Commentary: 'The New Jim Crow' by Michelle Alexander, a must read

Commentary: 'The New Jim Crow' by Michelle Alexander, a must read
By Leonard Pitts Jr. | Miami Herald
Posted on Sunday, June 27, 2010

Michelle Alexander was an ACLU attorney in Oakland, preparing a racial profiling lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol. The ACLU had put out a request for anyone who had been profiled to get in touch. One day, in walked this black man.

He was maybe 19 and toted a thick sheaf of papers, what Alexander calls an "incredibly detailed" accounting of at least a dozen police stops over a nine-month period, with dates, places and officers' names. This was, she thought, a "dream plaintiff."

But it turned out he had a record, a drug felony — and she told him she couldn't use him; the state's attorney would eat him alive. He insisted he was innocent, said police had planted drugs and beaten him. But she was no longer listening. Finally, enraged, he snatched the papers back and started shredding them.

~snip~

The War on Drugs is a war on African-American people and we countenance it because we implicitly accept certain assumptions sold to us by news and entertainment media, chief among them that drug use is rampant in the black community. But. The. Assumption. Is. WRONG.

According to federal figures, blacks and whites use drugs at a roughly equal rate in percentage terms. In terms of raw numbers, WHITES are far and away the biggest users — and dealers — of illegal drugs.

" The facts remain that whites commits less crimes than blacks and it has nothing to do with racial profiling. It will be a great day when blacks finally take responsibility for their actions and quit blaming whites for their own mistakes"


". Using drugs and committing other crimes and getting caught does not mean you are the victim of racism. It means you are an idiot and a criminal. Stop whinning and man up."

They mean that people aren't thinking, and I've run into this problem before. The numbers themselves would tell you that your world view is seriously skewed, if you are those people. But they don't, and I just don't get it.

It is a MUST read for anyone who is interested in social justice issues.

:kick:

The comments say WAY too much about the injustices suffered by a whole demographic group whose only fault is the wrong skin color and history. :(

Dumb comments after thought provoking articles make me crazy!

the war on everybody without power.
:kick: & R

If she is ever in your area, make an effort to see her.