Racism was rebranded ‘the war on drugs’

MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan on Monday highlighted the concerning racial disparities that existed within America’s war against illegal drugs.

“Our big story on this Martin Luther King holiday is the new math of racism in America,” he said. “The greedy bastards have rebranded racism, calling it ‘the war on drugs.’ They’ve made it both acceptable and profitable. While the concerns of racism from the 1950s and 60s have improved in this country, if you look at the numbers the war on drugs has become a racist war.”

He noted that African Americans are ten times more likely than white Americans to be imprisoned for the same drug charges. He also noted there were more African Americans in prison or on probation today than there were slaves in America before the civil war.

Dylan added that American taxpayers spent $74 billion on prisons in 2007, with a growing percentage of that money going to private prisons.

“And yes, publicly traded for profit prison companies exist,” he said. “These companies have massive political and lobbying wings to keep the war on drugs alive, as they also happen to use the very prisoners as cheap labor.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/16/dylan-ratigan-racism-was-rebranded-the-war-on-drugs/

It was great to see this brought up on a national news cast.

yeah i seen this on ratigans show ..

Another reason that in some cases the Private sector does not do better than Government. Private prisons have no reason for the war on drugs as it is now to end.

Strange... I brought up the circumstances surrounding "Prisons for profit" when I was living in Canada(7years ago), and none gave a fuck then.

Funny how things change.

Maybe your style rubs people the wrong way and they stop listening.

7 years ago the U.S. was ruled by the Bush Regime..

Anyone who disagreed with this Government was said to be the enemy..
The Media played a role in this too...

So called Conservatives absolutely supported privately run Prisons then and even now..

Private prisons and the adverse impact of the drug war on minorities goes far back beyond the 90's and probably goes back to Nixon. It's become much worse, but the seeds were sewn long ago. Private prisons were promoted with Federal UDAG money in the 80s, and that required that they maintain a certain level of occupancy. That led to a connection between the enforcement of laws and the occupancy level in the private facilities. I worked in the media and complained about it then, but the idea was adopted by many jurisdictions in the US.

Exclusive - Elizabeth Warren Extended Interview Pt. 1
In this unedited, extended interview, Elizabeth Warren considers cuts in education and research spending detrimental and calls on America to invest in its middle class.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-ja...interview-pt--1

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-ja...interview-pt--2

Awesome interview!