Put that in your tourism brochure.
A dubious new study has shown that California is only the eighth worst place to be black in the U.S. The study was conducted by the not-so-authoritative Black Agenda Reportusing incarceration data supplied by states. The BAR also used data from the web site of the Sentencing Project, an organization which promotes reforms in sentencing law and practice. Pointing out that the population of black prisoners has increased against a backdrop of crime reduction, the Agenda writes "…if you want to know where black families fare the worst…you don't need an online survey…You count the black prisoners, and the ruined communities they come from and are discharged into." California's numbers? Three percent of our black residents are in prison. Almost five black dudes sit in jail for every one white due. Trailing behind us is Oregon and Kentucky, and at the worst offender is white-bread Wisconsin. The study also says, "Texas and California, the nation's two most populous states each account for more than a tenth of the nation's 2.2 million prisoners." Go, California!