Political Quotes

“I was excited to see the House take action to promote racial justice this last week. Under the leadership of Karen Bass, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Democratic leadership, we put forth a comprehensive effort to deal with the crying need that we are hearing demands in the street for more racial justice in America. The House has acted. There are many provisions there that are going to make a big difference in terms of being able to balance the scale and protect the interests particularly of minority Americans. Unfortunately, there is one area that remains unaddressed. Perhaps one of the darkest hours in the assault on people of color is Richard Nixon's war on drugs. Nixon's cronies have cynically admitted that it was targeted directly towards people of color and young people. The phony war on drugs contradicted the advice that President Nixon got from his own Blue Ribbon Commission on how to handle cannabis in our country. Instead, the goal was to criminalize, to amp up enforcement, and was specifically targeted toward people of color and young Americans. This has been admitted by John Ehrlichman, who was assistant to President Nixon for domestic policy. They calculated this would be a way to curry favor from the voters, be able to demonize and target the young and people of color. Unfortunately, that war on drugs continues to this day.…”