Kareem Abdul-Jabbar points to two stories in the news recently: in Texas, the conviction of Crystal Mason and five-year sentence in prison for voter fraud was overturned.
In Georgia, Republican official Brian Pritchard, who voted illegally 9 times while on probation for felony forgery charges, was given a $5,000 fine.
"These two cases may not be exactly the same, but they are close enough to reveal a stark difference in how the legal system demonstrates systemic racism. Texas Republicans wanted to scare Black people away from voting because they tend to vote Democratic, so they went after this Black woman with all their might: Five years in prison for casting an illegal provisional ballot, not knowing what she was doing was illegal."
"Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, as well as investigative costs, and be publicly reprimanded. No threat of five years of imprisonment. …
When we see an old White man receive a finger-wagging for his crime while a younger Black woman receives five years, we know there’s something more than the pursuit of justice at work."