Socialism No, Racial Dishonesty Yes.

A Seattle police officer is currently making waves with comments on Socialism and racial policy is the Seattle Police Department.

This is another example of how when it comes to racial issues in our society, there exists certain non-politically correct taboos that hamper honest discussion.

There exists an assumption that all ethnic groups tend to behave in the same manner.  therefore outcomes of positive or negative behavior, i.e. success or incarceration, should occur at the same rates among the ethnic group.

But when it comes to African Americans, we see many disparities.  African Americans kids receive discipline in schools and adults are incarcerated at higher rates than other groups.  There are two possibilities to explain this: 1) There is something in African American culture that condones or encourages anti-social behavior, or 2) Schools and courts are racist.

But it is taboo to suggest the former, so we can only talk about fixing the later.   The problem is, examples of racism are relatively rare, especially in a city like Seattle.  So the concept of "institutional racism" was invented.  This says that although racism is hard to see, we see the results of it, therefore it must be there in forms so subtle we can't put our finger on it.  If you dispute this, you risk being labeled a racist. Look what happened to Judge Sanders in the last election, who was branded a racism for suggesting that social-economic factors might cause African Americans to commit more crimes than other groups.

So in order to correct the outcomes, teachers and criminal justice system are given a wink and a nod to apply a looser standard when it comes to African Americans.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Socialism, but Officer Pomper does have a point.