Rev. Barber: How We Can Address Racial Inequalities in Handling Drug Addiction
“According to the NAACP, the incarceration rate for black Americans with drug charges is six times that of their white neighbors, despite the fact that black and white people use drugs at similar rates. As Michelle Alexander has argued, this disparity in our criminal justice system is a direct result of policy decisions made after the civil rights movement, when white people in all parts of America held onto political power by promising to be tough on “black” crime. The resulting devastation of black and brown communities is a 21st-century manifestation of America’s addiction to white supremacy.”