By Rickey Hampton, Editor and Founder of The African-American Athlete
When you look at why we have not been able to solve the issue of racial justice in America, one of the primary problems is how people of color see things much differently than white people. And, more so, how issues that impact black people are looked at differently than issues that impact white people.
Just look at how politicians and lawmakers are responding to the Opioid epidemic, which has ravaged many in the white community, and then think back to the reaction to Crack epidemic in the 80’s and 90’s that devastated the black community.
Today, lawmakers want to work with these ‘victims’ of Opioid addiction, but they wanted to put every Crack addict in jail, and legislated to do just that.
But that is simply how this society looks at race. A black man’s Crack addiction is due to a lack of discipline and morals. A white man’s addiction to Opioids is merely a terrible, and unfortunate situation gone wrong. They must be helped, not incarcerated. But why can’t anyone with the a drug addiction get help, regardless of their color? Check out attorney Ekow Yankah on this topic:
