Sean “Diddy” Combs would like nothing more than for Black Americans to show up outside the New York courthouse where jury selection is currently underway for his sex trafficking trial. The music mogul would probably delight in hearing chants of “No Justice, No Peace!” outside as his lawyers make the argument inside that he’s being prosecuted because he’s a rich and powerful Black man.
“Mr. Combs has been singled out because he is a powerful Black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished,” one of Diddy’s lawyers wrote in a legal filing.
Such a statement in the past might have spurred Black Americans to lock arms with the accused, as many did with O.J. Simpson during his murder trial in 1995 and even with Diddy a few years later when he was initially charged with two felonies after a nightclub shooting.
But the Cassie video, where Diddy is seen viciously brutalizing the young singer in the hallway of a hotel, has removed any doubt about his venality. And Black folks have bigger fish to fry, anyway.
Forgive Black folks if they save the chanting and the marching for the unknown and often poor Black men and women who are mistreated by the criminal justice system. Most of them won’t have a “team” of lawyers fighting on their behalf. They will be denied bail, overcharged, and tempted to take a plea to avoid an excessive prison term.
How bad is the criminal justice system’s mistreatment of Black men and women who aren’t Diddy-famous and Diddy-rich? Very, very bad.
A few years ago, The Pew Charitable Trusts teamed up with the Jail Data Initiative to examine racial disparities in jails across the country. Pew reported that, in 2022, “Black people made up 12% of the local populations but 26% of the jail populations on average across the 595 jails from the JDI sample for which race data was available for the entire year. Of these jails, in almost 71% (421), the share of the jail population that was Black was at least twice that of the locality as a whole.”
The racial disparities aren’t limited to local jails. They are just as bad or, in some instances, worse in state prisons.
In Florida, for example, the most recent figures available show that 47.5% of the state inmate population is Black, compared to a state resident population that is only about 17% Black. Put more simply, nearly half of Florida’s prison inmates are Black but not even one in five of its residents are Black.
Those disparities don’t come with a shocking, stomach-turning video of Diddy brutalizing Cassie Ventura that lights up social media and gets gums flapping. And “End Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System Now!” isn’t a chant that rolls off the tongue. But they are far more worthy of a Black protest than Diddy’s troubles.
Some jurisdictions are aware of racial disparities in the criminal justice system and are trying to make sure that Black defendants are not treated more harshly because of their race.
In Hennepin County, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis, the County Attorney’s Office issued a directive in April aimed at making sure race is considered when prosecutors make recommendations for plea deals.
“Proposed resolutions should consider the person charged as a whole person, including their racial identity and age,” the directive states. A spokesperson for the office said the directive is aimed at addressing long-standing racial disparities. “We would neglect our duty of pursuing fair and just outcomes if we pretended these didn’t exist,” the spokesperson said.
The sentencing directive has drawn the attention of Trump’s Justice Department, which recently announced that it will be launching an investigation of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Let that sink in. DOJ isn’t investigating the racial disparities; it’s investigating a directive aimed at addressing them.
Diddy, you had some hits back in the day. And you absolutely deserve a fair trial. But Black folks have much bigger fish to fry than worrying about you and your case.