July 13, 2004
Jesse Jackson repeats the canard

Jesse Jackson in today's Chicago Sun-Times column "Poor can't afford GOP's higher ed"

More and more children realize that even if they merit a college education, they may not be able to afford it. That surely contributes to the fact that there are more African Americans in jail than in college
Facts are tricky things, Jesse.

I just e-mailed Jesse Jackson (his address is in the column) to ask him how he would explain the other facts that there are more than twice as many blacks in college than in prison and that the percentage of blacks in college is slightly higher than the corresponding percentage of whites .

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 13, 2004 05:54 PM
Comments

Don't hold your breath for a reply!

Posted by: Kevin P. on July 13, 2004 06:40 PM

It seems to me that it's not statistically valid comparison, anyway, because there are generally going to be a lot more people in the population of prison age at any time than there'll be of college age. There are plenty of 40 year-olds in prison, not many 40 year-olds in college. (Even I didn't stay in school that long.) Of course, men go to prison at a much higher rate than women, and that would even it out somewhat.

Posted by: John Archer on July 13, 2004 11:25 PM

Asking Jesse Jackson to justify his racism? That's like asking a pimp to justify adultery.

Posted by: Matt J Kurlander on July 14, 2004 05:31 AM

I suspect blacks are slightly over represented in college in your stats because the black population is younger than the white population. The percentage of the college-age population that's black is probably greater than 12.1 percent, while the white college-age population is less than 75.4 percent.

Posted by: Joanne Jacobs on July 14, 2004 02:10 PM

He's still sputing that the tax cut was unfair. Please, tell me who pays more in taxes those how make a whole lot of money or those that don't. it's obvious that those that make a lot pay a lot in taxes, that is the reason the tax cut affects them more, not because its unfair. i wish people would use some common sense on this tax issue.

Posted by: Brett on July 14, 2004 02:14 PM

LMFAO@Matt's comment. So true...

Posted by: Kevin P. on July 14, 2004 06:16 PM
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