Complimenting J. D. Vance is not something I usually do. Though it might come as a surprise to contemporary political observers, before Vance began contemplating running for Senate in Ohio, he was a paragon of good sense. As much as he tries to distance himself from his pre-politics past, he can’t escape the fact that he was once quite reasonable.
To take one example, in a 2016 piece for National Review he offered his insights into race relations. In “Why Race Relations Got Worse,” Vance highlights a study done by Harvard economist Ronald Fryer on the use of force by police.
[Fryer] found that even after controlling for crime rates and police presence in a given neighborhood, black youths were far likelier to be pushed, thrown to the ground, or harassed by police. (Notably, he also found no racial disparity in the use of lethal force.) No other study of comparable rigor exists on the subject, and its conclusion is clear: that black youth derive their fear of police from experience. The injury done to our black citizens is important and no respectable party can ignore it.
Vance was right. While the realities of policing may not be as simplistic as BLM activists describe, it’s clear that African Americans are often subjected to disparate treatment at the hands of police. Conservatives do themselves a disservice when they ignore this fact. And it’s important to keep in mind in light of the recent killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five black policemen, who were obviously not motivated by white supremacy. That’s why Republicans in Congress would be wise to revive South Carolina Republican senator Tim Scott’s ill-fated police-reform legislation that Democrats shamefully opposed. Perhaps Senator Vance can lead the charge?