I think the claim is fair enough. (The professor might be talking about correlation rather than a causation though)

It is tough growing up in a poor and crime ridden inner city neighborhood with bad schools and only one parent, who has to work two jobs. It's not an excuse for becoming a criminal though.

Here's another quote from the article:
[quote]The circumstances that far too many African-Americans face - the lack of paternal support and discipline; the requirement that single mothers work regardless of the effect on their children's care; the hypocritical refusal of conservative politicians to put their money where their mouths are on family values; the recourse by male youths to gangs as parental substitutes; the ghetto-fabulous culture of the streets; the lack of skills among black men for the jobs and pay they want; the hypersegregation of blacks into impoverished inner-city neighborhoods - all interact perversely with the prison system that simply makes hardened criminals of nonviolent drug offenders and spits out angry men who are unemployable, unreformable and unmarriageable, closing the vicious circle.[/quote]

Excuse for failing to reduce crime among "black communities."

Nobody is born a criminal. So how come so many black Americans become criminals, when growing up?

America is supposed to be the land of opportunity for everybody, no matter what skin color you have. Every kid should be able to pursue happiness etc.

Sure, there is plenty of discrimination in Germany, which certainly is not the land of opportunity.

A few months ago I have read some thesis about the German welfare state keeping people without job prospects out of trouble, while America does not help them much and therefore has to put them behind bars. I don't know how the exact thesis went. It was a very generalizing statement anyway.

Since many conservative Americans criticize the German welfare state as a waste of money, it might be useful to point out how expensive the US prison system is...