American Drug War Caste System

I happened on this video a few nights ago, and it really blew me away. I knew, of course, about the massive prison population in the United States which is the largest in the world, and that the proportion of non-white people incarcerated is also highest, even more so than it was in apartheid South Africa, but I had never really been taken into the origins and core of this problem like speaker in this video took me:

"The drug war is the single most important cause of the expansion of the prison system in the United States"

So-called politically correct movements like "Affirmative Action"--supposedly showing how black people are being integrated into society which is 'colour blind'--"mask" what is actually going on for non-whites such as in poor neighbourhoods of mostly black and ethnic people targeted by militarized police SWAT teams who, under the pretext of the so-called 'war on drugs', do blanket searches, terrorizing people on the streets and in their homes. To get an experience of this terror please see the video in my previous blog entry!

Once someone has been charged and imprisoned for the victimless crime of selling or even possession of drugs, or claim of, they are a labelled 'felon' for life, and this effects all their human rights. Not only do the lose their freedom being locked up, but once released they cannot get foodstamps, accomodation, work, etc etc. This is why this is a caste system.

"Whereas with Jim Crow there was still a sense of community, and solidarity in the black communities, mass incaceration has turned black community against itself."

This is a most important video to watch, and I hope like me you will share this far and wide.

As Michelle Alexander, the speaker in the video says, and I feel this too, the most radical action is always grass roots, changing things from the ground up! Just say KNOW, and tell your friends, and all contacts. Thankyou.


Michelle Alexander: US Prisons, The New Jim Crow