Possibly the only thing worse than racism is the pseudo-intellectual way in which some seek to justify it.
For instance, consider the standard conservative response to those of us who argue the criminal justice system is the site of significant racialized unfairness.
Whether the subject is racial profiling, stop-and-frisk rates, arrest rates, rates of incarceration, or the rates at which blacks are shot by police, those on the right are quick to dismiss disparities in these areas by claiming that because rates of criminal offending are higher in black communities, disparities in law enforcement are only to be expected.
This line of reasoning has been the default position, for instance, of conservative scholar Heather MacDonald, whose book The War On Cops has been merely the latest in her years-long attempt to rationalize away any and all disparities in the justice system.
According to MacDonald — who previously made this case so as to defend the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policies, and who now uses the same logic to justify disproportionate use of force against blacks by police — if rates of arrest, incarceration, and the rates at which blacks experience police force are consistent with rates of criminal…
