We were the last in a five-car line going to our summer staff’s last supper. I was an emotional junkyard, trying to process my first year as a camp counselor. Out of nowhere our car pulled to the side, I looked behind us to see the blue and red sirens on the tail of our camp vehicle; my heart sank. They moved liked two wolves ambushing a sheepfold, I don’t know what made me expect good treatment but I was still shocked when they accusingly asked: “Is anyone here on probation?” I was one of the three black men in the car along with a white friend. The car was silent. Jack, our pigment-challenged brother, was the only one to slowly raise his hand. I’ve had plenty of time to go over that day in my head but one question still nags me: Whose hands were the officers expecting to see?
After the tragic Trayvon Martin case and the horribly racist reaction to Rue in “The Hunger Games,” two things are clear about race relations in America. One, the nation still has a problem. Two, we are wary of talking about it, or as Obama himself has said, “Those who would genuinely like to see racial inequality ended … tend to push back against racial victimization.” However, though we are being painfully awakened from our illusion of equality, one of the worst uman rights horrors continues under naive noses: the mass incarcerations of African-Americans, propagated by the unfair war on drugs.
Unequal punishment in the war on drugs
Recently Pat Robertson, “The 700 Club” host and influential force on the religious right, stated in regard to America’s drug policy, “Prisons are being overcrowded with juvenile offenders having to do with drugs. And the penalties, the maximums, some of them could get 10 years for possession of a joint of marijuana. It makes no sense at all.” As an alternative to simply locking up non-violent marijuana users, Robertson states, “I believe in working with the hearts of people and not locking them up.”
“There are more African-American adults under correction control today than were enslaved in 1850,” according to civil rights activist Michelle Alexander. “Among adult men in 2010, African Americans were incarcerated at a rate of 5,525 per 100,000, compared to 1,146 for Latinos, 671 for non-Latino whites, and 43 for Asians,” according to the public policy institute of California.
While this may seem like a matter of personal responsibility it is important to note that “blacks and whites use drugs at approximately the same rates yet African-Americans are 10 times as likely to be imprisoned for drug offenses,” says Michelle Alexander in her article Cruel and Unequal. “It is in the poverty-stricken, racially segregated ghettos, where the War on Poverty has been abandoned and … the drug war has been waged with ferocity,” according to Alexander.
The roots of this war go back to 1982 when Reagan declared war on drugs — before crack had hit the streets. In order to rally support for it, he hired a staff to publicize the problem, according to Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow.” Rapidly the media was flooded with images of the typical “crack whore,” “crack dealers” and “crack babies,” intending to fill the populace with fear and in turn support the struggle.
Christians empowered to bring justice
Despite these depressing statistics, the time for groveling and guilt is over. Christians should follow the example of the courageous remnant willing to take a stand against this well-intentioned but futile war — like Prohibition, the drug war has done basically nothing to mitigate the problem, but has only exacerbated it. Organizations such as the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference and the Veterans of Hope Project, are creating faith-based, grassroots movements to begin to discuss how to stop the war and come up with attractive alternatives. In January, the United Methodist Church made a particularly bold move and divested its funds from any corporation that gets 10 percent of its gross revenues from private prisons. Christians should take a lesson.
As sinners saved by grace, we more than anyone should be advocating for people not only to be given a second chance, but also given everything they need to live a peaceful and godly life.
Unfortunately, the drug problem is perpetuated by much more than choices made by individuals. America’s inner cities have been outright neglected and demonized by most of its middle and upper class citizens. While it’s true that most of the people in prison have committed a crime, I wonder how many of us would be qualified to cast the first stone. It is clear that our Jerusalem is in peril and this could very well be, as Jesus warned, our time of visitation: Will we act and speak or stay silent and risk God’s judgment?
The cops told us they pulled us over for a busted tail light; we checked it and it was just fine. That day I stopped believing the fairy tale that we live in racial paradise. I had no excuse to live in that fantasy land anymore. One of Jesus’ inaugural vows was to set the prisoner free. Unfortunately, it seems that once again Christians, not unbelievers need the chains to fall from our own ignorance. Let us pray that we would be empowered to restore justice’s blind vision, so that the kingdom would continue to come on earth as it is in Heaven.
