MetaFilter posts tagged with race and drugs

The Changing Racial Dynamics of the War on Drugs

lunit — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:11:21 -0800

The Changing Racial Dynamics of the War on Drugs. The Sentencing Project has just released a report (pdf) finding that, for the first time in 20 years, the number of Black Americans in state prison for drug offenses has fallen. Between 1999 and 2005, the number of White drug offenders in state prisons rose about 43 percent, while the number of Black offenders declined by 22 percent. One cause may be a rise in the use of drug courts, which are locally administered programs that divert offenders into treatment rather than incarceration. The Sentencing Project has a recent report (pdf) on this issue as well.

Send a Bulllet

Stu-Pendous — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:45:37 -0800

Due to “credible death and kidnapping threats”, T-Pain has cancelled a concert in Guyana for Mashramani, the festival that marks the anniversary of Guyana’s independence from Great Britain. Last years, celebration was soured by a killing spree perpetrated by a heavily armed gang led by man known as “Fine Man”. Because the 23 victims were mainly of East Indian descent, the massacre was a powder keg issue for the tiny South American nation. With a population of 44% East Indian and 30% African ancestries, Guyana tends to be socially and politically divided along ethnic identity lines. What initiated the February 2008 rampage was the fact that “Fine Man’s” (Rondell Rawlins) 18 year-old pregnant girlfriend went missing. The gang leader accused the Ethnic East-Indian controlled government of kidnapping her; employing secret, yet sanctioned vigilante squads to do so. Allegedly linked to the then Guyanese Minister of Home Affairs, these ‘Phantom Death Squads’ have been responsible for the murders of suspected criminals and escaped convicts since 2002. Such squads have also been linked to a prominent Guyanese businessman who may have motives of his own when it comes to his involvement with them. “Fine Man” was killed in a police raid last September. His girlfriend has yet to be found.

Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?

whir — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:02:50 -0800

Prior to his critically acclaimed program The Wire, creator Edward Burns wrote the HBO miniseries The Corner, which also focused on the drug trade in Baltimore. Charles S. Dutton, an African-American Baltimore native and former convict probably best known to most as TV's "Roc," was chosen to direct the miniseries. Who Gets To Tell a Black Story?, part of a Pulitzer-prize winning NYT series on race in America, examines Dutton's take on how to make a TV program which portrays a mostly African-American cast of characters, the struggles and differing perspectives of Dutton and Burns, and how race is portrayed in Hollywood. The Wire junkies looking for a pre-season five re-up may be able to stomp some life out of the following package of previous MeFi links, which everybody already posted while I was trying to craft an awesome, meticulous post about The Wire: HBO prequel videos, an outstanding profile of Burns from the New Yorker, the marriage of the real-life people who formed the basis of The Wire's Omar and The Corner's Fran (this article itself is mentioned towards the end of the Burns profile), an examination of the legal principles in Burns's book Homicide, an interview with the actress who plays Snoop.

I Am Crack

Xurando — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:03:03 -0800

Crack Is Whack (nsfw)

stavrosthewonderchicken — Wed, 25 Jul 2001 00:53:40 -0800

The Incarceration Atlas. Everyone's probably familiar with the usual stat that America has the world's highest rate of incarceration, but there are some other pretty interesting numbers here too, touching on some Metafilter favorites - race, education and drugs. (more inside...)