BLACKS CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE OF AMERICA'S WAR ON DRUGS

Afew lines in the disgraceful report by Human Rights Watch lays out
the reason why all Americans should be alarmed by the disparate
incarceration rates between blacks and whites.

"The racially disproportionate nature of the war on drugs is not just
devastating black Americans," authors of the report concluded.

"It contradicts faith in the principles of justice and equal
protection of the laws that should be the bedrock of any
constitutional democracy; it exposes and deepens the racial fault
lines that continue to weaken the country and belies its promise as a
land of equal opportunity, and it undermines faith among all races in
the fairness and efficacy of the criminal justice system. Urgent
action is needed, at both the state and federal level, to address this
crisis for the American nation."

This is indeed a crisis and requires more than political
rhetoric.

According to the study, the rate of incarceration for all crimes in
Illinois is 14 times greater for black men than for white, and 57
times greater for drug offenses. Of the 10 states in the study with
the greatest racial disparity, Illinois had the largest disparity.

Given that drug use is "five times greater among whites," it is
obvious that the incarceration rates don't reflect a true picture of
the illegal drug trade in America.

But this distorted picture of drug use and criminal behavior has
helped feed bigotry against blacks generally, and is one of the
reasons it is difficult to close the racial divide.

More importantly, the disparity means blacks are paying a higher price
for crime, including political disenfranchisement, fractured families
and poverty.

Since the majority of us obviously do not see anything wrong with
mandatory sentencing laws that send people who distribute crack
cocaine to prison for a longer period than those who sell powder
cocaine (or we would have demanded that Congress fix the problem by
now), it will do little good for civil rights leaders to appeal to our
sense of fairness.

Yet this injustice is as horrendous as the Jim Crow laws and legal
segregation of our past. Frankly, everyone should be worried that we
may be sitting on a powder keg.

The wide disparity in incarceration rates for blacks and whites
undermines America's promise of liberty and justice and breeds
contempt for the law.

Whether we accept the "black rage" concept or not, how long do our
elected officials think a generation of young black Americans will
wait patiently for America to deliver on its promises?

And if our most important institution is infected with racial bias,
what about our schools, our health care system and the workplace?

When enough people believe those who govern are corrupt or unfair,
there is a great potential for civil disorder. That is the one lesson
we should have learned from the civil rights era and the protests that
erupted over the Vietnam War.

Our government institutions are not immune to racism.

For our political leaders to ignore the racial bias that the arbitrary
enforcement of drug laws have caused sets us all on a dangerous path.

If we don't care about fairness, we ought to care that we are poised
to repeat the costly mistakes of our past.