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dogknob

(2,431 posts)
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 03:00 PM Jun 2014

Here's one word for "white privilege" that might piss many of you off...

Last edited Wed Jun 25, 2014, 03:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Marijuana.

"I started to see the culture in Nevada City as kind of a . . . a Never-Neverland. It's this place where there's enough capital because of the marijuana industry for people to do what they want most of the time. To be able to fund their art project, or their traveling lifestyle, or their social justice project, or their community projects . . . a beautiful house, or a homesteading project, or a farm that they want to have. What I saw after I read the book was that it's not a free and clear benefit for these people that are profiting off of this industry. The Prison-Industrial Complex isn't just the stockholders that want to build a private prison. It's not just the guards that are employed by those prisons. It's not just the people in the justice system who make their living off of prosecuting people. The Prison-Industrial Complex that is riding on the drug laws has created this abundant opportunity for people to . . . to grow weed. And I think people either don't know, or don't see, or don't want to know or see that that's the industry they're involved in. They don't want to see that for them to be able to make $200 a pound trimming, someone somewhere is paying a pretty high price. They're paying with their life or their freedoms."


http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/24318-a-bitter-harvest-california-marijuana-and-the-new-jim-crow
27 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Here's one word for "white privilege" that might piss many of you off... (Original Post) dogknob Jun 2014 OP
whatever... leftyohiolib Jun 2014 #1
I need a few more words to better understand your point. aikoaiko Jun 2014 #2
No one is auditioning for you. Read the article, or listen to the audio, or don't dogknob Jun 2014 #6
well your one word didn't piss me off. Just letting you know in case.... aikoaiko Jun 2014 #8
I used that language because... dogknob Jun 2014 #9
"Prohibition" would be a better word n/t arcane1 Jun 2014 #3
Why don't the black people tell the white people to sell their own damn weed? badtoworse Jun 2014 #4
Couldn't hurt... nomorenomore08 Jun 2014 #19
drugs have always been an issue of white privilege. see also cocaine vs crack. La Lioness Priyanka Jun 2014 #5
Yes, but not too many liberals paid for their MA by trimming coca leaves. dogknob Jun 2014 #7
One of your two words is misspelled. n/t Tansy_Gold Jun 2014 #10
Thank you n/t dogknob Jun 2014 #11
Interesting piece, but it starts to repeat the same points over and over. Throd Jun 2014 #12
It's a transcript of audio, so that's no big surprise. dogknob Jun 2014 #13
Writing Boom Sound 416 Jun 2014 #14
The law is racist. Its application is racist RainDog Jun 2014 #15
Thank you for actually participating :) dogknob Jun 2014 #16
No one particularly cares for trustafarians RainDog Jun 2014 #23
I don't do all or nothing. dogknob Jun 2014 #26
This message was self-deleted by its author RainDog Jun 2014 #27
The war on drugs is about as racist and totalitarian as you can get. nomorenomore08 Jun 2014 #17
That doesn't piss me off at all quinnox Jun 2014 #18
I smoke and it doesn't piss me off either. Some excellent and very important points there. n/t nomorenomore08 Jun 2014 #20
"Many" not "all." dogknob Jun 2014 #22
One particular quote: nomorenomore08 Jun 2014 #21
That was an excellent analogy. dogknob Jun 2014 #24
Where? H2O Man Jun 2014 #25

dogknob

(2,431 posts)
6. No one is auditioning for you. Read the article, or listen to the audio, or don't
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 03:15 PM
Jun 2014
It is impossible to quite fathom the implications of Michelle Alexander's two-fold call to bring down mass incarceration and short circuit our pattern of resurrecting Jim Crow. Ending Jim Crow, really ending it, would require those of us called white and seen as white in our society to relinquish our psychology and position of privilege to an extent scarcely imaginable in the context of our national life and history.

aikoaiko

(34,127 posts)
8. well your one word didn't piss me off. Just letting you know in case....
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 03:21 PM
Jun 2014

... you thought you were communicating well.

dogknob

(2,431 posts)
9. I used that language because...
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 03:30 PM
Jun 2014

It can be, let's say, upsetting to realize that one's perhaps legitimately eco-conscious-fair-trade clothing business or whatever wouldn't exist without the startup money that came from a harvest or two of bud-trimming in Willits. Good money for hard work. One might feel they worked sufficiently hard to earn the right to ignore the fact that they took a shortcut to financial independence on the backs of people they will never meet.

 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
4. Why don't the black people tell the white people to sell their own damn weed?
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 03:12 PM
Jun 2014

Wouldn't that solve the problem?

dogknob

(2,431 posts)
7. Yes, but not too many liberals paid for their MA by trimming coca leaves.
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 03:20 PM
Jun 2014

It's too easy to say I care about racism when racism may be responsible for the fact that anyone listens to my opinion at all.

EDIT: changed "I-language"because I do not mean a specific person here.

RainDog

(28,784 posts)
15. The law is racist. Its application is racist
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 04:55 PM
Jun 2014

Because Bell notices that white people are not getting arrested is something people have talked about concerning this issue, repeatedly. I and others have also noted that relaxation in laws (which is really what Bell is talking about) is happening more in areas of the nation with overwhelmingly white populations.

What this says is that the legal system is, throughout, entirely racist, as is the political system in this nation. Because assholes in Louisiana want to put someone in jail for life for simple possession under three strikes - people who disagree with this should engage in "self-prohibition" - as if that would stop the racist application of the law? lol.

Wisely, Michelle Alexander places the blame where it belongs - with the criminal justice system. As she also notes - whites most often sell to whites and blacks to blacks in segregated America. I'm sure you don't hear too much from black growers because they understand the danger - but I've seen videos from African-Americans who are also growers.

In addition, an African American couple that is very influential in Denver is also part of the state legal market and is, at least politically, friends with the Obamas - so, this issue is not simply black or white.

If someone wants to rectify the injustice, it's stupid to blame those who are supplying a demand - the demand comes from different groups within the nation, and, frankly, someone is going to supply it. California has an entire industry, as Bell notes, devoted to cultivation, etc.

People, many people, do not consider marijuana use a crime, outside of the RACIST law that treats marijuana possession as a crime. It is civil disobedience to refuse to acknowledge those laws.

Working to deny racists yet another reason to arrest African Americans is not participating in "white privilege" when people who support legalization are aware of the racist application of the law.

dogknob

(2,431 posts)
16. Thank you for actually participating :)
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 06:17 PM
Jun 2014
"...In addition, an African American couple that is very influential in Denver is also part of the state legal market and is, at least politically, friends with the Obamas - so, this issue is not simply black or white."

Use of token blacks notwithstanding, you agree, as I do, with Alexander; it is not simply a black/white issue. It is a caste issue.

Michelle Alexander: What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than the language we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion and social contempt. So we don't. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color criminals, and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways in which it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you're labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination - employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, exclusion from jury service - are suddenly legal. As a criminal you have scarcely more rights and arguably less respect than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America, we have merely redesigned it.



Under free-market capitalism, once you make some money, you don't necessarily have to choose who is going to suffer so that you can keep your money, make more money, and secure your future, but black/white/purple/whatever you must accept that others are going to suffer so that you do not.


"It is civil disobedience to refuse to acknowledge those laws"

Yes it is. It's also a lot easier to disobey the law if you happen to be a trustafarian.

RainDog

(28,784 posts)
23. No one particularly cares for trustafarians
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 06:50 PM
Jun 2014

to pretend that everyone involved in this issue falls under that designation is reductionist to absurdity. People are in jail for this who are activists, as well, and a family in Washington State is looking at long jail sentences for growing marijuana in a state where it is legal to grow because the DEA went after them - even with current laws.

To note that everyone exploits others by their work isn't all that profound - it's sort of juvenile. The idea, in more sophisticated thought is "right work." Work that attempts to do something to add value to the world.

Because, if you want to go down that street, you should condemn Obama for being president because he's president of a racist nation. See how dumb that is? Yeah. That's the argument you and this person are making, ultimately.

But I recognize you want to provide an "opposing view" so I'll leave you to your thread. take care.

eta: whether or not I participate in a thread has a lot to do with how busy my schedule is. today, for instance, I've read half a dozen posts, posted something earlier in the 15 minutes I was here, replied to you. no one should assume anyone's reply or not indicates anything, fwiw.

btw, is it tokenism for Obama to be president?

dogknob

(2,431 posts)
26. I don't do all or nothing.
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 07:23 PM
Jun 2014

Stating that it is easier to participate in civil disobedience if you are a trustafarian does not mean that all people who participate in civil disobedience are trustafarians. Yes, there are people who actually practice civil disobedience knowing that there will be consequences and yes, they deserve our support.

Trying to change a doomed system while working within it presents paradoxical problems. I believe that what we are supposed to be doing here on DU is finding non-destructive ways to deal with these paradoxes.

An example of a simple paradox is Hillary Clinton. We know she's a corporatist. We know her Presidential campaign, if it happens, will rely on taking the American left hostage ("It's either me or The Knife-Wielding Troglodyte&quot . We know that endlessly talking about her (maybe) 2016 campaign helps the corpocracy by taking focus from the absolutely critical 2014 election... but we will vote for her because we don't want The Knife-Wielding Troglodyte to become POTUS. We get to fight the extreme right by supporting the center-right. That sucks.

What I am interested in is what we do to remove the paradox. What can we do to minimize the amount of support we give the system as we attempt to change it?

When I disagree with you, I am not necessarily "...want(ing) to provide an 'opposing view.'" I am asking a question.

Response to dogknob (Reply #26)

nomorenomore08

(13,324 posts)
17. The war on drugs is about as racist and totalitarian as you can get.
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 06:26 PM
Jun 2014

So none of these outcomes are exactly surprising.

 

quinnox

(20,600 posts)
18. That doesn't piss me off at all
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 06:29 PM
Jun 2014

Just because Du is a liberal board, doesn't mean we all are "pot heads". I don't smoke or use any illegal drugs.

nomorenomore08

(13,324 posts)
21. One particular quote:
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 06:46 PM
Jun 2014

'"If one conceives of racism as a cellphone," Dyson explains, "then active malice is the ring tone on its highest volume, while passive indifference is the ring tone on vibrate. In either case, whether loudly or silently, the consequence is the same: A call is transmitted, a racial message is communicated."'

I don't think I've ever seen the concept explained so well.

dogknob

(2,431 posts)
24. That was an excellent analogy.
Wed Jun 25, 2014, 07:02 PM
Jun 2014

I was listening to the audio while making breakfast this morning. When that part started, I was dubious, but it turned out to be one of the better explanations I have heard.

I'm aware that referencing a film makes me easy-pickins for the "people-we-don't-talk-about-because-they-don't-exist-here-right?", but whatever. This sequence from Zwigoff's Ghost World (2001), as well as the rest of the subplot dealing with the subject of this clip, also did an excellent job of describing our "colorblind" fantasy.

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