In two decisions released Wednesday, a Wisconsin appeals court upheld a decision to try the girls in the "Slender Man" case as adults. The two girls admitted as 12-year-olds in 2014 to having stabbed their friend in order to please "Slender Man," an Internet horror meme. (The victim luckily crawled to safety and survived.) The decision to try two children as adults – two children immature and mentally ill enough to believe in the literal existence of a fictional character – may seem inappropriate, to put it mildly. But legally it's a viable one – thanks to a terrible Wisconsin law with analogues in many other states.

Youth of color experience the worst outcomes in every youth-serving system, including law enforcement, child welfare and education, the data show conclusively. This is due in part to unconscious or implicit biases that affect our understanding of individuals, based on their race and ethnicity, and cause us to alter our decision-making accordingly.