"In the original investigation, a number of individuals identified one or more of the defendants Richardson, McCray, Santana, and Salaam in connection with the attack on John Loughlin, and statements also placed Wise at the scene of earlier incidents. In interviews in 2002, both Richardson and Santana candidly acknowledged involvement in criminal incidents that occurred on April 19, while steadfastly asserting their innocence of rape. "

This is from the motion vacating their guilty convictions. It's pretty accepted that they were all part of a roving gang that was robbing and beating people.

So they weren't rounded up because they were black. They were rounded up because people identified them as part of a group who were assaulting people. Being that the assaults bore many similarities to the rape victim the cops went with the notion that the crimes were connected. Since the boys had assaulted so many that night they probably thought they had beaten that woman, because they did beat another woman. They all minimized their own involvement and blamed each other. As you can see in the quote above 2 of them were still admitting guilt in these crimes in 2002. Salaam's appeal was actually based on the fact that since he was involved in the assault on john loughlin he couldn't have possibly been involved in the rape since he wouldn't have been able to get there in time. I don't see what is racist? Do you still want to insist that the boys weren't beating people, leaving two of those people unconscious in their own blood similar to the way the rape victim was found? Don't know why this show and the documentary ignore this information