Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday: Is the Drug War the Next Big Civil Rights Issue?
With Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday approaching, we are forced to draw connections between the war on drugs and the disintegration of low-income and black communities in America. As Dr. King so poignantly reminds us in his critique of the Vietnam War, “a time comes when silence is betrayal.”
With many communities disparately impacted by the drug war, many of us working for justice have come to the realization that America’s war on drugs is really a war on families and communities. In the spirit of Dr. King, we must now ask: Has this assault on the poor and the marginalized become the next big civil rights struggle?
Civil rights advocates are honoring Dr. King’s legacy by standing up against the “new Jim Crow” – mass incarceration and the racially disproportionate war on drugs. It is impossible to talk frankly and honestly about racism without talking about the drug war. Few U.S. policies have had such a devastating effect on Blacks, Latinos and other racial minorities than the drug war. Every aspect of the war on drugs – from arrests to prosecutions to sentencing – is disproportionately carried out against minorities. Read the full story at AlterNet.