported by the Human Rights Watch. https://www. Hrw. Org/sites/default/files/reports/us0309web_1. Pdf Does the Instigator want more examples of racism in the justice system? Let"s talk about a person after he/she is arrested. The New York state division of criminal justice did a 1995 review on disparities in processing felony arrests and found that in some parts of New York African Americans are 33% more likely to be detained awaiting felony trials than whites facing felony trials. Racist? You tell me. (Huffington Post Article) More? As the same Huffington Post article states: "African Americans are frequently illegally excluded from criminal jury service. According to a June 2010 study released by the Equal Justice Initiative. For example in Houston County, Alabama, 8 out of 10 African Americans qualified for jury service have been struck by prosecutors from serving on death penalty cases. " This is also racist and juries are part of the US justice/legal system. In fact, As I have said earlier African Americans get harsher sentences. My opponent correctly pointed out that I gave statistics only about drugs. Well, The "U. S. Sentencing Commission reported in March 2010 that in the federal system black offenders receive sentences that are 10% longer than white offenders for the same crimes. Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project reports African Americans are 21% more likely to receive mandatory minimum sentences than white defendants. " Does this sound racist? I would argue it is. (Huffington Post Article) A different report by the Sentencing Report found that U32; of all people serving a life sentence are non-whites. It"s 82% in New York, Even though African Americans don"t commit U32; of the crimes in the US again as my opponent stated in the second round. Also, As my opponent stated, African Americans commit the most crimes and the majority of the prison population consists of African Americans, Therefore African Americans are the majority of the non-whites that are serving life sentences. (Huffington Post Article) My opponent stated "With disparities between blacks and whites in prison dropping, The best thing we could do is let them drop as they're intended to. " without providing a single shred of evidence. Personally, While looking into this area, I couldn"t find a single statistic that could prove this. In conclusion, The US justice/legal system doesn"t have a planned or organized racist scheme nor are the laws of the US racist, But the many statistics provided in this round by the Contender clearly show that in some way or another (usually through the police and judges and juries as the statistics show) the US justice/legal system ends up having African Americans being stopped more often than whites for no good reason, Being sentences harsher than whites, And not being able to participate in juries especially when the verdict is about the death penalty. The solution that I offer is mandatory classes for all workers, Free of charge, Organized by specialists like Dr. Goff to remove biases and other causes to this blatant racism in the US legal/justice system.