19 WAS NOT GOOD FOR BLACK FOLK

Re: "Prop 19 Didn't Resonate With Minority Voters," Full Disclosure,
11/9I almost spit the fried rice out of my mouth reading the last
paragraph. While it might be worthy to visit race and Props 8 and 19,
you would have to first start with the basics and how social values
and economics play in and stop overestimating how socially liberal
black folks are.

There is no benefit to black people to pass prop 19, even with the
"pushers" of Prop 19 trying to sell us that the black arrest rate for
pot crimes vs. whites will somehow go down. Dale Gieringer from
California NORML laid it out real well, "the fact is that blacks and
Latinos are targeted for ALL crimes, and so marijuana just isn't
different in that regard." It is also insulting to think that that is
the only thing we would care about. Most blacks know that even with
passage nothing would have changed, in fact, crime would have gone up
and there would be MORE nickel and dime street dealers trying to
"come up" selling pot, hence, more violence in our streets and more
arrests. And really access is not an issue either, today anyone could
pay a yearly $150 fee to the thousands of prescribing doctors, get a
medical card, and grow a nice personal decent amount - EVEN IF
NOTHING IS MEDICALLY WRONG WITH YOU. (Just look in the Express ads,
you'll find at least 50.)

What Prop 19 proponents FAILED to discuss was how specifically black
communities were going to benefit economically. The pyramid scheme
had already been worked out with the local and state government, the
Big 4 grow houses, the permitting process, and the Pharma industry.
Where and how were black and brown folks going to fit in?? Was it in
the role of the $10.00 an hour hired security guards or the
minimum-wage pot-picking farmer?

One other thing to note is that those grow houses and lil' weed shops
were not going to be placed in the neighborhoods of the very same
loud white people arguing and financing the legalization of pot. They
did not have to worry about their neighborhoods becoming a
militarization zone, or property values going down, because they are
not going to accept that shyt in their own backyards.

Lastly, the biggest failure was not being up front about what the
social impacts were. I am a consumer of pot and one of those blacks
who voted NO when I got into the booth. I didn't trust Prop 19, and
knew deep down inside that "no good" could ever come out of
legalizing "another "drug that might impact the overall wellness of
my people and community - a community that already was in danger and
fragmented with poverty, single parenting, failing schools, and
unsafe neighborhoods. Lest I mention, a community that never
recovered from that nagging crack cocaine epidemic that decimated
lives, families, and neighborhoods forever, but pot is cool and
sanctioned? Really!??

As for proponents of Prop 8, they missed the mark on a lot of
"inconvenient truths" - but that is a different post.

Beverly Marie, Oakland