John Edwards at the MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue:
“We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating — pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They’re all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two.”
Does that need any commentary? Are there really people in this country that would vote for this man?
The video’s not working for me. I guess I keep accessing it at peak times, but what kind of context could possibly make the quoted statement acceptable?
All I can say is….wow.
Let’s look at this from the sociological perspective concerning U.S. prisons. By 2010 there will be 1,800,000 people in prison and that Statistic is from 2005. The number has actually increased and it may now be 2,000,000 people! Most mainstream sociological statistics show that most often the people incarcerated are because of petty crimes (small thief, trashing up an area, smoking marijuana, and etc) and often they end up getting 5yrs for simply stealing a Pizza compared to a Child molester who gets 9 months! This is ridicules! Noting the cost of tax payers’ dollars, the minor deviant crimes that people get thrown into prison for, the little time real criminals receive, and finally it seems incarceration has become the only answer in America. There are many more options then simply throwing someone in jail. It is sad that America cannot see this. We need to work at treating little deviant crimes with care and take into consideration we all do stupid stuff and not simply put the kid, which they often are in minor deviant acts ranging from 13-16, and be careful not to put them even on any recorded of crime. It can mark them for life. While I have a lost more to say about that subject I will not go off track here.
I would post the website of this information but all I have is the written information at the moment. If you’re interested look up Harrison and Beck 2005 Table on the explosion in the number of U.S. prisoners.
In fact, overall crime has decreased instead of increased. The only real major increase is in drug busts but that is because of several factors including illegal immigrants and such.
More on crime facts: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.htm#Crime
Inmates in U.S. State Prisons (2003)
46.3% - African American
35.8% - White
16.1% - Latino
0.8% - Native American
1.0% - Asian American
I am not defending Edwards but ignoring this growing problem will not help and in one part he is correct. I have a lot more information but I think you get the idea.
Kyle, overcrowded prisons are another topic all together. Edwards’ answer indicates that he believes that every single young black man in the country is going to end up dead or in prison if we don’t vote for him. I’m sorry, but I don’t think that there is any legitimate scenario out there where all young black men are going to eventually get killed or end up in prison. That strikes me as inherently racist and is an incredibly stupid thing to say.
Did you see the entire video? I understand that part shown was a stupid answer but that was not the entire topic and I don’t like defending socialist dems but I refuse to not look at the entire subject of the matter no matter if he or she makes stupid arguments. Overcrowded prisons is not even the main issue either. Never mind…
Unfortunately I am unable to load the video for some reason. Anyway, I don’t care what the subject matter is, the quoted statement made by Edwards is uncalled for. Maybe he had a good point otherwise (I doubt it, but since I can’t see the video I can’t rule it out), but it doesn’t change the racist nature of the quote. My point was simply to point out the inexcusable comment he made in the process of answering whatever question he was asked.
I agree. But my point is to think outside the box and actually think about solving the problem doubling a blow against fake people like Edwards. The republican’s don’t seem to get it either.
If you don’t mind me asking, what was the question that he was asked? I’ll keep trying to access the video, but in the meantime…
The question was: “What would you do to help kids who partake in inner city violence?”
He started off with an actual good point about incarcerations in America but then said the dumbest and most political obvious ploy by using male African-Americans something democrats use very well against the poor and minorities.
As well, there is something’s a president can do but mostly it is encouraging states to do something because it is one of the five constitutional responsibilities of a state, for the most part, not a president or any national govt for the most part. But there are obvious cases when that is not so but anyways.
Okay, I finally got to see the video. I must say, there was nothing thoughtful in his answer. Here it is. I’ve typed it all out. Nothing he said makes that racist comment acceptable or even clarifies it in the least bit.
Audience member: “What would you do to help eliminate inner city kids partake(ing?) in violence?”(sic)
John Edwards: “That’s a good question. The answer’s a little long, so bear with me, because I don’t think there’s a silver bullet for this. We start with the President of the United States saying to America, ‘We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem.’ And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating–pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They’re all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two. So I think there are a lot of things that we need to do. First, we need to have an education system that’s fair for people that live in the inner city. Because right now we have two public school systems in America. One for affluent, suburban neighborhoods, and one for the inner city and another and the same…”
“Nothing he said makes that racist comment acceptable or even clarifies it in the least bit.”
Never siad it did. Just observing past the Political jargon and trying to make a better America.
Ron Paul 08
I know you didn’t, Kyle. 
I just thought there might be more to the story from what you and Bob were saying.
It was a short video clip … wonder why the whole transacript (Q&A) wasn’t posted instead of just this sound bite? Not that I liked what Edwards said.. just seemed a tiny bit saner in context.