Do black people in America really face tougher consequences for the same crime committed by a white person?

Question

I heard about this new "political" Snoop Dog video and the lyrics having a personal meaning to Snoop Doggy Dog where according to a USA TODAY interview with him:

In an interview with Billboard, Snoop claimed that "nobody’s dealing with the real issue with this (expletive) clown as president," with his rapper peers only focused on releasing "party music."

The rapper also listed his many issues with President Trump, including the "ban that (he) tried to put up; him winning the presidency; police being able to kill ... and get away with it (and) people being in jail for weed for 20, 30 years," he said.

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Context Clarification

While the video and/or Snoop Dog's comments in the interview he expressed with respect to inequalities and correlated items of concern may not seem relevant to some people, for those that these issues affect that can relate if there's anyone that reads this that's in this category, then they will understand. So what may not make sense to some people may seem very clear to others. If you don't understand still then you just likely don't understand nor will you unless it ever impacts or affects you.

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Question

• Do black people in America really face tougher consequences for the same crime committed by a white person?

This will likely need some stats of reference if you can find them.

Answer 1

Do black people in America really face tougher consequences for the same crime committed by a white person?

The problem answering this question decisively is that it's rare to find two people that have committed a crime where "all things are equal" aside from skin color.

That said, one can answer it more broadly--at least in terms of particular crimes. One of the most common examples of what people consider discrimination in our sentencing system was the drug crime sentencing differences between powdered cocaine and crack cocaine. To put it simply, it required a person posses much more powdered cocaine to get the same criminal sentence as a person possessing much less crack cocaine.

Given that the two drugs tended to be used by rather different demographics (upper class white people tended to use powdered cocaine, lower class black people tended to use crack cocaine), it was seen as discriminatory and eventually led to the Fair Sentencing Act to lessen this discrepancy.

There are also other social and socio-economic aspects that lead to questionable differences in sentencing between white and black people. These can include racial profiling in police searches, a disparity in bail amounts, and other factors. A Slate article that covers a few of these.