Getting the Message Out
Last night, I went to an event at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center. Rainier Valley is Seattle's predominantly African-American neighborhood, and the event was a forum to discuss ending the War on Drugs. For some time, the belief among many in the African-American community has been that getting drugs out of their community is a vital part of keeping crime down, but as this strategy has continued to produce only disaster for these communities, there seems to be a growing realization that a new approach is needed.
There were over 500 attendees there to see four speakers: King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, University of Washington Professor Katherine Beckett, local activist and recovering addict John Page (someone needs to make a web page for this dude, he totally brought the house down), and former Seattle Police Chief, author, and LEAP member Norm Stamper.
The speakers rattled off the alarming statistics showing what affect the drug war is having on black communities right now. One thing that really hit home with the crowd is the fact that Seattle's racial disparity in drug arrests is actually worse than all other mid-sized American cities, a statistic Dr. Beckett showed during her speech, garnering some gasps from the crowd. She was later asked why this is happening, and her first guess was probably right, that because Seattle's black community is very small, they don't have the political clout to stop it (I've been meaning to ask Ron Sims about this the next time he comes to Drinking Liberally).
As I mentioned, John Page gave a very funny, self-deprecating speech which really connected with the people in the room at an emotional level, and it made me realize that even though we have the numbers on our side (and we have for a while), the real movement happens when people find that emotional connection to the issue that inspires them to act. I've never been at an event like the one last night. When I started meeting other people involved in ending the drug war, I'd often hear how hard it was to convince the African-American community that the drug war was killing their communities. After last night, it's easy to become convinced that this is finally starting to change.
There were over 500 attendees there to see four speakers: King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, University of Washington Professor Katherine Beckett, local activist and recovering addict John Page (someone needs to make a web page for this dude, he totally brought the house down), and former Seattle Police Chief, author, and LEAP member Norm Stamper.
The speakers rattled off the alarming statistics showing what affect the drug war is having on black communities right now. One thing that really hit home with the crowd is the fact that Seattle's racial disparity in drug arrests is actually worse than all other mid-sized American cities, a statistic Dr. Beckett showed during her speech, garnering some gasps from the crowd. She was later asked why this is happening, and her first guess was probably right, that because Seattle's black community is very small, they don't have the political clout to stop it (I've been meaning to ask Ron Sims about this the next time he comes to Drinking Liberally).
As I mentioned, John Page gave a very funny, self-deprecating speech which really connected with the people in the room at an emotional level, and it made me realize that even though we have the numbers on our side (and we have for a while), the real movement happens when people find that emotional connection to the issue that inspires them to act. I've never been at an event like the one last night. When I started meeting other people involved in ending the drug war, I'd often hear how hard it was to convince the African-American community that the drug war was killing their communities. After last night, it's easy to become convinced that this is finally starting to change.
posted by thehim at 7:28 AM
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