I'm glad you acknowledge this group of people. And these groups exists in all racial category, i.e., those who are thankful for what they have here in America.
However, just as there are the Panthers, there were groups called the Aryan Nation, Neo Nazi, Skin Heads, and the KKK. These folks weren't exactly thankful of what they had either. Only difference, is that the system opposed them first until they no longer exist or exist in the very fringe of society. The Black Panthers, while they may still exist, or get away with things that white fringe groups would have difficulty getting away with, have much less influence than they did in he past. In the 60's, the Black Panthers were very prominent, as well as the Nation of Islam. Today, they either don't exist or are not influential in a significant way.
We need to keep in mind, most African Americans go to church on Sundays, are thankful to be Americans, and contribute to the law and order that exists here.
Despite what may seem unfair at times, i.e., as in the case of Zimmerman, African American males have suffered injustice in the US as well. And I am not talking about a century ago. In the last few decades, several hundred men from the prison system have been released via DNA evidence. Most of them, you guessed it, are African Amercan.
So, while I do not agree with the treatment Zimmerman is getting, my overall point is, it is not as one sided as most people think.
Ocassionally, when an African American male is shot by police or someone in authority, it makes front page news. However, MOST DO NOT. This one situation, happens to make front page news. There was even a situation, in a Southern State at a defense plant, where a white gunman went on a rampage (the 90's, there abouts) and deliberately targeted black coworkers. Saying they were uppity. And, because the black workers did not press it in the aftermath, it simply didn't receive as much attention as this Zimmerman case.
And the hundreds of thousands still behind bars are, you guessed it, blacks.......
I'm sure you were about to post the statistics of how disproportionate the numbers of blacks involved in crime and those incarcerated are compared to the white community until the buzzer rang on your clothes dryer.......weren't you?
"White Guilt" is a mental condition, not a skin condition and it can only be cured by one willing to open their eyes to facts.
Your information appears to be faulty.
DNA to clear 200th personConvicting an innocent person is "every prosecutor's nightmare," said Joshua Marquis, vice president of the National District Attorneys Association.
The "tiny number" of exonerations suggests that the "epidemic of bad convictions" that Scheck suggests is "fiction," said Marquis, chief prosecutor in Clatsop County, Ore. There were 1,051,000 felony convictions in state courts in 2002, up from 829,300 in 1990, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Miller, 48, was convicted of raping, robbing, assaulting and kidnapping an office worker in a Near North Side parking lot in September 1981.
Miller, who is black, was identified by two parking lot attendants, who were also black. The victim, who was white, could not identify her assailant.
Most people wouldn't call 200 "several hundred." A more thorough compilation of the numbers shows even more discrepancies with your statements.
The Innocence ProjectThere have been 289 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States.
• The first DNA exoneration took place in 1989.
Exonerations have been won in 35 states; since 2000, there have been 222 exonerations.
• 17 of the 289 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row.
• The average length of time served by exonerees is 13.5 years. The total number of years served is approximately 3,800.
• The average age of exonerees at the time of their wrongful convictions was 27.
Races of the 289 exonerees:
180 African Americans
82 Caucasians
21 Latinos
2 Asian American
4 whose race is unknown
So there have actually been 289, not several hundred, over 23 years, not the last decade, and only 180 of them were African Americans.