Very revealing post from another board I frequent.

[tblue]

31. 2 teen boys, one white, one black

were acting like fools, racing each other on the freeway, and got pulled over and ticketed for going over 90 mph. They had to go to court, separately, but saw the same judge. White kid had his license suspended for 3 months. Black kid had his suspended for 6 months.

Parents of both teens (all are good friends) complained about the disparity. So the judge cut the black kid's suspension to 3 months, same as the white kid's. What struck me was that the judge gave no justification whatsoever for the disparity in their original sentencing. Didn't even try to defend it as based something other than race.

I know these families. Have known all of them for a long time. The white family is very progressive and the mom is very outspoken. The black kid, actually his mom is white, but you can't really tell looking at him. I just wonder if these parents looked like Trayvon's if the judge would have given them the time of day.

The judge probably tells himself he's not a racist. It wasn't overt racism to him, what he did. But it was just as natural for him as saying this is up and this is down. Clearly what he did was indisputably racist but he did it without even processing it, without even thinking about it. And I think that's even worse. That's how deeply ingrained race bias is in our judicial system. It's as natural as the sun coming up in the morning.