A Mnemonic Media Representation Of Racial Resentment and Insensitivity Kevin Pennant June 28, 2013
Originally airing in May 2010
Here is a more progressive thought. Let’s say Bill O’Reilly is a real pundit and real journalist because he looks like one, at least thats what Fox News wants us to stereotypically believe. Let me break this down to you succinctly. Statistically it is irrational
to believe that most drug dealers are black and or male. They simply could not facilitate that kind of demand for illicit drug users of whom are largely white and are college-aged. Though incarceration rates among blacks are so skewed for many to perceive it this way -an enforcement and judicial issue badly in need of reform -that fact would make this even more improbable. For a renown journalist and so-called pundit to utter such fallacious arguments is just reckless and irresponsible among other discrediting dispositions for Mr. O’Reilly. I don’t know where he gets his math from but it is quite clear that this type of reasoning is false and deluded. According to the U.S. Census Bureau the total population of the U.S. was roughly 316,123,000 in 2011. The National Survey of Drug Use and Health for 2011provided the stats of illicit users age 12 and older. I have created a table because throwing around percentages oftentimes confounds readers. While it is factual that 10% of blacks are regular illicit drug users compared to 8.7% of the white population the white population far outnumbers the black population.
Exhibit A
There are 17.6 million White illicit drug users compared to only 3.9 million Black illicit drug users and more than half of the black users are in jail. Yet business is still booming in areas where there is scantly a black population and nary a black drug dealer. So who do you think is selling most of this stuff to the overwhelming population of illicit drug users in the U.S.? What is more accurate is that there are more middle-class white youth drug dealers who seemingly operate with complete impunity and greatly outnumber black drug dealers at any given time. This is quite apparent due to the incarceration rate among blacks and whites for drug related offenses of which nearly half the prison population of the U.S. is Black for those same crimes. They are targeted with more vigor than white males and it appears white women go virtually unnoticed. References http://www.samhsa.gov/data/nsduh/2k11results/nsduhresults2011.p df (pg. 12) U.S. Census Bureau 2011 Â