Comments on: Mythbusters: Mass Incarceration

By: Kyle Watkins

Kyle Watkins — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 20:51:23 +0000

This makes me think of the a comparison in one of the readings comparing the conviction rates of crack cocaine uses versus powder cocaine. They’re controlled, looked for, and policed based on the associations drawn between them and race. I find that not only are laws enforced differently depending on the race of the subject, but the laws are shaped to stronger control and focus on illegal activities in the form that is associated with certain racial groups versus the activity in its entirety. Take cannabis, any college student is exposed to its presence on campus – either directly or through association, yet (in my experience at Muhlenberg at least) you don’t see it heavily sought after and controlled by campus police. Even this growing “vape culture” doesn’t seem to be heavily regulated and it seems to be parallel to the racial implications of “vape life.”

By: Julia Carroll Beatley

Julia Carroll Beatley — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 22:33:51 +0000

One of the more profound arguments I’ve heard is the comparison of mass incarceration to modern-day slavery, and I can’t say I disagree. The way that we’ve racialized drug use and drug laws, allowing our criminal justice system to criminalize and detain people of color all-the-while ignoring the use of drugs among whites and the upper class is nothing short of newly configured enslavement. Between neighborhood policing, in-school policing and general prejudicial perceptions, our criminal justice system has feigned a new social construction of oppression. Non-violent drug crimes and cannabis distributers are statistically men of color because they’re the ones that are under a microscope — the predominantly white institutions and college campuses across the country don’t face this threat despite the blatant drug use and “criminal” activity.