Those who claim the American justice system is racist -- because, for example one-in-three black males in their 20s was in prison or on probation or parole last year -- fail to recognize the implications of the fact that the victims and perpetrators of crime are usually of the same race. Thus, any criminal-justice reform that simply eases up on black criminals will disproportionately harm the majority of law-abiding blacks.

• Less than one-fifth of all crimes against whites in 1993 were committed by blacks.

• And 80 percent of the 1.3 million violent crimes against blacks that year were committed by other blacks.

• For homicide, blacks and whites each killed victims of their own race 93 percent of the time in 1993.

The explosion of urban crime since the introduction of "crack" in the mid-1980s is well documented. And young blacks are the main victims of the drug's popularity.

• Before the introduction of crack, juvenile black males were three times as likely to be homicide victims as black females, five times as likely as white males, and nine times as likely as white females of the same age group.

• By 1991, the homicide victimization rate for black males was seven times that of black females, eight times that of white males, and 29 times that of white females.