Humanists do not believe in sin. We acknowledge power relations and understand that many people will abuse their power for various reasons. We believe that human-centered action must be coupled with human-centered thought in confronting the problem. Rather than law and order, we are concerned with challenging the powers that be.
In his excellent book, The Ethnic Myth, scholar Stephen Steinberg demonstrated that throughout history, poor and working-class Whites in the U.S. often kicked their best interests to the curb if it meant maintaining their status above Black people. Indeed, White supremacy is largely about identity and psychology. Some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters are poor, White, uneducated paranoid conspiracy theorists. They believe that making America great again largely means bringing a White man back to the White House. (Even a White billionaire.)
Richard Pryor used to joke about the fact that Blacks were disproportionately represented in the U.S. criminal justice system. He once remarked, “You talk about goin’ down there lookin’ for justice, that’s just what you find, just us.”
Sadly, not much has changed since Pryor expressed such sentiments in the 1970s. Indeed, the October 9, 2013 issue of the African American weekly newspaper, The Challenger of Buffalo, carried a story with the headline, “1 in 3 Black Males Will Go To Prison in Their Lifetime, Report Warns.”
