by Joseph C. Kennedy

About the author: Joseph C. Kennedy holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from Columbia University. He works in African development.

Ihave two sons. They attended public and private schools in New York and Washington, studied abroad in London, Rome, and West Africa, and graduated from a highly respected college in the Midwest of the United States. They never caused any trouble at school, at home, or in the streets. They were never on drugs, never involved in rape or carjackings. They “grew up right.” Yet both have been arrested, jailed, and criminally charged, and we have heard the words “five to ten years mandatory” and “one to five years minimum.”

My sons are black. And their experience has made clear to at least one black...