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@freemo I've seen this in action in my time as a corrections officer in South Carolina. A lot of black folk in prison for something white folk wouldn't have gone to prison for.
@Surasanji I never saw the meme as a black or white related point. While I have no doubt blacks take the brunt of it due to the fact that they tend to live in poverty and the poor are seen as criminals, the issue is bigger than that.
The issue I feel of importance here is the fact that people, no matter their skin color, are in jail for something as minor as marijuana at all.
@Surasanji I have no doubt what you describe is true. I wouldn't fault you for making the point of racial inequality.
My concern is that because it is the universal go to it overshadows the broader points consistently and reduces everything to race politics over time. Which gives us a sort of national tunnel vision which leads to ineffectively evaluating the problems or doing anything about it.
If we address all the injustice around people in prison over marijuana, and do so in a color blind way, then blacks receive justice, as does every other color. If we focus on the race even if we fix it we only fix it for one race.
@freemo That is true, to a certain degree and I can't fault that point of view.
Still, having worked in the prison environment, and having access to people's criminal records, I've seen the actual fallout of this. People (In SC, usually black people) getting caught with a small amount of weed and going to jail for years.