The war on drugs has affected the black community disproportionately.  Studies have shown that blacks and whites under the age of 25 use at a similar rate, yet more blacks tend to be incarcerated for it.  This is not evidence of systemic racism.  This is a byproduct of black communities being policed more heavily due to higher rates of violent crime.  However, this doesn't prevent people from these communities from feeling like they are targets of discrimination.  How do you solve the issue of violent crime?  The best data that correlates to violent crime rate, as far as I can tell, is children being raised in fatherless homes.  The black family unit survived slavery and Jim Crow with their family unit in tact, but it was basically disintegrated by the introduction of welfare.  Black communities need to either start making a better effort to keep their family unit in tact or start reporting and condemning individuals who resort to violence.  

 

If I were to start somewhere to improve racial relations (specifically blacks and whites), I would focus on rehabilitation for drug users with no violent crime, and attempt to overhaul welfare by encouraging the families to stay together (it really needs to be thoroughly re-evaluated, but that is a starting point).  It should never become a generation to generation lifestyle, but that is what it has become.  

 

I also think it's extremely disingenuous to equate racial minorities with oppression.  Asians, for example, do statistically better than whites in virtually every category.  That's a completely different discussion, though.  

 

1981, if you want to have an honest discussion about race, we can always sit and talk about it.  It's just hard to really time consuming to type on the internet all the history and data that corresponds with this subject.  

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