It's costing taxpayers billions in prison expense and welfare expense. Everyone from Jesse Jackson to President Clinton is talking about it, but nobody seems to know a solution. Murder is their leading cause of death. Experts expect black incarceration to worsen. The situation is spurring white bigotry.
Contemptuous wisecracks are more common.
The blame game is being played. Our Kanawha Valley thrived on slavery. In the 1850 census, the valley had 12,001 whites and 3,140 slaves. In the Civil War, most Kanawha whites fought for the Confederacy in a futile attempt to preserve slavery. After emancipation, most white Americans treated blacks like scum, calling them degrading names and passing hundreds of segregation laws to bar them from white schools, white neighborhoods, white restaurants, white hotels, white jobs, white theaters, white toilets, white swimming pools.