In beating the hate crimes drum, Gore offers symbolism to black voters. He isn't offering real protection against a far more dangerous destroyer of black lives, the war on drugs. That's where the body count is high. Blacks make up 62.7 percent of all drug offenders sent to state prison, the report found. That's 13.4 times the rate at which white men are imprisoned for drugs.
Some drug offenders serve more time than murderers and rapists.
Black youths charged with drug offenses are 48 times more likely to be sentenced to juvenile prison than whites charged with similar offenses, according to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Federal law discriminates against sellers of crack cocaine, who tend to be black. They get five years for five grams of crack cocaine, while powder cocaine dealers, more likely to be white, must be caught with 500 grams to get the same penalty. Both Gore and Bush have questioned whether the disparity is justified. But neither has made it an issue, or come up with a proposal to change the law.