October 01, 2007, 6:45 a.m. Orlando Vacation from RealityWhat Patterson got wrong. By Heather Mac Donald The high incarceration rate of black males is not “solely the result of white racism,†wrote Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson in the New York Times on Sunday. Patterson’s startling admission was occasioned by the media-saturated protests two weeks ago in Jena., Louisiana, over attempted murder charges lodged against five black students who had beaten a white student unconscious. This unusual outbreak of frankness on the pages of the New York Times might seem to signal a breakthrough in the otherwise nonexistent public debate...