Raymond Milco AAS 201 19 April, 2012 Prof.

Kwon Marijuana, A Racial Motivated Ban Marijuana has been used dating back to 2737 B.C.E. in China and until the rapid decline in legalization, was a widely accepted drug. For marijuana to be classified as a Schedule 1 drug in 1970 along side Heroin and LSD, while virtually causing no overdose, must have an underlying factor in its recent criminalization. By digging deeper into the prohibition of marijuana, I uncover the facts that helped the growing tension of racial inequality as well as the new monster of racially influenced propaganda to add to the power of whiteness. Racial bias, prejudice, and profiling all account for the ever-lasting biased convictions and a raging increase in racial separation amongst this war on marijuana. Propaganda has helped society fixate onto racial projects that allow them to easily assimilate the dangers of marijuana with the influx of immigrants that were entering the U.S at the time. It was the greed and power that truly powered these individuals to attack a new incoming member of society (immigrants) to create a globalization of their product. Which then creates a roller coaster affect of our current state-of-mind of racial assimilation and ignorance that marijuana deems negative in our society because of minorities. This affects our circulating stand point on marijuana where coincidently more black people and Latinos are arrested in America for marijuana felonies than whites. Through the corruption of some political leaders and activists, racial profiling and assimilation has become apart of the marijuana convictions and this on-going racial inequality on an essentially harmless drug. Marijuana has not been legal for less than one percent of the time it was first reported on our Earth. Not only was it highly accepted, our founding father, Thomas Jefferson, deemed it was necessary

to utilize this plant in our everyday lives as he said it was, ...first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country. The marijuana laws came in 1910 when Mexican immigrants, stricken with poverty, were known for bringing marijuana into California and smoking it for, which sparked the first ban on what is ironically called loco weed. The term marijuana was not regularly used in America until it was associated with Mexico, where they called it marihuana. Interestingly enough, further concern was created not for the use by immigrants, but by mormons who were traveled to Mexico and returned to Salt Lake City. The all white Mormon church's reaction soon affected many other states' legalization laws. Religious groups are in doubt always bias, especially when their religion talks about how blacks are the descendant of Cain, who was marked after killing his brother. Of course they would be apprehensive towards minorities, since believing that their own race was in all superior and was prioritized in life. Mormon churches are a powerful aspect in the political and even economic forces that run not only Utah, but other states influenced by this religion. Would an all Mexican catholic church react in the same abrupt way? Black citizens were another race amongst the hazing of the narcotics enforcement. Marijuana and jazz, mostly consisting of black musicians, traveled from New Orleans to Chicago, and then to Harlem, where marijuana became an indispensable part of the music scene. In a 1934 editorial, Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white mens shadows and look at a white woman twice, Harry Angslinger wrote. African Americans have unfortunately faced decades of hardship trying to assimilate themselves into the American society. They continuously prove otherwise that they are compatible of being beneficial and a non-disturbance just trying to get by in America. Obvious lies and rumors were spread throughout the country for a very sovereign purpose that further inhibited them to live normal lives, when they were just trying to live with a smile in this harsh world. What reason would provoke them to spread such fallacious scandal? Throughout American history it was entirely possible for a man to use hemp as a medium of exchange to support his/her family.

Harry Angslinger, a white paranoid marijuana anti-activist,became the director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. There he teams up with William Randolph Hurst, the head of a wealthy newspaper company, to proceed with their greedy, power hungry agenda. Hurst invested millions in the timber industry to support his newspaper company, a machine designed to effectively process hemp paper for cheap also threatened his business. They begin releasing marijuana based propaganda to increase their political and financial stand-point. Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victims life in Los Angeles? THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES that is a matter of cold record, he writes in his nationwide columns, where he associated marijuana to a crime that occurred in Los Angeles. Ironically, a 1934 psychiatric investigation concluded that practically all convicted minority offenders in New York City during 1932- 1933 were not at all addicted to marijuana nor did it relate to their crimes. After two years and a series of followers and Angslinger activists, Angslinger presented his plan for ultimate illegalization to congress, where he presented the many yellow journalism written by Hearst. Hemp, being a non psychoactive derivative of marijuana, should have never been apart of the ban, but Hearst made it a point to subordinate it with the Mexicans and Blacks that were smoking it as well to create a socialistic feud. Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical Association, fought for the legalization, but was soon attacked by the committee council for his motives, the deception and extreme berate was too powerful for Woodward and the council to move forward. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was enacted making marijuana and all derivatives of it illegal on a federal level, yellow journalism has defeated medical scientist. Thus the facile racist process to batter the minorities and increase their status has been incorporated in the advancing possessive investment of whiteness. The Marijuana Tax Act soon spiraled into a frenzy to further eliminate minorities in America. Any type of negative acts minorities did were somehow connected to the use of marijuana. Inviting a new

member into society can be a bit apprehensive for the community, and adding on to their uncertainty with these false accusations of this evil weed deems it almost impossible for minorities to assimilate into the culture. At this time immigrants, moreover the Mexicans, were welcome as a source of cheap labor helping farm for America, but after the Great depression and the Marijuana Tax Act, citizens and business owners wanted them and many minorities out. Black citizens were also able to assimilate themselves into the American society, since they have been apart of the American community for a very long period of time. Some were able to achieve respectable paying jobs and in a way were slowly working towards achieving financial and social respect; the American dream. When the Great Depression hit, jobs became scarce, and the white men became increasingly weary of their possessive investment in having superiority over them in America. Since this raid of racial marijuana propaganda was already being ensued by Angslinger and his greedy accomplice, William Hearst, the African-Americans and Mexicans were the easiest of targets for deportation. 9,000 Mexicans were deported each year during the 1930s and increased after Angslinger successfully passed the Marijuana Tax Act. A typed script of a speech delivered by Mr. Angslinger (1938) to the National Catholic Welfare Conference expresses that the principle patronage of marijuana projects in New York was "colored men of the racketeer type and white prostitutes" listening to swing music. Arrests began to increase and the social process between minority crimes and marijuana grew even hastier. In a sense this law was passed specifically targeting the minorities, since very few recollections of white crimes were administered by Angslinger and his team to ban Marijuana, this was in a manner ensued to regulate and control the minority population. Oppression became a form of increasing priorities for the white man, though their use of marijuana was just as high if not more commodious, were under the radar while minorities were getting the short end of the stick. Currently, the arrests made towards minorities for even the smallest marijuana possession is flabbergasting. National evidence indicates that blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates,but that black people are three times more likely to be arrested for possessing marijuana. In New York City,

arrests for marijuana possession for latinos are four times the rate of whites, and blacks at seven times the rate of whites. Since the ban on Marijuana was founded off of racism and improper assimilation, it is no wonder minorities are more likely to be stopped by officers, though if you consider the fact that many New Yorker, minority or white, possess marijuana. Unfortunately the minorities are essentially paying for their own demise through the tax that are helping this war on such harmful product. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg uses CIA tactics to target ethnic communities and has also marshaled his massive police force to expand the so-called Clean Halls program in which police enter private apartment buildings to conduct preemptive surveillance. Why wouldn't he commission his police force to scrutinize the higher end houses of New York City, when white men are also heavily involved in the growth and marketing of marijuana? By targeting minorities for drug possessions, this puts a record on them that affects the rest of their lives. They are inhibited to getting jobs, schooling, loans, and housing, thus is another part of white Americans gaining from the oppression of others. Since our economy is based off of competition, it is in our own greedy interest to look out for our most assimilated citizens even if it casts out the hard-working ambitious minorities, though our nation claims unity. Selfishness should not be apart of American culture, in which those who are hardworking and do not account for any apodeictic crimes should be left alone regardless of what race. Marijuana has since been proved to cause none of the horrendous accusations that claimed to associate the use of it, primarily to minorities. The minorities and to all, including whites that used it adopted it as just another part of recreation enjoyment, just like drinking alcohol. They also used it as medicine, declaring that it stops pain, eases nausea, and even relieves spasticity in MS patients with hardly any negative side-effects. In no way did it make them violent or impel them to rape the children of white men. Fear coerces people to believe sometimes untrue facts in the form of ignorance. Angslinger capitalizes on this. Marijuana was never an uncommon novelty in America. Since the minorities used it,

and were associated with poverty and crime, Angslinger put two and two together, devising his perfectly formulated plan to relate two completely unrelated occurrences to scare the public. At this moment marijuana discontinued being a well recognized substance for the basic American commodity and became this demonized substance that caused these impoverished immigrants to commit crimes and harass the American citizens. Today, we still see forms of yellow journalism in which instead of conclusive lies, fear is the prime suspect of persuading American citizens to believe in exaggerated affairs. Just look at the news. Almost everything we see on T.V news involves either completely pointless problems that appeal to the emotions, or fear that is inputed into us, in which the government assures us that they have a solution . Currently we view an aggregation of this war on pot, specifically targeting Mexico. When people think of drug cartels, for most Americans they automatically assume Mexican gangs. Why do you think that is? I feel this is another form of oppressing the Mexican natives and immigrants in America. Mexico is not the only source of drug trafficking in America. Extremely harmful drugs, such as heroin and morphine, are imported mostly from Middle Eastern and Asian countries, in which those types of drugs are affectively hurting American citizens. Yet, hardly anyone seems concerned with foreign countries bringing in drugs other than Mexico. In the past, Asian immigrants and European immigrants in-fluxed into American society in which them too were apart of the hazing and discrimination associated with trying to assimilate themselves in the culture. But thanks to their financial and educational background they were slowly able to rise above and become just another citizen of America, leaving the blacks and Mexican immigrants to fall in the shadows. Oppression is caused by lack of income and education and the lack of income and education is caused by oppression. America has the power to help, but why don't they? This then leads to the disparity of having to find harsh, labor oriented jobs to support their families. These labor oriented jobs actually benefit the white community in which they are not the exemplary designators to do them. They

are left free to proceed any jobs they reasonably desire, while minorities, moreover Mexicans and blacks, are left no choice to pursue labor intensive jobs, since they are left without proper education all resulting from a history of racial bias and discrimination. Thus this stigmatic fear that marijuana and violence come from drug cartels, a.k.a all mexicans, further oppresses them, in which it actually promotes the white citizens. This is sadistic. Most minorities I have met personally are not concerned in providing drugs for the U.S, but are simply just trying to get by with this disgraced notion that they are up to no good. America purposely attacks Mexicans in a majority of their news companies, to continuously suppress their ability to correlate themselves as just a normal human being trying to live happily. The white citizens continue to rise above, since competition with other minorities are limited, so essentially their only competition are other white commoners, in which they too are receiving lucrative jobs. With this blemished remark, this forever affects them in which there will always be false concern and bias towards these minorities when trying to receive non labor oriented jobs, proper schooling, and loans to achieve more out of life. It is clear that since the beginning of this apocryphal allegation against marijuana, minorities were the quintessential reason for the white political leaders to promote themselves and afflict minorities for greed. Marijuana obviously does not cause people to want to rape white woman or try to defeat the white race as Harry Angslinger implied. Yet throughout the 1930's to now, minorities are still being targeted as the essential beings stigmatized by these lies. Many immigrants were deported back for mere racial prejudice and are still being arrested and deported at alarming rates. Marijuana is used by all races especially whites, but the white race stands in the shadows and smiles while the minority next to them is being arrested for possession. This long-lasting inequality first presented by Angslinger and his team still oppresses those he targeted and is currently benefiting the white race. White people can use all the marijuana they want and still get lucrative jobs, while these horrible notions placed on these minorities are affecting their chances of assimilating themselves into the American ethnic life. There are still many

suffering from this in which it is hard form them to receive appropriate education, well training for jobs, and equality to live happy lives. Stop these assumptions allocated with these individuals and understand that marijuana does not negatively affect our community because of minorities nor is it even relevant to detrimental occurrences that happen in America.

Bibliography Kornblum, William. "Drug Legalization and the Minority Poor." The Milbank Quarterly 69.3 (1991): 415-35. Print.

This article is very useful in examining how the prohibition of marijuana is greatly affecting the poor minorities. How creating this black market heavily burdens their community with money, violence, and racial projects formed souly from the accusations created by this prohibition. This creates an unstoppable stereotype that blames minorities as the root of the drug problem instead of the position of the drug itself.

Roberts, Thomas. "When the Drug War Hits the Fan." The Phi Delta Kappan 1st ser. 73.1 (1991): 58-61. JSTOR. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. This article depicts the injustice claims attributed to the minorities. How lies helped corner the minorities and cause a structure of racial projects associated with the war on drugs. This shows the outlandish baised assault against the minorities giving reason to prohibit marijuana, though obviously the prohibition of the drug itself and the lies to scare the public is the one at fault for these racial formed projects. To fund a war, the people must be afraid, and to create a large society of scared citizens, over-exaggerated and unnecessary concern must be pumped into our nation.

Kaplan, John. "Laws and Morals." Marijuana-The New Prohibition 3984th ser. 172 (1971): 703-05. JSTOR. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. This article explains the progression of the misconceived notion concerning the marijuana prohibition. How the influx of Mexican immigrants along with other minority immigrants allowed America to successfully place the blame on. Also allowing a prohibition to exist coincidently creates an entrance to a black market, where the people that were blamed become constructed into what they are being blamed for through racial assimilation. Kaplan explains that this public policy affectively ostracizes people, which in doubt creates racial segregation and projects.

Guither, Pete. "Why Is Marijuana Illegal?" Drug WarRant. 26 July 2003. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. <http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/>.

Pete explains very throughly of all the false accusations and lies that were brought upon the ban against marijuana. He categorizes these events in a very easily obtainable manner, also in chronological order. He lists key facts and bullet points that each factor of illegalizing took place. I think he is a very good source when wanting to understand key facts of this stupid marijuana prohibition.