The Effects of the War on Drugs on African-Americans in America.
“AT FIRST THEY USED A NOOSE, NOW ALL THEY DO IS SHOOT #BlackLivesMatter #SandySpeaks.”
- Sandra Bland
Being a black person in America is hard. Phrases like “Don’t shoot” and “Black lives matter” reflect the hardships that blacks have to endure as a result of their skin color. In 2013, the phrase, “Black lives matter” was born out of a tweet by Alicia Garza, a social activist, in a cry for help with regards to the senseless killings of black men and the lack of justice for the families (Cobb 2016). Trayvon Martin, 17years old. Michael Brown, 18years old. Sandra Bland, 28 years old. Eric Garner, 43 years old. Two common denominators of these individuals is that they were black and killed by the police or while in custody in America.
In the age of color blindness and with Obama as the first black president of the USA, many crimes occur and people coward away from attributing it to racism or hate crimes. It is time to call a spade a spade- racism is still alive and budding in the United States. As a result on the war on drugs, many people, especially African Americans, have been subjected to legalized discrimination- racial profiling, stop and search, et cetera. Today, there are more African-Americans under correctional control than were in slavery in 1850. More than half of working-age African-American men in many major cities in America are either under correctional control or branded felons and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. This Jim Crow law has earned the United States, the ironic “free state”, which represents just 5% of the world’s population, the dubious title of the world’s leading incarcerator because it holds 25% of the world’s prisoners (Boyd 2002).
Unbeknownst to many, Whites and Blacks have similar drug use rates. However, there is a huge sentencing disparity. African-Americans are 13.4 times more likely than whites to be admitted to state prison. Although African Americans make up 13% of the nation’s population, black males make up more than 44% of the males in the nation’s jails and prisons and are up to fifty-seven times more likely than Whites to be incarcerated for drug crimes (Boyd 2002). It is clear that this war on drugs, the Jim Crow laws, is in actuality, a war on the black race.
To highlight the absurd laws in existence, take a look at the cocaine-crack sentencing differential. Crack is generally associated with blacks; powder cocaine, with whites. Someone with 500 grams of powder cocaine, for example, would receive a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years, whereas someone with 5 grams of crack cocaine would receive the same 5 year mandatory minimum sentence. Unfortunately, although whites mostly use cocaine, majority of the people serving time for cocaine use are blacks.
In the 90s, Clinton set up a commission to investigate the difference in effect of the drug laws and the commission concluded that the form of cocaine is irrelevant. Either crack or powder cocaine “produces the same physiological and psychotropic effects (Alexander 2012)”. The final finding of the commission was that minorities were hit the hardest by the current cocaine penalties. Today, 1.5 million Black men, out of 10.4 million who would otherwise be eligible, cannot vote because of drug related criminal convictions. In many states, like Florida and Alabama, close to one-third of Black men have been forever disenfranchised (Boyd 2002). I shall now examine further, the effects of the war on drugs on the African American community in America.
Felon Disenfranchisement
An estimated 5.8 million people are banned from voting in America. The corrosive effect of the Jim Crow laws has slowly eroded the basis of American democracy. Being able to vote is a fundamental right in a democracy. This right has been cruelly hijacked from the majority of Blacks in America.
According to Graham Boyd, the United States is the only democracy in the world to deprive its citizens of the right to vote after they have completed their sentences (839). The political impact of felony disenfranchisement laws became glaring in the 2000 presidential election. Although polls showed that 90% of the black voters supported Vice president Al Gore, the disenfranchisement of one-third of African American men in Florida disallowed over 200,000 men from casting votes in favour of their preferred candidate.
In addition to being unable to vote, the criminal justice system confiscates the rights of felons to serve on juries. According to the United States Supreme Court, the right to sit on a jury is not a fundamental one. As a result, over 6% of the adult population in America, including 30% of black men, is excluded from serving on a jury.
Legalized Discrimination
Discrimination is unequal treatment given the same circumstance. Jim Crow pretended that separate but equal treatment was applicable, even as Blacks faced every form of overt discrimination. The drug war claims protection as its goals, while turning a blind eye to the racial injustice it promotes. The tie that binds these systems of oppression is passive societal acceptance of discrimination and racism. For the abolishment of this inhumane treatment, there is a need for a nationwide outcry against the injustice of the criminal justice system.
Discrimination against felons is experienced in a vast majority of areas ranging from housing to employment to the use of food stamps (Knafo 2013). These days, you see blacks being followed around in stores on the suspicion of theft; blacks are halted, searched and frisked on the side of the road for no apparent reason. As a result, blacks live in perpetual fear of the police.
Poor Family Dynamic
The incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders has had a devastating effect on the African-American community. Statistically, one in fourteen African-American children have a parent in jail or prison (Boyd 2002).Rewind to the beginning of this essay with the different black people currently 6-feet under the ground. How do you think the parents, siblings and loved ones of those Individuals feel? I can assure you that there is no love towards the American criminal justice system.
The family is supposed to be the first form of socialization for a child. It is to be a pillar of love, support and trust for members. This dynamic of love and warmth has been brutalized by the American justice system. With Over 50% of black males in prison, who is providing for their families? Who is protecting them, teaching them essential values and survival skills? The increase in the prison population means more and more families are adversely affected. Many times, you have the poor mother taking on the responsibilities of both a mother and father. Children suffer the stigma of having a criminal as a parent, they have to re-live the terror with each new headline of their parent. In addition to stigma, family members are bombarded with one expense after the other, with regards to court fines, lawyer fees, et cetera.
Education and Employment
About 41 percent of prisoners lack high school diplomas or their equivalent. A wise leader once said that the plight of a nation depends on the education of its people. The lack of education of these people spun a never ending cycle of ignorance and imprisonment. Why not educate the people on the dangers of drugs and the repercussions of imprisonment? The government would rather increase spending by 166 percent for corrections, compared to 24 percent for higher education (James 2003). As a result of the lack of education, employment for ex-felons is a tall order. More than 596,400 black males between the ages 20 and 39 are incarcerated (James 2003). This represents an astounding loss of “human capital” to the communities they come from. For every black male who graduates from college, one hundred others are in prison or jail. According to James (2003), this is a dramatic change from 1980, when there were about 463,700 black men enrolled in colleges and about 143,000 incarcerated. Studies even show that by virtue of merely possessing a more “white” name, individuals are more likely to secure a job. This erodes the black culture and heritage which is displayed in our unique, cultural names.
In addition to education being against them, felons suffer the stigma and discrimination of conviction and so employers are not eager to offer jobs in the fear of misdemeanors. Because theses ex inmates aren’t occupied, their minds become the devil’s workshop, devising further crimes. In 2001 more than 215,000 parole violators were sent back to prison, approximately 34 percent of all prison admissions for the year (James 2003). This has adverse effects on the potential tax revenue of the nation.
The incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders is bad policy. Prisons have now become hubs for non-violent individuals to become socialized into the violent atmosphere of crime. The effects on the African-American community are harmful and far reaching, with a ripple effect ranging from unemployment, to loss in tax revenue. To fix this system that is heavily lacking in justice, America must reform the criminal justice system and penal system to make fairness a foundational principle. It must make rehabilitation an emphasis of imprisonment.
