*America is a country that is made up of a variety of people and perspectives. With this diversity, there are bound to be instances where we don’t see eye to eye. But one thing that we should all agree on is equal treatment in the eyes of the law. It is a principle that is given lip-service while its practice is eschewed.
Nothing can better demonstrate this better than the treatment of Black people who sold weed. Rather than using respectability politics against Black folks, one should understand why someone would sell an illicit substance. It is a clear fall-out of how Black communities have been let down by the establishment in terms of creating opportunities for upward economic mobility.
This only goes to show that the rights of the Black people are conditional to the whims of those who are in charge. The equal citizenship of Black folks had been enshrined in the law by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution, made at the end of the Civil war. Yet, it failed to prevent the Jim Crow era and it failed to prevent our current age of excessive policing of Black bodies. We are still targets for violence and prejudicial treatment.
Our schools are underfunded, leading our youths to not receive quality education. This academic and skill-set gap limits their ability to get good jobs. Besides this, there is active discrimination when it comes to hiring. Even having good qualification doesn’t suffice for getting good paying jobs, when we aren’t even in consideration. What does an enterprising mind do when the doors of opportunity are slammed hard in the face?
Adding insult to injury is how weed is being legalized, after years of being used by the state to incarcerate Black people. Statistics show that Black and White folks use marijuana at almost the same rate, but Black folks get arrested nearly 4 times more on average than white folks. When it comes to sentencing, Black folks get longer and harsher sentences. So many Black brothers and sisters have had their lives uprooted by being put behind bars for dealing or carrying small amounts of pot. They were either supporting their families or finding some relief.
As the system facilitates white folks to make big money from their fancy dispensaries, it keeps on forgetting Black folk who have suffered harassment and imprisonment. With these recent developments, it almost seems that weed was just a ploy to feed the prison industrial complex and enact slavery in a new form.
This kind of hypocritical treatment alienates Black Americans. Now that marijuana consumption is reframed as medication and self-care, Black folks who have been mistreated for dealing and using it should be given reparations and apologized too. This could be the beginning of healing the very old wound of discrimination in this country.
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