POETS, ACTIVISTS TO DISCUSS RACISM IN DOMESTIC DRUG POLICY

The University of Rhode Island Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)
will host performance art and a round table discussion Saturday to examine
how the enforcement of drug laws in the United States and abroad
disproportionally affects people of color.

"Black and White: An Evening of Poetry and Discussion about Race, Class and
War on Drugs" will feature multimedia poetry presentations by
Colombia-native Alixa Garcia and New Yorker Naimu Penniman. The works of
both poets are based on the negative aspects of the war on drugs.

Clifford Wallace Thornton of the Connecticut-based reform group Efficacy
will speak on how domestic drug policy has hurt minority communities, while
National SSDP Director Scarlett Swedlow will discuss proposed changes to
the 1998 Higher Education Act. The act, enacted by Congress, denies federal
aid to students with drug convictions.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the
Multicultural Center's Hardge Forum from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Tom Angell, former SSDP President at URI and one of the event's organizers,
said Thornton is the foremost speaker in the drug reform movement. Thornton
recently spoke to the Parliament of New Zealand on the country's drug
policies, which Angell said are similar to those of the United States.

Angell and SSDP President-elect Dan Rosenkrantz said they recently saw
Garcia and Penniman perform at their group's national conference in
January. The poets used props and projected slideshow images of poverty in
Colombia to evoke tears from their audiences.

"It was powerful," Angell said. "It's their way of offering their support
to the drug reform movement. Art is an integral part of social change
movements in the past."

Angell said today's laws against drug possession have racist foundations.
As a result, African American males have a one in four chance of going to
jail. In a nation where 13 percent of its population is African American,
nearly 55 percent of all individuals convicted of drug charges are black,
he said.

In addition, Angell said it is the norm for people of higher socio-economic
status to pay for legal representation and avoid conviction, while the poor
cannot afford counsel. Since the early 1900s, drug laws have been designed
to target minority communities, Angell said.

"The justification for the laws was to protect white daughters from crazy,
reefer toking, Negro jazz musicians," he said.

Saturday's event is cosponsored by the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, the Latin American Student Association,
Raise Your Voice, URI Students for Social Change and the International
Collegiate Organization for Nonviolence.