Fascinating new book on race and criminal justice

In the media book, I show how the media focus on people of color far more than whites when it comes to crime. People of color tend to be portrayed as offenders, and white people tend to be depicted as victims as well as criminal justice personnel.

Just how bad is it? When the race of offenders is not identified, people tend to assume they are black; when the race of victims is not identified, people tend to assume they are white.

A new book--Justice in America: The Separate Realities of Blacks and Whites--shows how blacks and whites see the criminal justice system in very different ways. A recent interview with the authors by a reported with the Washington Post helps understand the significance of the work for issues including how people react so differently to national cases such as OJ Simpson and George Zimmerman.

In a nutshell, blacks are more aware of problems of the criminal justice system, are less supportive of it, more skeptical of its fairness, and why? Because of their personal experiences.

Read the stunning summary, including an exlanation of experiements that discover unconscious bias and stereotypes held by people here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/22/white-people-believe-the-justice-system-is-color-blind-black-people-really-dont/