Does the opportunity gap explain why certain racial minorities are arrested more often for certain crimes?
The opportunity gap is real
"We fight God when our Social System dooms the brilliant clever child of a poor man to the same level as his father", Admiral "Jacky" Fisher, Records (1919)
First what is the opportunity gap? According to statistics we can see it in the odds of becoming a millionaire. Depending on race (which we might be able to refer to as caste), the odds are dramatically different. If there is no caste system the USA, how can we explain this opportunity gap?
Statistically speaking:
- If you are Asian American you have a 22.3% chance of becoming a millionaire if you have a bachelors degree.
- If you are white American you have a 21.5% chance of becoming a millionaire if you have a bachelors degree.
- If you are hispanic American you have a 6.8% chance of becoming a millionaire if you have a bachelors degree.
- If you are black American you have a 6.4% chance of becoming a millionaire if you have a bachelors degree.
This indicates that level of education does not improve opportunities for everyone equally. Depending on what race you are there could be a greater or lesser benefit from a college education. The statistics reveal if you are hispanic or black there is very little benefit in terms of financial opportunity gains from getting a bachelors degree.
Education does benefit all racial groups but it does so unequally. It benefits white and Asian groups the most. This statistical result could reveal why so many who are not white or Asian do not pursue education as the path to financial success. It may also reveal why certain kinds of criminal activities like financial type crimes are common to certain groups. If certain racial groups feel disenfranchised and the statistics prove it by revealing a large opportunity gap then it can be predicted that some will take the wrong kind of risks in order to get ahead.
Tough on crime policies do more harm than good because it punishes risk takers who in many cases are non violent and merely broke the law trying to get rich. If the odds of becoming a millionaire represent a data point for determining the probability that you can get rich doing "the right thing" then you may see better probabilities or more favorable chances doing the "wrong thing". In general, most people who break the law trying to get rich do get caught, but most people starting a business in general fail (around like 96% fail within 10 years). So the odds of getting rich from entrepreneurship in general are very slim, as the odds of even having a successful business after 10 years is highly unlikely, and if it's an illegal business then the odds are even worse.
To this post I could add that the opportunity gap showed that some states, like Florida, have created an equitable situation offering rich and poor students equal access in general terms to high level courses, while other states, such as Kansas, Maryland and Oklahoma offer fewer opportunities in districts with poorer families.
Also reading about this, I remember the current season of How To Get Away With Murder in which Annalize questions the operation of the American system of justice, where racism is part of the system and can not be avoided or ignored.
Although fiction, fiction has the function of creating debates in society.
great post
This opportunity gap should definitely vanish.. No one should get priority because of the racial background in anyhow.. Except by his/her intellect and skills in that particular field...
I think becoming a millionaire or getting a high education does not depend on what race you are, it depends upon the person itself if he/she is motivated to achieve his goal in life. A lazy person won't succeed in life and theirs a possibility that he will commit a crime to earn a good living but a hard working person will surely be successful in life and become rich someday.
Of course you can be successful as any race but how do you explain the difference in odds between racial groups? Maybe some racial groups receive more opportunities to become millionaires than others.
@scarletsnow , "A lazy person won't succeed in life and theirs a possibility that he will commit a crime to earn a good living but a hard working person will surely be successful in life and become rich someday."
Being a hard working person rather just makes it more likely to succeed compared to being a lazy one. I would not think it makes it certain.
@dana-edwards , what if the graduates from different racial groups differ on average in their grades... Perhaps it would be interesting to to take a look at the relation between the grades and the odds of becoming a milionaire.