War on Drugs Injustice

According to this article, 

Still, D.C. isn’t exactly Amsterdam: More per capita marijuana arrests are made in the District than in any other jurisdiction in the country, according to a recent analysis of MPD and FBI data by Shenandoah University criminal justice professor Jon Gettman, the former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Pot arrests have been rising steadily every year since at least 2003, mirroring a national trend that began in the 1990s. And they didn’t really work. “We doubled marijuana arrests and it had no effect on the number of users,” Gettman says.
But even with a high arrest rate, some people in D.C. can probably safely get high without worrying that the cops are coming. Those people are white people. In 2007, 91 percent of those arrested for marijuana were black. In a city whose population demographics are steadily evening out, that’s odd. In fact, adjusting for population, African Americans are eight times as likely to be arrested for weed as white smokers are.

 Is there another side to the story? Most likely. However, it doesn't change the fact that African Americans have been negatively impacted by these policies far more than any other racial group.

H/t http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2011/08/29/the-racial-injustice-of-the-war-on-drugs/

Today I propose a more suitable definition for GOP

 

Enough said.

Diversity in the US Senate

The first US Senators were elected in 1789. In over two hundred years, only 16 states, or about 30%, have ever elected a non-white Senator. Currently, there are zero African-American Senators, two or Asian/Pacific Islander descent, and two Hispanic Senators in office. In other words, 96% of the US Senate is currently white, compared to about 72% of the population. The lack of African-American representation in the Senate is especially confounding, though, as this blog points out, several factors account for this discrepancy.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Members_of_the_111th_United_States_Congress#Race.2Fethnicity 

State-level Representation

At the state level of government, there still persists a considerable level of inequality. Among the 50 state governors, non-Hispanic Whites make up 90% of the governors, and in general are overrepresented by almost 20%. There is currently only one African-American governor, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. There have only been three African-American governors since Reconstruction, over a century ago. In that time, African-Americans have never made up less than 9% of the total US population.

Clearly, there has been significant progress made. 10% of the current governors are non-white, which would have been unheard of in this country not too long ago. However, it is still a far cry from achieving a level representative of our country's true diversity. If we can't say that the officials we elect collectively represent us, then why are we putting them into offices to represent us?

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_%28United_States%29#Race_and_ethnicity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_demographics#Race_and_ethnicity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_American
http://texasliberal.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/three-black-governors-since-reconstruction-who-have-they-been/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American

Current Perceptions

 

Source: http://civilrightsproject.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/racialin.jpg

Welcome to the blog

Though the Civil Rights Movement has been largely successful at bringing equal rights to minorities and other groups, the society in which we live today is far from being equal and fair. However, mainstream media often tries to push the perception that we are indeed living in a much more balanced society.

This blog intends to highlight the continuing disparities in American society through graphical and visual representations. Though many in this country think we have achieved equality, in reality it still remains a distant goal to strive for.