From Jewish director Eugene Jarecki, The House I Live In explores the discriminatory effects the WoD has had on African Americans. Jarecki reveals that the WoD is misconceived, dishonest, wasteful and racist. As one example, African-Americans made up for 35% of drug arrests, 55% of convictions, and 74% of people sent to prison for drug possession crimes. Consider that against the fact that African Americans make up 13% of regular drug users - only 13%. As another example, there is a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for possession and use of crack cocaine vs. powder cocaine. What's that mean? Well, crack is - essentially - powder cocaine only watered down with (obviously) water, baking soda and the like. Crack is also the drug of choice for poor African Americans. Powder is more common among upper middle class Whites. In effect, African Americans receive far harsher punishment than White Americans.*
Anyway, you can view the documentary on YouTube.
*See Race and the War on Drugs for more.
Very timely post. In Canada a report was released today that says: "There are just over 3,400 aboriginal men and women making up 23 per cent of the country's federal prison inmate population," Sapers said.
ReplyDelete"In other words, while aboriginal people in Canada comprise just four per cent of the population, in federal prisons nearly one in four is Métis, Inuit, or First Nations." Pretty wild eh? I guess Brown people all over the world are being imprisoned.