Yes thanks largely to the war on drugs, a war that has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies have consistently shown that people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, the war of drugs waged in these ghetto communities, has managed to brand as felons, millions of people of color for relatively minor nonviolent drug offenses.
And once branded a felon they're ushered into a permanent second class status not unlike the one we supposedly left behind.

Those labeled felons may be denied the right to vote, are automatically excluded from juries and may be legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, public assistance benefits, much like their grandparents or great grandparents may have been discriminated against.......

During the Jim Crow era.
During the Jim Crow era.

That's right, the war on drugs contrary to popular belief was not declared in response to rising drug crime. Actually the war on drugs, the current drug war, was declared in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan at a time when drug crime was actually on the decline.

A few years later crack cocaine hit the streets in poor communities of color across America and the Reagan administration hired staff to publicize crack babies, crack mothers, crack dealers in inner city communities in an effort to build public support and more funding and ensure funding for.......

The new war that had been declared.
The new war had been declared.

But the drug war had relatively little to do with drug crime even from the outset. The drug war was launched in response to racial politics, not drug crime. The drug war was part of the Republican Party's grand strategy, often referred to as the southern strategy, in an effort to appeal to poor and working class white voters who were threatened by, felt vulnerable, threatened by the gains of the Civil Rights movement. Particularly desegregation, busing and affirmative action.

And the Republican party found that it could get white working class poor Democrats to defect from the democratic New Deal coalition and join the Republican party through racially coded political appeals on issues of crime and welfare and the strategy worked like a charm. Within weeks of the Reagan administration's publicity campaign around crack cocaine, images of black crack users and crack dealers flooded our nation's television sets and forever changed our nation's conception of who drug users and dealers are. And the law enforcement efforts became targeted on poor communities of color in.......

The drug war.
The drug war.

Drug law enforcement agencies, state and local task forces committed to drug law enforcement have been rewarded for drastically increasing the volume of drug arrests. Many people think the drug war has been targeted at violent offenders or aimed at routing out drug kingpins but nothing can be further from the truth. Local and state law enforcement agencies get rewarded for the sheer numbers of drug arrests. And federal drug forfeiture laws allow state and local law enforcement officials to keep 80 percent of the cash, cars and homes that they seize from suspected drug offenders. Granting to law enforcement a direct monetary interest in the profitability and longevity in.......

The drug war.
The drug war.