Thebookiemonster answers “Serious question: If blacks (and...”

Jeremiah asked this question about The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness:

Serious question: If blacks (and minorities in general) are disproportionately charged for drug offenses, why don't they stop using/selling drugs?

Thebookiemonster I'll attempt to answer this question using arguments made in the book so everyone gets an idea of the book's stance.

You know, I asked myself this many…moreI'll attempt to answer this question using arguments made in the book so everyone gets an idea of the book's stance.

You know, I asked myself this many times throughout the book. Yes, structural and institutional things are in place that, once a black man is caught with drugs in his possession, make his life way more difficult than a white man caught with the same drug. So the solution seems simple--don't possess the drug in the first place.

However, from what I gathered from the book, the key here is discriminatory policing in poor black neighborhoods and discriminatory targeting of black males rather than other populations.

The many studies and crime rate data the author cites show that white kids in suburban neighborhoods are more likely in their lifetimes to sell and use drugs. But society would revolt if we saw a million 16 year old white Timmies from the nice neighborhoods getting locked up for selling Xannies to their classmates because they're decent white folk and Xannies are rich people drugs that nice, safe, white people use.

The simple guideline "don't commit the crime in the first place" stands, but is increasingly unrealistic due to unconscious predatory policing. If police weren't targeting black people and neighborhoods in a disproportionate manner, and due to state-orchestrated or at least racially-motivated discrimination, there wouldn't be so many black people serving insane sentences for possessing small amounts of drugs.

Further, society demands police target these neighborhood, because they house the people white people are scared of. If you saw cops patrolling a nice neighborhood and arresting Timmy, you might think jeez, why don't the cops spend their time doing something worthwhile? Well, that's because we're generally not afraid of Timmy and trust that he's nonviolent. But because of images made popular in the 1980s campaign to start the War on Drugs, the black drug user has always been viewed as a potentially violent and existential threat to our society.

And most of us, well most white people in positions of power at least, are fine with locking these people up and removing them from society.(less)

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L And more insidiously, white lawmakers create rules knowing plenty of people--black and white--WILL break them, but the law gives police the opportunit ...more
Oct 31, 2019 08:07AM · flag

Mr. Wakiki the one that everyone is aware of, crack cocaine and powder cocaine. generally people of color use crack and whites use powder --- at relatively equal ...more
Aug 21, 2020 01:51PM · flag

Joshua Wilson @Thebookiemonster hit nearly every point made in the book, this is the best answer I've seen. Your comment was made pre-COVID, and the reason I'm brin ...more
Jan 14, 2021 06:59PM · flag

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The New Jim Crow

by Michelle Alexander

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