in Rhode Island.

A Brown study shows that minorities have less faith in Rhode Island's court system than do whites. The survey said that 57 percent of whites rated the courts as doing a good or excellent job, while only 42 percent of minorities felt the same way. On fairness, the ratings were 64 percent vs. 41 percent.

Unfortunately, the questionnaire was based on interviewing a mere 71 African-Americans, 59 nonwhite Hispanics and 12 Asian-Americans. This sample is so small, and its demographic accuracy so questionable, that its value is dubious.

The survey stated a truism: that minorities tend to be suspicious of organisations in which people of the dominant culture still, well, dominate.

Human Nature 101. In particular, of course, people who don't speak English very well, or at all, are apt to be confused, fearful and suspicious on entering bureaucratic structures like the courts.

This doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with the way the courts are organised. But it does suggest that courts might well need more social workers and other staffers to help explain court business to the uninitiated, more translators to cope wih the tide of immigrants -- legal and otherwise -- who tend to disproportionately show up in the court system and more public defenders.

There is also the understandable call for more minority judges. Well, things would fall apart pretty quickly if some of the current, experienced judges were summarily removed to make way for minority-group judges. But certainly the judicial-selection process, over time, should take into account the practical need for courts to look more like our changing society.

Finally, minority scepticism about the court system would tend to decline, and support in minority communities rise, if certain "victimless'' crimes, such as drug possession, in which convictions are disproportionately levied against members of minority groups, were decriminalised. Further, the perception that affluent, white-collar people with connections too often get off scot-free while poor people without those links (who are disproportionately members of minority groups) get sent to jail is not without foundation. Much of the problem of court credibility has to do with class, not ethnicity.