“Blacks and whites live in different worlds when it comes to perceptions of the criminal justice system and the role that police play in society,” the Washington Post reports this morning, describing the results of a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. “But divisions within the white community are almost as stark, with opinions heavily shaped by partisan identification and ideology.”
Here are the two relevant questions from the poll:
23. … do you think blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment as whites in the criminal justice system or not?
24. How confident are you that the police in this country — very confident, somewhat confident, not so confident or not confident at all — (a) treat (whites) and (blacks) equally?
And here is the Post’s summary of the results:
Only 1 in 10 African Americans says blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment with whites in the criminal justice system. Only about 2 in 10 say they are confident that the police treat whites and blacks equally, whether or not they have committed a crime.
In contrast, roughly half of all white Americans say the races are treated equally in the justice system and 6 in 10 have confidence that police treat both equally.
But white Americans are hardly homogenous in their views about these issues. While 2 in 3 white Republicans say minorities and whites are treated equally in the criminal justice system, only 3 in 10 white Democrats agree with that view. Similarly, while more than 8 in 10 white Republicans say they are confident that police treat blacks and whites equally, half as many white Democrats share that opinion.
The problem here is that the pollsters and the Wash. Post reporters, Dan Balz and Scott Clement, assume that all agree on the meaning of “equal treatment” … and that “equal treatment” is, without qualification, a Good Thing. The assumption, that is, is that in an ideal world individuals of all races would be treated “equally” by the police and that all people of every race would believe they are treated “equally.”
To see that this assumption is problematic or naive or ill-informed or just plain wrong (take your choice), imagine what the results would have been if the Washington Post/ABC News pollsters had the wit or courage or whatever to ask instead:
Do you think whites and Asians receive the same treatment as blacks and other minorities receive in applying for admission to college or for college teaching positions?
Are you very confident, somewhat confident, not so confident, or not confident at all that white and Asian applicants receive the same treatment from college admissions and hiring officers as black and other minority applicants?
Do you think (a) whites and Asians should receive the same treatment as blacks and other minorities in applying to college, or (b) blacks and other minorities should receive preferential treatment?
What good does it do to ask whether the police or anyone else treats this group or that group equally with specifying what is meant by equal?
