Just the other day, one of my friends asked me the commonly pondered question, “Wait, so why is marijuana illegal?” Let’s not joke around, the majority of today’s population has come to the realization that marijuana is at least not as bad as the “Reefer Madness” era tried to convince us it is and that police resources should be focused on serious crime. So what exactly is the real reason for prohibition? The answer is disconcerting. Marijuana prohibition in the United States was attributed purely to racism, in particular against Mexican immigrants and the black jazz culture. Newspapers printed headlines spreading racist ideas such as, “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice." Claims that marijuana incited violence among minorities played a central role in building support for harsh drug laws within white communities.
With marijuana prohibition eventually came prohibition of other popular drugs, and institutionalized racism flourished within the criminal justice system. Cleverly hidden under the false agenda of protecting citizens from scary drugs, politicians were able to enforce what can be considered the new Jim Crow laws, the “War on Drugs“. Though we have recently elected a black President, we still have a long way to go. Today, although African Americans comprise about 13% of the population, they make up about 59% of those convicted of drug offenses. Either police are failing to report an overwhelming majority of white drug convictions, or there is a serious problem of racial profiling. I’ll go with the latter.
Not only are African Americans unfairly targeted, their treatment within the criminal justice system is shockingly unjust. The policy of mandatory minimums for crack cocaine vs. powder cocaine is absurd. Mandatory sentencing for possession of five grams of crack cocaine, which has the same active ingredient as powder cocaine but is primarily more popular in lower income communities of color, is five years. On the other hand, it would take possession of five-hundred grams of powder cocaine for such a sentence.
And as far as felonies versus second chances? I’m sure you know the answer. Most white drug users will get away with treatment or probation, while the chances of black drug users receiving a felony charge is extremely higher. Now wait, there’s no chance the fact citizens with felony charges cannot vote has anything to do with this, is there? Can’t be…
The blatant racism underlying the drug war cannot remain hidden any longer. It’s up to us to uncover the realities, spread the message, and reform the laws. Students for Sensible Drug Policy, an organization with over 140 chapters against the drug war across the world, will be hosting its 10th Anniversary International Conference at the University of Maryland from November 21-23rd. Do your part to make a change and register today to connect with hundreds of students who understand the realities and believe in sensible drug policies focused on health and reasoning instead of racism and hysteria.
Kathleen Parker, who was featured in the Washington Post yesterday, calling Obama and Edwards "girly boys", also wrote the appalling article above (alliteration!!!) apparently in defense of those who think that being a "real American" means having WHITE ancestors who arrived in the U.S. before some arbitrary date, 1800 perhaps? Seriously? She begins with a quote from a young West-Virginian who says that he dislikes Obama becasue he's not a "full blooded American". As some other bloggers out there have pointed out, Obama's grandfather fought in WWII. What about that is not American? What exactly is the qualification for being a "real American"? Is she proposing, by defending this opinion, that anyone that came to the U.S. after a certain date is a doesn't belong here?
In addition to that revelation, Ms. Parker points out that understanding America is "about blood equity, heritage and commitment to hard-won American values. And roots". I'd venture to say that the millions of people from around the world who apply for U.S. Visas every year, who have worked and saved for years to have enough money in their accounts to even apply to enter our country, understand commitment and the value of hard work. It is unacceptable to defend those who believe that the only true Americans are white people whose family came over on the Mayflower.
Ms. Parker also indicates that multiculturalism is evidently cause for concern for many "real Americans": "What they know is that their forefathers fought and died for an America that has worked pretty well for more than 200 years. What they sense is that their heritage is being swept under the carpet while multiculturalism becomes the new national narrative". I'm sorry, but I didn't realize that multiculturalism was the new damaging trend. The U.S. has always relied on "multiculturalism" for its success: it was immigrants who created some of the most important technological advances in American history. Also, our country was literally built on the backs of slaves who were stolen from Africa. Without that "free" labor, we would not have experienced the type of rapid economic growth that occurred in the 19th century. My black and white (I'm mixed) forefathers fought and died for the values of an America that still treats me like a second class citizen because I, like Obama, don't "look" American. Ms. Parker's post proves that racism is still alive and well. It is clear that even if Obama wins the presidency, we still have a lot of work to do to become united states, instead of the ones divided, along racial/social/cultural lines, that we have been for hundreds of years.
This Absolut ad. garnered a lot of attention lately and has apparently earned the ire of many Americans for its depiction of the pre-1848 borders that made what are now the states of California and Arizona as part of the Mexican nation. Read More »
I'm in a panel that asks the question, "Can blogging end racism?" Before even entering the room, I decided the answer to that question is no, but the panelists had a lot of really great advice about how to foster a dialogue about race on blogs. Of course blogging won't end racism, I thought to myself. Are we kidding? Racism is so complex blogging doesn't even scratch the surface.
But when it comes to subjects sensitive like race, Carmen Van Kerckhove (New Demographic/Racialicious) , Latoya Peterson (freelancer), and Wendy Muse (The Coup Magazine) had really great advice about how many layers to think and write about this issue. They advised against getting into the weeds of "oppression Olympics," be conscious of your own biases, and don't be afraid to be wrong and learn more once the dialogue opens up.
It was a great panel, even if I was initially put off by the title.
Thank you Jenna for this article. Excerpt from the Tim Wise article "Obama, Black Voters and the Myth of Reverse Racism ". For the entire article go to: http://www.timwise. org/ ... Simply put, there are any number of reasons why whites voting for a white candidate because of race is altogether different than blacks voting for a black candidate because of the same. For African American voters, voting for Barack Obama--a man of color who actually stands a chance of winning the Presidency--is an opportunity to participate in a major historic moment.
I don't really like Star Jones. But however little I like Star, I like Bill O'Reilly MUCH less. Read her open letter response to Bill O’Reilly's use of the phrase "lynching party" when speaking of Michelle Obama.
As passé as racially charged remarks from white, male, media personalities has become (Michael Richards, Don Imus, Dog the Bounty Hunter), the phenomenon never ceases to amaze me.
And despite protests, boycotts, community outrage, and the occasional open letter, these commentators, like the bobble head game at Chuck E Cheese, keep popping up…again….and again.
A video made last year by white South African Students at the University of the Free State sparked a stone throwing riot on campus yesterday that resulted in the arrest of five people and police releasing a stun grenade into the crowd. I know you are asking, what the hell was on this video? This short film depicted a mock imitation ceremony into a residence hall on campus. Black workers dressed up as students were conned into eating food that had been urinated on. The purpose of this video other than to display cruel and blatant disrespect and racism is a myth to me. What I find to be the scariest part is these are young people…. Is this South Africa’s next generation of leaders? I would like to think that people who seek higher education would gain the knowledge that the world is so much bigger than just white and black….Racism is still entrenched cross culturally and evidently it is sill being handed down from one generation to the next. I’m saddened by this truth that the world isn’t ever-changing on this reality of racism.
Waiting for the bus from SeaTac to downtown Seattle, I met a couple of guys from our nation’s capital. Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated earlier in the week and the Iowa caucuses had just been tallied, but only one thing was on the minds of the dueling peoples of Washington this weekend. The big game, football, the Redskins were playing the Seahawks in the first playoff game of the year and these two folks had traveled a long way to support their team. I’ll admit it, I’m a Redskins fan, lived most of my life an hour outside of DC. I was excited to discuss with these guys the four game rally finishing out the regular season, or the rise of quarterback Todd Collins after sitting bench for the vast majority of his thirteen year career. The younger guy, a robust white guy with pasty skin and a goatee, was wearing a dingy black hoody with the Redskins written across the front in barely visible black letters. The other man wore a well-loved Redskins cap and was a slightly older Native American. Read More »
About 11 years ago, on a Sunday morning before sunrise, someone dumped the body of 20-year-old Stacey Stites off the side of a road in the small town of Bastrop, Texas. Rodney Reed, a black man from Bastrop, was convicted of her murder by an all-white jury, despite the strong evidence linking other people, including Stites' fiance Jimmy Fennell, to the murder. Last week, Fennell, who is now a police officer in Georgetown, Texas, was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of sexually assaulting a woman in custody at gunpoint, and he was placed on administrative leave from his job. At the time of Stites' death, Fennell was a police officer in Giddings, a town just east of Bastrop. Read More »
Matt Zetlin (who I’m glad finally decided to join us on CP) has challenged me by straight up calling me a racist or a conservative without actually calling me one. I didn’t think that by suggesting that blacks weren’t, in fact, dumber than whites that such a thing might be suggested. I think that Matt missed the point I was making. I wasn’t saying that “black culture” made people dumber. I know nothing about Flynn beyond the way he has been injected into the debate, and I have no reason to assume that he’s some kind of magical saint when it comes to the study of intellectualism, but I thought he had some fair points when it came to the IQ test. It’s not unreasonable to assume that the IQ test itself may be flawed. The IQ test is buried in a very specific (white and western) cultural perspective.
I don’t blame hip hop or other “black culture” for anything—in fact, I find it an extremely important part of our culture. But when I was rewatching The Wire season four this weekend, I was reminded of the fact that our entire education system is built around a very specific perspective. Students dozed in a class as they crammed for the No Child Left Behind evaluation as Mr. “PrezBo,” as the kids called him, asked a question involving Dionysus and Polymnus. It’s hard for kids to relate to stories that seem to have nothing to do with them.
Maybe I’m wrong. I’d love to have someone of color weigh in and tell me what they think about all this, but the very fact that we have two white (wannabe) intellectuals arguing over this tells you something in itself.
The New York Times reported today on a poll conducted by New America Media, a coalition of ethnic news organizations, that attempted to gauge minority perceptions— about each other. The poll surveyed African-Americans, Hispanics (I use this word because the poll did not say “Latino”) and Asians on various economic and social issues, and directly asked groups questions about other minority groups. The findings are quite interesting—for example, the groups that likely have more immigrant members, Asian and Hispanic, seemed to have more faith in the so-called “American dream,” that if one works hard one will succeed economically. African-Americans, on the other hand, were far less likely to agree. Asians were also by far the least likely to indicate that their community experienced significant discrimination in the U.S., while contrastingly 92% of African-Americans responded in the affirmative.
It’s quite timely now that the racists are trotting out their favorite theory that gets trotted out every few years, smacked down, and then trotted out again once they figure everyone has forgotten the last smackdown, the theory that the IQ gap between whites and blacks must reflect fundamental, immutable, genetic traits, ergo a racist caste system is organic and not the product of oppression.
The next time you travel to downtown Houston to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, you should walk a few blocks to Houston's Old Hanging Tree at the corner of Capital and Bagby streets. That huge 200-year-old oak tree is the location where many "Negroes" were illegally lynched many years ago. Almost 150 years after the Civil War ended, Texas remains haunted by its long history of slavery, and even today the state still practices lynching. But today it is done by the state, rather than a group of white-hooded men. It is called execution by lethal injection.
Tonight I am working on an editorial for our Campus Progress sponsored magazine, The InterActivist. Our staff decided to deviate from AP guidelines when it comes to racial identification. After talking to professors in the diversity studies and cultural education departments, we chose to capitalize "Black" and "White" as they refer to racial identities, not just colors. Also, we chose to move away from Hispanic, as the word is imperial and colonial in itself, describing the Conquistadors that raped and pillaged the indigenous Americans. Does anyone have any ideas on these issues? Should AP style be changed? Does anyone have any language preferences? These conflicts are always so interesting to me.
Friday, Ohio University held a race issues forum to help students, faculty and community members come to terms with the racism that is far too prevalent in Athens and the world. At the forum, I spoke up about how white activists at OU did nothing in support of the Jena Six. (See earlier post - Racial Divide in Campus Activism) After I said I felt that we "sat that one out," and that white activists should be ashamed for not taking part, a black student from the back of the room spoke out against me. She said it hurt to hear me speak about the white activists, when the black activists worked so hard to raise money to send students to Washington, D.C., to protest. Damn, did I feel bad. I didn't mean black students didn't do anything, I meant white students didn't help them. I suppose she looked at it as my white privilege allowing me to dismiss her efforts and think that black students needed white students' help. That was not what I mean at all, but I felt terrible.
The Chronicle highlights a study from UCLA that suggests that Asain Americans, especially low-income ones, are struggling to succeed, needing special tutoring or remedial English classes. To me, this is the sad correllation between race and class in America. Even the stereotype of the "successful minority" -- Asain Americans -- isn't true when you factor in that their combined family income is less than $40,000 a year. What this really means is that there is a high correlation between success and wealth, and when you're low-income, combined with the special hurdles of subtle or not-so-subtle racism, you end up losing.
Didn't college students learn anything from the post-Borat lawsuits? Never make a drunken, racist video. Come on, people. Is that such a hard rule to follow?
The Smoking Gun posted a video this week of several white Univeristy of Louisiana students covered in mud--a la blackface--reenacting the Jena 6 attack. Freshman nursing student Kristy Smith posted the video and several pictures of her mud-clad friends on Facebook. She's since removed them, but not before the video got picked up by Smoking Gun and posted to Youtube:
Smith apologized for the video via Facebook, giving well-written explanations like "We were just playin n the mud...I promise i'm not racist. i have just as many black friends as i do white. And i love them to death." Apparently they were drinking and the situation "got a lil out of hand."
Right. Either that or the video reveals that racism is clearly "a lil out of hand" despite our best efforts to sweep it under the rug.
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