Every seemingly irrational law or socioeconomic convention that you may find in the US can ultimately be tied causally to the bleeding of contempt for people of color into the design process. It short circuits our logical faculties and results in policy that is as cruel as possible, limited only by the extent to which it is perceived that such policy may affect white Americans and the mandate that said policies be at least nominally race-neutral (though this is only a recent development, itself only predicated on the obvious and embarrassing effects its absence has had on our economic well-being, both internally and globally).
I understand that HN's demographic is likely to be skeptical of this, but I submit as proof the changes to these laws and conventions that happen when they begin to effect white communities. The most infamous of late is, of course, the War on Drugs and the response following the onset of the crack and opioid epidemics, respectively. Cruelty, in the name of deterrence, was 100% the name of the game, until the face of the crisis changed, and suddenly compassion was a more efficacious strategy.
Likewise, gun control is now a serious topic, where for much of the past two decades it was not, even for the left. This change is due mostly to an increased perception of susceptibility to gun violence, which was largely isolated to the black community for years.
