Good pick up, Crystal…and it’s too often the same here in Australia. It’s either Aboriginal man or a man of Middle Eastern appearance or other such racial identifiers, but rarely, if not never, do we read a white man. Then it’s just the generic description, a man.

Racism operates at a subliminal level in many spheres of our society, even if we have done away with manifestly discriminatory laws and practices. This is especially so in respect of our justice system.

In Australia, the statistics consistently show that Aboriginal people will be incarcerated at a higher rate than non-Aboriginal people for the same or comparable offences, or that they will receive a harsher sentence. Then these same statistics are often cited by some to rail about “Aboriginal crime”. This is not to say that there are not higher incidents of certain violent crimes in the Aboriginal community, but when it comes to violent crimes that mostly involve whites, it’s not termed “white crime”.

A Caucasian-centric paradigm still prevails today, which is demonstrable in such reports where the noun “man” is deemed to need to be qualified with an adjective if the subject is not white.

But to comment on this case...I recall a similar case in India where a teenager did something similar to this boy, video and all, and a naturalised American citizen, who was the head of an Indian Internet firm involved in the distribution of the video, faced a maximum five-year jail term under India’s laws. Condoleezza Rice intervened on his behalf, and a State Department spokesman stated ''this situation is one of concern at the highest levels of the US government."

India roiled by Internet sex case - The Boston Globe

With this boy facing the possibility of a ten-year sentence, I wonder if Condi will take the time to make a phone call to Georgia.

Tethys

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-- Harry S. Truman