Racism and the War on Drugs
While a bit late for celebrating Martin Luther King’s Birthday, though it is still Monday by my clock, here is a short article by my graduate school mate, Randy Holcombe, of Florida State.
During the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, some thoughtful observers noted that African Americans paid a disproportionate price in casualties. Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is about how our 30+ years of a “war on drugs” has piled up far more black than white casualties in our jails, destined more black than white families to failure.
Well, our drug laws and their disproportionate effects on Black vs. White America is something we must examine more closely and more thoughtfully. Our “War on Drugs” is a war we cannot win. However, some Americans lose more in this war than others.
- MC
February 13th, 2012 at 8:39 am
Honestly, I believe the war on drugs is a failed crusade. Although I
do not support drug use in any form, trying to ban substances always
drains money and increases the rate of consumption. For example,
Prohibition in the 1920?s led to the illegal manufacture of alcohol
and drinking actually increased. It made crime big business as well.
The same thing is happening today with marijuana. The ban of marijuana
makes people smoke and it gives crime a revenue to exploit. If it was
legalized and taxed, I am positive that the crime rate and the number
of people in jail will decrease. On the issue of race, it is true that
white people do get off easier than black people. One example is with
the consumption of opiates. White people in the business world usually
use powdered cocaine and poor black people resort to crystallized
crack cocaine. The white collar workers usually get a lighter sentence
and spend time in private and safe white collar prisons. Black folks
get sent to the most disgusting places while getting a noticeably
longer sentence. The system is rigged against minorities in America
but it is true that people trap themselves with troubles such as
drugs.
jbrambila@its.nicholls.edu