Hide your kids

The war on black people continues.

Antoine Dodson, the heroic young youtube star who saved his sister from a rapist (but gained wider fame for his hilarious personality) was arrested for "possession of marijuana second degree."

The War on Drugs, and the War on Poverty—despite the good intentions and positive rhetoric behind them—have become a war on black people, and other minorities.

The racism behind the drug war is captured in the words of the first director of the federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Aslinger:

“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”


Similar comments were made about Mexicans as well. Mexican-hating William Randolph Hearst, who owned several dozen newspaper companies, staunchly supported the War on Drugs.  The War on Drugs began in ignorance and hate, and there it remains.

Blacks are disproportionately harassed, arrested, and imprisoned on drug charges.  This charge against Antoine gives him another chance to be a hero—to be a face of the many innocent black people who are arrested every day for similar charges.  We do not hear about the thousands of other faceless black people who are taken from their wives and children, and thrown into prison for consuming drugs that white people in Congress have deemed inappropriate.

Many, many people use drugs and get away with it.  W. Bush snorted coke; Obama and Clinton "did not inhale" marijuana, and those junkies became president of the U.S.  Utah, the Mormon capital of the world, is also the world-record holder for prescription drug abuse.  Mormon housewives can safely get high on "good drugs" without worrying about the police breaking in their doors and shooting their dogs.

Actor Zack Galifianakis smoked a joint on live TV without legal repercussions.  The list of actors and entertainers who have not done drugs would be shorter than those who have.  Even the iconic Cary Grant extolled the virtues of LSD in Good Housekeeping magazine.

This "crime," which, for most people, is innocent recreation and an essential part of the college experience, can mean years of incarceration for young black men.  Instead of working or going to college, these men spend their best years becoming permanently unemployable.

This persecution of black people has been made possible by criminalizing an act that is not inherently wrong.  Doing drugs should not be considered a crime.  Treating drug possession as a crime, means that cops can bust into your house, guns drawn, to look for drug paraphernalia.

Warrants were originally issued to look for items that were used in the commission of a crime.  These items were known as evidence.  Now mere "possession" of certain types of property has become criminal, whether or not any actual crime was committed.

If someone on drugs commits a crime, they should be tried as anyone else.  If someone smokes a bowl and then watches cartoons, they are as guilty as any seven-year old.

Drug users have not hurt anyone, and should not be locked up with rapists and murderers.  Antoine thwarted a rapist.  He is a hero.  He does not deserve to be treated like a criminal.

You are really dumb, for real.

Doing drugs is not a crime, though it has been made illegal by our government.  Law enforcers now spend a disproportionate amount of time harassing, shooting, and imprisoning harmless drug users instead of catching real criminals.

The War on Drugs implies that people in government have a right over your body, that they are somehow more qualified on how to care for your body than you are.  It is ridiculous, antiquated, and racist—it needs to end.

The second part of the war on black people is the War on Poverty.  Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock jokingly, but aptly, called it "The War on the Poor."  Though supposedly waged to help out black people, it harms them.

The minimum wage myth is that the government, out of the goodness of their hearts, helps poor people earn more money by creating prosperity through legislation.  The reality is that unionized workers don't want to lose their jobs to blacks and Mexicans, so they lobby Congress to pass laws that make it difficult for these minorities to compete.

For example, all-white unions and legislators in Apartheid South Africa, understanding this economic principle, passed a minimum wage law to prevent blacks from "stealing" white jobs.  Minimum wage laws continue to unleash a plague of unemployment on black people in South Africa and the U.S.

The minimum wage makes it illegal for many black people to work.  If a young black man tries to get a job, but the employer can only afford, say, to pay him five dollars an hour instead of the minimum wage, the black man simply does not get a job.  The government makes it illegal for him to work

Welfare legislation sounds like a good way to help out people who've fallen on hard times.  It gives financial benefits to single-parents, the unemployed, and people who have no savings to fall back on.  But in practice, government is giving money to blacks if they promise not to get married, get a job, or save money.  Our tax dollars, instead of being used to help black people, is being used to break up their families, and to keep them in poverty.

Our government is waging a war on blacks and minorities.  It passes laws to keep them unemployed (the minimum wage for black people, and immigration laws for Mexicans).  When, in desperation, they turn to selling drugs to people who want them, or to using recreational drugs to escape the horror and boredom of their poverty, they are imprisoned.  If they avoid prison and manage to get a job (often a low-paying one due to their lack of experience, which is caused by minimum wage restrictions) the government offers them more in welfare checks than their current job pays if they abandon their wives and children, and don't save money.

This war on black people needs to end.

Do your part by supporting Antoine Dodson.  You can buy his song on iTunes.

For a more expert opinion on this subject, see Walter E. Williams' Race and Economics.