4 ms·

Race has nothing to do with it. Lots of meth labs getting busted in rural America are run by white dealers.

milesskorpen 12y ago
You really can't say it has "nothing to do with it." Just look at the sentencing guidelines between crack and coke. Listen to the original hearings from when pot was made illegal. Look at the proportion of people in prison for pot (hint: It doesn't reflect the racial make-up of users). Yes — in some parts of the country the disparity is based more on class than race. But that's definitely not the whole story.
mullingitover 12y ago
White people get arrested sometimes. That doesn't mean that the war on drugs doesn't have a race discrepancy problem[1]. [1] http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/crime09.htm http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/crime09.htm
- silverbax88 12y ago
  You guys are killing me. I'm Mexican-American. I grew up an an urban U.S. city where many of my neighborhood pals ended up 'locked up or covered up'. I have a pretty good understanding of race and the 'war on drugs.'
scarmig 12y ago
Race isn't everything, but it's ridiculous to pretend that race hasn't substantially influenced the drug war. Even aside from the highly unbalanced prosecution and conviction of drug offenders depending on race, race colors everything in the drug war: look at the history of marijuana [0], for instance, or crack cocaine sentencing practices. [0] http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the...
lotsofmangos 12y ago
Just because some meth labs run by white guys get busted, doesn't mean that there isn't a racial element to the drug war. One does not follow from the other. Convictions for possession, for instance, are massively biased compared to the usage by group. Why the 88, by the way? I hope it isn't to do with that angry Chaplin lookalike. Is just when combined with silver and a comment saying that race has nothing to do with the drug war in the US, I can't help but get suspicious. Apologies for the godwinning if it is just the year you were born, or something.
AJ007 12y ago
If your constituents are racists, you have to find policies that support those views by proxy -- the war on drugs, immigration control, abortion rights, and so on. Over time, people end up remembering the propaganda and forget the real reasons these ideas gained so much support in the beginning. Meth didn't exist when the war on drugs started, it is an after the fact explanation. You've been taught that the war on drugs is equal opportunity. Propaganda is built on lies and dis-information. The individuals crafting policies who actually believe that propaganda eventually craft disaster and failure, like a geneticist who doesn't believe in evolution.

You really can't say it has "nothing to do with it." Just look at the sentencing guidelines between crack and coke. Listen to the original hearings from when pot was made illegal. Look at the proportion of people in prison for pot (hint: It doesn't reflect the racial make-up of users). Yes — in some parts of the country the disparity is based more on class than race. But that's definitely not the whole story.

mullingitover 12y ago

White people get arrested sometimes. That doesn't mean that the war on drugs doesn't have a race discrepancy problem[1]. [1] http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/crime09.htm http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/crime09.htm

silverbax88 12y ago
You guys are killing me. I'm Mexican-American. I grew up an an urban U.S. city where many of my neighborhood pals ended up 'locked up or covered up'. I have a pretty good understanding of race and the 'war on drugs.'

scarmig 12y ago

Race isn't everything, but it's ridiculous to pretend that race hasn't substantially influenced the drug war. Even aside from the highly unbalanced prosecution and conviction of drug offenders depending on race, race colors everything in the drug war: look at the history of marijuana [0], for instance, or crack cocaine sentencing practices. [0] http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the...

lotsofmangos 12y ago

Just because some meth labs run by white guys get busted, doesn't mean that there isn't a racial element to the drug war. One does not follow from the other. Convictions for possession, for instance, are massively biased compared to the usage by group. Why the 88, by the way? I hope it isn't to do with that angry Chaplin lookalike. Is just when combined with silver and a comment saying that race has nothing to do with the drug war in the US, I can't help but get suspicious. Apologies for the godwinning if it is just the year you were born, or something.

AJ007 12y ago

If your constituents are racists, you have to find policies that support those views by proxy -- the war on drugs, immigration control, abortion rights, and so on. Over time, people end up remembering the propaganda and forget the real reasons these ideas gained so much support in the beginning. Meth didn't exist when the war on drugs started, it is an after the fact explanation. You've been taught that the war on drugs is equal opportunity. Propaganda is built on lies and dis-information. The individuals crafting policies who actually believe that propaganda eventually craft disaster and failure, like a geneticist who doesn't believe in evolution.