Nicholas Kristof (New York Times) quotes Bryan Stevenson: “We have a system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.” That’s what the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow’s Moral Monday Rally is all about. It is Monday, October 27, noon to 2 p.m. on the steps of the New Jersey State House in Trenton. Parking is available at the state house or the Trenton Wyndham Hotel (follow the signs from Route 1 to the hotel). Purpose:
END the criminalization of our youth
REMOVE barriers to re-entry
REDUCE the prison population, END torture and abuse
INVEST in the social safety net (schools, housing, jobs)
Kristof says (do you see yourself here?) The “greatest problem is not with flat-out white racists, but rather with the far larger number of Americans who believe intellectually in racial equality but are quietly oblivious to injustice around them. Too many whites unquestioningly accept a system that disproportionately punishes blacks and that gives public schools serving disadvantaged children many fewer resources than those serving affluent children. We are not racists, but we accept a system that acts in racist ways.”