Michael Eric Dyson, university professor, on the inequalities between blacks and whites in the U.S. criminal justice system:

There are thousands of black men who are rotting in jail cells who have done nothing to merit incarceration. And even when they get in trouble, a great number of black men go to prison for nonviolent drug offenses. Often, crippling racial profiling and suspicion of black men put them on a path to prison, while white males who commit similar offenses are arrested and convicted in far smaller numbers.

The point is not affirmative action for black thugs. The point is that white males often get second, third and fourth chances for reform -- either because they weren't suspected to begin with, or they are given far lighter sentences and far more favorable treatment -- while black males are severely punished for even relatively small infractions.

Me and My Brother and Black America

July 24, 2008, CNN