The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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In summary both races felt that racial discrimination was getting worse and that
blacks lacked the opportunities that are generally available to whites. Most often youths
believed that a white would get hired before a black. In light of these views, it is
surprising that the majority of the black youth and white youth have positive outlooks
about their future. Both groups also felt that they could trust some people regardless of
their race.
View of Police
Treatment
Tables 3 and 4 contain the results from the self—reports. Eighty percent of whites
felt they were treated fairly sometimes/most of the time by the police, while 69 percent of
the blacks responded this way. The interviews also reflect the same results indicating that
a majority of youths from both races in Black Hawk County believe that on an individual
level police are fair.
A black male felt this way, “Yeah, cause you know it wasn’t a big thing about it,
like they didn’t try and embarrass or none of that. They just picked me up told me my
charges and that was it.” Another black female admitted that she needed to be arrested to
become aware of her actions. “Yeah. I think they should have arrested me because that’s
making me think more better. That’s why I keep saying I wanna get myself out the
system, where I should quit doing that.” A white male also felt that because he did
something wrong, he should accept the