A good illustration of white privilege in charts

[Cali_Democrat]

The black/white marijuana arrest gap, in nine charts
By Dylan Matthews
June 4, 2013 at 12:41 pm

As you're probably aware, black Americans are arrested for marijuana possession far more frequently than whites. You may also know that there's not much evidence that black people consume marijuana with greater regularity than whites do.

But the extent of the disparity between the rate of arrest and the rate of use for white and black Americans may surprise you. The ACLU has an absurdly comprehensive new report tracking marijuana possession arrests for blacks and whites at the national, state and county level. Sure enough, they find that black and white people use marijuana at roughly the same rates:



In at least one year, the white usage rate was higher. The others, the black usage rate was higher, but in no year were results for the two races that different. For young people ages 18-25, the rates of use are higher for whites:



<...>

Of course, this doesn't translate to roughly equal arrest rates. Not even close:



And this is a uniform phenomenon. It's not that some states treat the races equally and others treat them really unequally. Only in Hawaii are the rates even close to equal, and that's biased by the fact that blacks make up only 1.6 percent of the population. In the state with the second-lowest disparity, Alaska, blacks are 1.6 times more likely to be arrested. In the state with the biggest, Iowa, blacks are 8.34 times more likely to be arrested. D.C. has the second biggest; in the District, blacks are 8.05 times more likely to be arrested.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[morningfog]

2. Lots of recs, needs a KICK!

[MerryBlooms]

3. rec & kick.

[geek tragedy]

4. But that's not on the list of Officially-Approved Topics of Revolutionaries.

DU rec.

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. You must have missed it ...

I'm pretty certain I saw a post of 200, saying "{paraphrasing} We must legalize marijuana so I can get my high on, unmolested ... er, so those poor Black folks will be unfairly targeted by our unjudicial system."

I'm certain I did!

[geek tragedy]

19. because if they legalized pot, cops would stop hassling young black men nt

[bettyellen]

5. somone here asked what the big deal was getting stopped by cops- just a millisecond they said.

dude, it's a go to jail card.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. Yeah, but who are you going to believe?

Those who tell you what exists and what doesn't, or your own lying eyes?

K&R

[jtuck004]

8. **snort** n/t

[arely staircase]

7. thank you cali dem good post nt

[jtuck004]

9. K&R n/t

[JoeyT]

10. K&R n/t

[tea and oranges]

12. Kick & Rec

The Sixth Sense "I see dead people."

DU "I see white privilege."

Both rare occurrences!

[redqueen]

13. K&R

[Starry Messenger]

14. k&r

[KittyWampus]

15. This breaks apart/exposes quite a bit, I think.

[RC]

16. Instead of disparaging other DU'ers over whether they are too white or not, this is something

we all can behind and fix.
Now that is where the real victims are - Out in the real world, getting put in prison for a mostly benign, widely available weed.

[cui bono]

27. Are you saying the problem this illustrates is with all marijuana arrests

and not the disproportionate arrests of blacks for marijuana as compared to whites?

I have never seen a post that said someone was too white. There is a current discussion about white privilege which a lot of people on DU surprisingly deny exists, but that's not at all disparaging anyone for being too white.

[RC]

29. I think you missed the sarcasm in my post.

But whatever, we lock up too many people in this country, for too long, with too many being Blacks and other minorities.
We can afford $30,000 a year (or what ever) to lock someone up, but can't afford $5,000 in food stamps, or unemployment, or proper health care, or a long list of help and assistance people in other countries take for granted.

[cui bono]

30. Okay, gotcha. I agree with that. n/t

[Cal Carpenter]

17. Everyone should read The New Jim Crow.

http://newjimcrow.com/

Particularly those who doubt this, or try to justify it, or who argue that if we just stopped talking about race it wouldn't be a problem.

[gulliver]

18. "White privilege" being...

...just an ineffective way to say "racist oppression" in this case.

[noiretextatique]

34. +1000

Call it exactly what it is. It is not accidental or new.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

20. Now THIS is how you make a point

It's strictly fact-based.

It's irrefutable.

And it's missing the screaming-Greenie batshit-crazy accusations.


It's actually a good set of charts to make print out and bring down to your local police station. Approached rationally and non-confrontationally, many (admittedly not all) police can be persuaded to rethink their prejudices.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Major Nikon]

21. The same dynamic exists for men and women

60.11% of marijuana users are males, but the arrest rate for males almost 6 times higher:
http://norml.org/pdf_files/NORML_Crimes_of_Indiscretion.pdf

[JJChambers]

35. Statistics

Do these studies differentiate between simple possession arrests and distribution arrests? In my experience, the big percentage of weed dealers have been male. A few women from time to time, but a very small percentage overall. This could have something to do with the disparity.

[Major Nikon]

36. From the link:

"Marijuana Possession Arrests Among Selected Groups"

Percentage of Annual Users:

Male 60.11%, Female 39.89%

Percentage of Possession Arrests:

Male 85.53%, Female 14.47%

[steve2470]

22. k&r nt

[SunSeeker]

23. K & R

[DeSwiss]

24. K&R!

[grahamhgreen]

25. Like I say, it's cuz much the country is still stuck in the 60's!!!!!!!!!

The 1860's!!!!!!

[bobduca]

26. Kick

[nomorenomore08]

28. When the whole thing is in plain sight like this, I don't see how anyone can quibble over semantics.

How exactly is the phrase "white privilege" inappropriate for describing this appalling state of affairs?

[Warren Stupidity]

37. because it makes some white people uncomfortable

it is very important to not upset the white people. So everyone has to tip-toe around in their socks wearing white gloves, and asking in a hushed voice "what words can we use to describe this situation that won't cause you such upset?".

[noiretextatique]

41. +1000

And that is the real truth.

[nomorenomore08]

45. Yeah, I think you're pretty dead on there.

And given what's at stake, I can only see those folks as appallingly narcissistic, at best.

[Cha]

31. Thank you, Cali!

[RobertEarl]

32. Truth

Something is terribly wrong in this country, still. You've presented some Truth about one of the many screwed up ways PTB- Powers That Be just love to mess with people.

If we could all just get our act together things could change.

[uponit7771]

33. +1

[Romulox]

38. The WOD is racist to its core. Arresting more whites for pot won't fix that.

That's one of the dangers of the "privilege" framing--it takes emphasis off the who and the why of the problem--in this case, that the War on Drugs was designed from its inception to be racist--the new Jim Crow.


So many of these discussions seem to hinge on a false dichotomy: either you acknowledge White Privilege, or you flatly deny it. But there's more to the discussion than that. It's frustrating that an attempt to discuss these issues feels like putting your neck out, with people attacking based on the "you must deny racism exists!" premise no matter how many times you point out that there are more than one way to understand how racism works in our society.

But the charts clearly show that the War on Drugs is racist to its core.

[lumberjack_jeff]

40. +1 n/t

[noiretextatique]

42. true that...a more accurate description

Your post is right on. This "war" was yet another racist initiative by design, and it achieved the desired goals. It is institutional, not personal.

[Cali_Democrat]

43. The fact remains...

whites enjoy the privilege of being much less likely to be arrested for marijuana than blacks.

That's a privilege afforded to whites, not blacks obviously.

[myrna minx]

39. K&R n/t

[BodieTown]

44. Define "Race"

Even if there's a 50/50 mix of white/black, the person is usually defined as black.

And sometimes, if you have a whisper of black blood in your ancestry, you are defined (or define yourself) as black.

I think Figure 21 would be overwhelmingly bright pink if adjusted for bias.