Privilege is when you don’t have to swim against the current at every turn in this graph.

I have found myself doing a lot of listening, debating, and cogitating over the past few months on matters pertaining to grinding social problems. Time and again I have found people asserting that we have largely remediated the sins of the past and thus now there is “something else” causing residual issues. Insidious claims of “culture” abound. Instead we might infer that the poisonous remnants of “structural racism” are something like “organic racism”. I have been struggling to convey the enormity and complexity of this problem and so thought that a picture might be worth a thousand words.

To that end I dumped the following from my brain into Emacs and told Graphviz “good luck”. The above image is what it gave me. I don’t profess completeness, either nodes or connections. I merely stopped when Graphviz couldn’t take any more punishment and the general point seemed evident. I hope that the output engenders many conversations to come. I don’t imagine that “reparations” in the “direct cash payments” sense will provide a path out but neither will expecting the situation to resolve on its own. We must thoughtfully and persistently re-make the physics of our social ecosystem in a way that affords liberty and justice for all.

digraph d {
 C [label="Criminalization"]
 E [label="Entrepreneurship"]
 PR [label="Political Representation"]
 PN [label="Professional Networks"]
 CC [label="Crime Commission"]
 CP [label="Crime Profitability"]
 AR [label="Arrest Rates"]
 CR [label="Conviction Rates"]
 IR [label="Incarceration Rates"]
 FI [label="Family Integrity"]
 CA [label="Childcare Availability"]
 WA [label="Workplace Attendance"]
 JO [label="Job Opportunities"]
 IG [label="Income Generation"]
 WG [label="Wealth Generation"]
 HO [label="Housing Options"]
 PE [label="Pollution Exposure"]
 HO2 [label="Health Outcomes"]
 HCA [label="Healthcare Availability"]
 PPP [label="Privatized Prison Profitability"]
 PPLP [label="Privatized Prison Lobbying Power"]
 PC [label="Prison Capacity"]
 SA [label="Societal Attitudes"]
 JA [label="Judiciary Attitudes"]
 JA2 [label="Jury Attitudes"]
 SG [label="Sentencing Guidelines"]
 SS [label="Sentencing Severity"]
 PA [label="Police Attitudes"]
 PT [label="Police Targeting"]
 EP [label="Employment Practices"]
 PP [label="Police Projection"]
 TA [label="Transportation Availability"]
 EA [label="Education Attainment"]
 DL [label="Debt Load"]
 FA [label="Financing Availability"]
 PV [label="Personal Values"]
 PM [label="Population Migration"]
 NQ [label="Neighborhood Quality"]
 TR [label="Tax Revenues"]
 FS [label="Food Security"]
 RT [label="Risk Tolerance"]
 AE [label="Accumulated Experiences"]
 LR [label="Legal Representation"]
 MP [label="Media Portrayal"]
 C -> { CC CP }
 LR -> { CR IR }
 CP -> { CC }
 CC -> { AR NQ }
 AR -> { CR SA }
 CR -> { IR SA }
 IR -> { FI PPP JO SA }
 FI -> { CA PV EA }
 PV -> { CC EA }
 CA -> { WA JO EA }
 WA -> { JO }
 JO -> { IG CC HCA PN AE }
 AE -> { JO E }
 IG -> { WG HO TA EA DL FS FA LR HCA CA }
 FS -> { HO2 EA RT CC }
 DL -> { FA FS LR }
 TA -> { WA EA JO HCA }
 HCA -> { HO2 }
 HO2 -> { WA FI EA }
 HO -> { WG PE EA TA CC }
 PE -> { HO2 }
 WG -> { EA HO RT FS LR PR HCA }
 PR -> { FA C PA PP SG JA PE EP MP } 
 RT -> { E EA }
 EA -> { JO E PN PV AE SA }
 E -> { PN IG AE }
 PN -> { JO E AE }
 PPP -> { PPLP PC }
 PPLP -> { PR C MP }
 PC -> { IR }
 SA -> { PR PA EP PP SG JA JA2 FA PM C MP }
 MP -> { SA }
 JA2 -> { CR }
 PM -> { TR NQ }
 TR -> { EA NQ }
 NQ -> { PM TA HO }
 PA -> { PT }
 PT -> { AR }
 EP -> { JO }
 PP -> { AR }
 SG -> { SS }
 JA -> { SS }
 SS -> { IR }
 FA -> { HO TA NQ }
}