The readings this week were indeed disturbing.
When I started reading, it sounded like it was going to be a crazy conspiracy theory, along the lines of “The government has a secret plan to lock everyone up!” But I figured Professor Braine wouldn’t make us read 60 pages of drivel, so I ventured further.
The author’s theory that the war on drugs and mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow is not as crazy as it seems at seems at first glance. I knew that jail populations were mainly black and Latino, but I didn’t see that as intentional before. The idea of pitting lower class whites against the blacks, throughout the slavery and Jim Crow years, and even now, seems ingenious and terrible.
The real question here is: What are we going it do about it? The author specifically states that the purpose of her book is to merely draw attention to this issue. But it seems obvious that something should be done. Statistics have shown that the war on drugs has been unsuccessful, and this unfair oppression against “criminals” goes against every principle this country was founded on. Something should be done. I look forward to hearing the Harm Reduction Coalition’s views on this topic tomorrow.
