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Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Paul Street at Mar 30, 2005

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I took some time out from the great proletarian revolution today to join some smart student activists in lobbying some key Chicago media authorities to oppose the Drug Provision that was added to the Higher Education Act in 1998..... Under this noxious provision, one of the worst and most transparently racist pieces of legislation currently on the books, federal college student financial aid is denied to anyone who possesses a prior drug conviction. I can't really do much better than "Students for a Sensible Drug Policy" in making the case for the repeal of this hideous legislation. Here are that organization's talking points on the HEA Drug Provision. "1. Since the Drug Provision was added to the Higher Education Act in 1998, more than 153,000 students have been ineligible for federal educational aid as a result of their response to the question about drug convictions on the FAFSA. (This number does not account for students who the question deterred from applying for aid in the first place.) 2. The HEA Drug Provision hurts the children of low- and middle-income families - the same people the HEA is intended to assist. Students who qualify for federal financial aid receive that aid because tuition costs would otherwise prevent them attending college. The Drug Provision constitutes one more obstacle in their pursuit of the opportunity to overcome the financial restraints which keep them from furthering their education. 3. Removing students' financial aid and forcing them to leave college increases the likelihood that they won't return to complete their studies. The Department of Education reports that among students who left four-year colleges before the beginning of their second year, 36% did not return within five years; 50% of those leaving two-year institutions did not return within five years. 4. The HEA Drug Provision usurps the criminal justice system's authority to administer punishments for violations of the law and punishes individuals twice for the same infraction. Judges already have the discretion on how best hold accountable those who break the law, and, in many cases, have the discretion to revoke a student's federal educational aid. Officials in Washington who do not and cannot know what is best for individual students should not make blanket policies which overstep the discretion of judges and school administrators to deal appropriately with students who use illegal drugs. 5. Entering or returning to college reduces the likelihood that an individual will return to engaging in illegal activity. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there is an inverse relationship between recidivism rates and education. The Correctional Education Association also reports that prisoners who receive at least two years of higher education have a 10% arrest rate, compared with a national re-arrest rate of about 60%. 6. Minorities are disproportionately affected by the HEA Drug Provision. While African Americans make up 13% of the population and 13% of drug users, they account for 55% of all drug convictions. Accordingly, minority groups have far higher percentages of their members who are ineligible for federal financial aid than whites. Currently, more African American men are in prison than in college. 7. Students who cannot afford college tuition are frequently also unable to afford the private drug rehabilitation required by the HEA Drug Provision to resume eligibility for federal financial aid. 8. The HEA already excludes students receiving lower than a "C" average in their studies from receiving federal financial aid. The drug provision, therefore, only denies aid to students who are doing well in school." See http://www.ssdp.org/home/hea_talking_points.htm. Okay, it's me talking again. The top media authority to whom the students activists and I spoke today asked us “why would anyone want a convicted drug offender on a college campus?” Our answer came out of talking point 5: so that we might enhance public safety and cut the huge expenses of mass incarceration ($30,000 per prisoner per year) by reducing ex-offender recidivism. Nothing reduces repeat offenses more than the attainment of some higher education. Is the HEA Drug Provision really racist? You bet. Classically so. See the shocking difference (noted in talking point 6) between blacks as a percentage of drug users (13% -- a match with blacks' share of the overall US population) and blacks as a share of drug prisoners (55%) in the United States In 2000, blacks made up 89 percent of drug prisoners but just 15 percent of total population in my home state (Illinois). Sorry but black Americans are not 89 percent of either the drug dealers or the illegal drug users in the Land of Lincoln. In 2001 and 2002, the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune reported some interesting disparities in Chicago area drug enforcement. When suburban white youth traveled to Chicago's West Side ghetto to purchase heroin and other illegal narcotics, we learned in late 2001, law enforcement authorities “traced the license plates of [the drug purchasers'] cars and notified the registered owners, often a parent, where the vehicle had been.” By June 2002, Cook County prosecutors increased the level of punishment for the young white surbanites, threatening to impound their automobiles and suspend their drivers' licenses. William O'Brien, Chief of Narcotics for the States' Attorney's Office gave the following rationale for this “new crackdown,” which contrasted sharply with the prison sentences faced by 15-yeard inner city (predominantly black) youth caught selling narcotics (sentenced as adults if they moved product within 1000 feet of a public housing project or a school): when it comes to automobile-centered suburban kids, O'brien explained, “driving privileges may resonate more than the threat of jail.” Yeah, okay. I was once a drug-addled delinquent in Ann Arbor, Michigan and as much as I loved my Plymouth Cuda with its 383 engine, 8-Track Cassette (perpetually blaring Deep Purple's “Highway Star”) and Hurst 4-Speed shifter, I distinctly recall fearing the cell blocks of Jackson State Prison more than the loss of my car. What O'Brien also left out, of course, is that a felony conviction – and a felony DRUG conviction especially – carries huge negative consequences long after prison. It's a lifelong marking with deep and many-sided negative implications, including inability to access a federal student college loan. During one year in the 1990s, Chicago law enforcement made 12,000 drug busts in just one of the city's west side police districts. It's a huge and controversial event, however, when local police try to make one drug bust in the dorms of the University of Chicago or Northwestern, where narcotics are certainly enjoyed with no small frequency. It's called white skin and class privelege. Such is the arresting reality of racially selective policing that by 2001 contributed (along with racially disparate sentencing and racially unequal access to quality legal defense) to a situation whereby there were 20,000 more black males in Illinois' prisons than enrolled in the state's public universities. There were more black males in the state's prisons just on drug charges than enrolled in the state's undergraduate degree programs. Would anyone in the dominant media system care to comment on the relationship between all this and the interesting fact that the moronic messianic militarist Yale and Harvard graduate who is currently enjoying his second term in the White House (the first of which was clearly enabled by the electoral disenfranchisement of black ex-drug-offenders) appears to have benefited from the expungement of a youthful cocaine bust from his criminal record? See J.H. Hatfield, Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President (Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull, 2002), pp. 309-318. Which brings me back to the revolution…. In the meantime, please write your Congressman and US Senator and urge them to support the Removing Impediments to Student Education (RISE) Act. Sponsored by Barney Frank (D-MA) with 50 co-sponsors, the RISE Act will repeal the insanely racist HEA Drug Provision. Here are some good links to help you in terms of understanding and acting on this issue: http://www.csdp.org/news/news/heareform.htm http://www.ssdp.org/home/ssdp_campaigns.htm http://www.raiseyourvoice.com/

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Badawi, Faris at Apr 07, 2005 05:56 AM
sorry computer illiteracy has led to the posting of some attenuated and irrelevant nonsense to this thread may try later to make my no doubt idiotic point. all the best perubu.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Badawi, Faris at Apr 07, 2005 05:45 AM
What is interesting is that anyone familiar with actual Muwahidun (wahhabi) ideology would note 2 things firstly the Muwahidun ideology would not support the notion of holy land (shirk) or holy sites ( the saudi government at one time wanted to virtually demolish the prophets tomb to build an overpass in the 70's and were only detered by the outpouring of idignation through out the muslim world). the objections to US military presence in saudi have other origins, but the situation is quite complex and requires real knowledge to understand, not reflexive reference to racist stereotypes. 2nd the strange history of wahhabism and its projenitor muhammad ibni 'abd al-wahhab, is something worth studying but one first of all would require all sorts of ancillary knowledge, interestingly the madhab to which they belong hanbali, are the only school of law which permit beer and grain spirit drinking as the quranic prohibition refers only to khamr, wine, in a lovely example of literalist thought ibni hanbal asserted that since beer and grain alcohol is clearly not wine it is permissable, the other schools beg to differ.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Apr 05, 2005 02:14 AM
"So, if these people want to ignore politics in favor of MTV, world news in favor of Entertainment Tonight, and if they care more about the Oscars than the presidential debates, why don't we let them do exactly that instead of recruiting them to a task that they are only going to screw up?" I doubt that we can start saying that peoples votes, no matter how uninformed, are screw ups, that might be a bit too far. You are correct in your analysis of the distractive nature of popular culture and its ability to create mindless political zombies. Never the less these are people and we need to live with them, maybe ;). So how would we create a more inclusive political system? I would start by creating a system that appreciates more than two parties, I think this right here would reengage people in politics. Off course we would probably have MTV parties and paris hilton parties.... but at least they would be involved.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 04, 2005 05:14 AM
"What exactly do you mean though, treat them like animals?" That depends on the nature of the animal. A rabid dog, or an otherwise dangerous animal that, for whatever reason, can no longer be trusted around people, should either be locked away for life or put down. It was mostly just a figure of speech though. I don't mean actually treating a person like a pet, but I do think the rough parrallel works. Animals can be smarter or dumber, but even the smartest have real limitations compared to people. Even the people who wanted to make whales citizens of CA didn't want them to vote. Don't get me wrong, I am not even suggesting taking the right to vote away from people - too many practical issues for such a system to do anything other than make things worse - but I also don't really support efforts to go out and get-out-the-vote amongst people who don't keep abreast of politics, haven't thought out the issues, and who are really just easy prey for demagaouges and other media-savy types who know how to package a bullshit argument in a pretty bow. So, if these people want to ignore politics in favor of MTV, world news in favor of Entertainment Tonight, and if they care more about the Oscars than the presidential debates, why don't we let them do exactly that instead of recruiting them to a task that they are only going to screw up?

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Apr 04, 2005 01:22 AM
"I think the worth or value of a life comes from how that life is spent and has no real value in simply existing" I agree in part that the goal of all living people should be to better society. That being said it is hard for me, as just one point of view, to make judgements about others. "person who CHOOSES not to excerise this control is CHOOSING to live like an animal. If they desire to be an animal, why should we not agree to treat them like one?" Don't get me started on how badly we treat animals in our society. What exactly do you mean though, treat them like animals?

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 03, 2005 23:59 PM
" I am talking about a society were all are equal, nonhierarchical, and people have merit simply because they are people" Funny how we can have, at heart, very different ideas about this stuff. Frankly, I think the issue of whether people have merit just for being born people is questionable. I think the worth or value of a life comes from how that life is spent and has no real value in simply existing (I am now moving entirely away from race, sex, class, etc. and into individual actions and life choices). A person chooses to make his/her life valuable by how they choose to live their life - and there are choices a person can make which, I feel, take most or all value away from their life. If a person wants the rights and privilages of a human being I think we should expect them to act like a human being. Too many people, however, choose to act like animals and spend their hours doing nothing more than pursuing their basic instinctual urges/desires. One of the things that separates us from the "animals" is our ability to control our behavior - to control our instinctual urges. A person who CHOOSES not to excerise this control is CHOOSING to live like an animal. If they desire to be an animal, why should we not agree to treat them like one?

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Apr 03, 2005 01:33 AM
"Time and time again we see that as soon as a power-center is destroyed another one rises to take it's place. The world needs people to fight against power, but they have a task that will never be finished." I am not so disillusional as to think we can destroy power, this is a physics law. But, we can disperse it in a much wider sphere than we currently do. Liberal democracy was a huge improvement on the dispersal of power over former systems. The problem arises because people always over time find ways around the systems of power dispersal that are constructed (the double edged sword of human creativity). A revolution that redispersed power would be the first step to a more egalitarian system. And yes you are correct this strugle will never be finished.

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Apr 03, 2005 01:27 AM
"Of course we all believe in meritocracy. Discussing racial inequity would be pointless if you didn't - it is based on the premise that some people do not have what they "deserve" and the very premise that someone "deserves" something is based on meritocracy" Either I am misunderstanding you or you are talking about a very hierarchical society. This is not what I am talking about, the inequality of blacks and whites should not be rectified by having some blacks rise and some whites fall in society. I am talking about a society were all are equal, nonhierarchical, and people have merit simply because they are people. As opposed to their merit being judged on what they "add" to society. Everyone adds to socity in some form, therefore we all are a necessary part and have merit.

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Apr 03, 2005 01:24 AM
"The point is that society agrees on some set of things, traits, abilities,attitudes, etc. that a person should aspire to have and rewards people for having them." When has society ever "agreed" on anything? This was my point on power dispersion over a larger population, it makes the agreeing less important. If everyone had power to decide what was in their immediate sphere and there was a set of rules for decisions were the spheres overlapped, power would be in the hands of the people it affected.

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 02, 2005 23:54 PM
"The way to make the world a better place is to reduce or disperse power." Well, more power to you But you should know you have chosen a Sisyphian task. "Nature abhors a vaccuum" and that includes a power vaccuum. Time and time again we see that as soon as a power-center is destroyed another one rises to take it's place. The world needs people to fight against power, but they have a task that will never be finished.

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 02, 2005 23:45 PM
"The opposite of meritocracy is the law of the jungle, where people get what they are strong, cunning, or lucky enough to take and keep." And doesn't THAT seem like the biggest flaw in the current system?? Or maybe, the raw ability to survive in a merit-less society is, itself, a sign of merit? Or, maybe, as Chaung-Tzu said "The greatest merit consists in having no merit". OR maybe I'm just babbling......

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 02, 2005 23:42 PM
"Meritocracy 1. A form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects." I was thinking more like the general form Meritocracy 1. A form of social system in which power goes to those with some socially agreed upon traits or abiltities. Obviously superior intellect is one possible choice, and one I am personally partial to, but having large earlobes could be it as well, or bravery, or eloquence, or having a huge package, whatever. The point is that society agrees on some set of things, traits, abilities,attitudes, etc. that a person should aspire to have and rewards people for having them. Of course we all believe in meritocracy. Discussing racial inequity would be pointless if you didn't - it is based on the premise that some people do not have what they "deserve" and the very premise that someone "deserves" something is based on meritocracy - a system where rewards are based on "merit" (however it is defined). The opposite of meritocracy is the law of the jungle, where people get what they are strong, cunning, or lucky enough to take and keep.

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 02, 2005 23:32 PM
"I understand from your text that "intent" has to be a clearly pronounced thirdreichian rethoric." NOT AT ALL. In todays world racists do not tend to be open about their bias. There is a big difference between alledging hidden racist intent (which may be true) and alledging that something that you admit is without any racist intent is racist nonetheless. A good example of the former is "Redlining" where real estate brokers decide not to show people from certain areas houses in other areas. This practice, while ostensibly race-neutral, is obviously intended to keep people from black communities from moving into white communities. It IS racist in intent and is an example of racism. An example of the latter would be a bank which had, without any racist intent, high lending standards that meant that ALL people with average or below average credit could not get loans. This, given the current economic conditions (which are not fair, but are also not the fault of the bank) ends up meaning that the denial rate for blacks is higher than that for whites. Although the standards result in a disparate impact it is not racism because there is no intent to discriminate based on race.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 02, 2005 22:45 PM
"I am familiar with the concept of "institutional racism", but insofar as there are not actually racist people or intentions, I reject it as a flawed theory. If we are going to use the term "racism" to describe phenomena of disparate impact without any racist intent, then it seems we should also use the term to describe genetic conditions like Sickle-Cell Anemia or Sarcoidosis"r4d20 Well, let's use your own example(albeit not very appropiate for a blog that discusses economical disparities) Sickel- Cell Amenia is not a human construct hence it is not "racist" except in some cosmic sense. However, if you set up a system where people are discriminated because of SCA, then it is a racist institution even though the intent is not specially against Africans(who are more prone to this disease). Short of a scientific breakthrough we can't alter medical facts. But how do we, as a society handle this is political.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 02, 2005 21:42 PM
"Come on. There is a big difference between pointing out that the current "meritocracy" is not a real one, and dismissing the entire notion completely"r4d20 I did not dismiss the idea of meritocracy outright. I was only pointing out the unequal application of the requirement of excellence in a classist society. In my last post I left open the question of whether "real" meritocracy is a good thing. I think that depends on "merit in doing what". No one would argue that you should put a highschool dropout to perform brain surguries. But as Paul Street also pointed out talents are often used for anti-social purposes. MTBRAD complicated the issue further by bringing up reward and selection. Whether "meritocracy" is good or bad is difficult to address in the abstract because there is no universal agreement of what it means without a concrete context(I don't think you and MT, for example, use the same definition here)

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Apr 02, 2005 18:12 PM
"The way to improve the world is to make it more of a meritocracy, not less of one." Meritocracy 1. A form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects. The way to make the world a better place is to reduce or disperse power. I would reject the whole notion of "superior intellects". Diversity in every way is what creates a strong society, not rewarding certain strengths over others, this detracts from societies abilities to cope with unforseen problems and limits the directions of social evolution.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Organum, Baby at Apr 02, 2005 15:00 PM
r4d20 " to use the term "racism" to describe phenomena of disparate impact without any racist intent," I understand from your text that "intent" has to be a clearly pronounced thirdreichian rethoric. That seems naive to me. The idea of meritocracy needs equal opportunity. You do not have that in USA. Nobody has that, but you less than many.

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 02, 2005 08:49 AM
"Meritocracy is a bit of a myth like the free market." Come on. There is a big difference between pointing out that the current "meritocracy" is not a real one, and dismissing the entire notion completely. I'm not claiming that our system is great, only that dismissing the very idea of meritocracy is not better - it is worse. The way to improve the world is to make it more of a meritocracy, not less of one.

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Person

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 02, 2005 03:37 AM
"More broadly, I'm pretty unimpressed by arguments that tie reward to "performance" when you've got all the rapacious degenerates who head the corporate structure (90 plus percent white) pulling down millions upon millions for inventing new ways to rape the earth and destroy democracy." Actually North American CEO's are getting millions of dollars in salaries even as their companies' profits plummet. Even if we put aside critiqing the social functions of corporations and corporate profits for argument's sakes, many of these guys are not even "performing" by capitalist criteria. Meritocracy is a bit of a myth like the free market. Granted that there are exceptions but often "merits" are only demanded of those at thel bottom of the food chain. Mediocrity prevails as you ascend the chain. I think most of you have had bosses, managers or administrators who are completely incompetent idiots(Just look at Bush!) Though I have no hard data but I think this is pretty common.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Apr 02, 2005 02:27 AM
At the same time, I think it's pretty revealing that you see "from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs" and the notion of a classless society/workplace to look like "the ravings of a nutjob." Geez, but have you checked out the politics of this web site: this is radical left anticapitalist site my friend. I don't spend a lot of time with "diversity consultants" (smart and/or dumb) - that's more of a corporate America kind of thing, ain't it? --- and don't know what that one guy (C. Johnsson) is even doing here in this dicussion. I like it when people are on time, though I am now officially tardy at the tavern. Make that six minutes. I need a drink.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Apr 02, 2005 02:20 AM
I almost got out of here. Ok, three minutes. The rules have changed on this blog, ok? Read the Brian Dominick posting (fair warning)from a few days ago: disrespectful language like "look like the rantings of a nutjob" (I hope nobody speaks like that to me at the bar as it will increase the likelihood of me spending a night in jail)is now officially OUT. I (who have my own own issues with disrespectful language)agree with that rule and I hope everyone will please avoid inflammatory, baiting, and shaming discourse from now on. r4d20 I'll do you one better and show you an entire book I wrote about exactly what you seem to want to see (but its not entirely clear to me) more about: racist state-of-being structures with or often enough without explicitly racist state-of-mind actors. It's called STILL SEPARATE, UNEQUAL: RACE, PLACE, POLICY AND THE STATE OF BLACK CHICAGO (finally published March 31, 2005). Write to cjordan@cul-chicago.org and get an order in (the price may run up to $15...still figuring that out). It's pretty comprehensive beyond things that have already been mentioned in this blog....ctd.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 02, 2005 01:58 AM
"Funny you mention the fire department r4 since it's one of the true bastions of big city racism here in Chicago and elsewhere. " Exactly. Racist firefighters = racism. I was SPECIFICALLY addressing the issue of racism WITHOUT racists - which you dodge by pointing to an insitution rife with individual racists. I know racism exists and I've known racists. You say I am burning a straw man here, but I gave a real world example from a proffesional diversity consultant. If that example is too out-there for you to take seriously then I am open to hear of a good example of "Racism WITHOUT racists" that doesn't look like the rantings of a nutjob. The problem I have is that all of the work I have found IS extremely radical like the example I gave.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Apr 02, 2005 01:10 AM
Yeah the wealth disparities blow the income disparities away. I think blacks make 60-something percent (about two-thirds) of what whites take in from wages/salaries but white median household net worth was seven times higher (have also seen ten times higher) than black median net worth. I agree with ebogan that r4d20 is straw-dogging: nobody's here's arguing to put my mother in charge of Ladder Company 29 or high school dropouts in charge of the cranial surgery unit. Funny you mention the fire department r4 since it's one of the true bastions of big city racism here in Chicago and elsewhere. More broadly, I'm pretty unimpressed by arguments that tie reward to "performance" when you've got all the rapacious degenerates who head the corporate structure (90 plus percent white) pulling down millions upon millions for inventing new ways to rape the earth and destroy democracy. On punctuality, I observe that the rich folks are commonly way behind everyone else's schedule. In fact, in my experience they get into being late and making everyone wait for their big grandiose entrance (it's a power thing). I've got an entrance for them: it reads "welcome to the cooperative class-free work collective: from each according to their abilities, to teach according to their needs. Off to happy hour.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Protocol4, Nemo at Apr 02, 2005 00:19 AM
You guys might want to check out Dalton Conley's "Being Black, Living in the Red: Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America" (University of California Press, 1999)where he offers an explanation for why blacks (as a group) tend to have very little accumulated wealth (compared to all other ethnic groups); and furthermore this has very little to do with family income. In fact Conley claims that the American dream is generally a fairy tale for most hard working African Americans precisely because it is not income but previously accumulated stock of wealth that explains upward social mobility. In fact one of the implications of this book could be that there are institutional impediments that systematically prevent capial accumulation for African Americans.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 01, 2005 22:20 PM
My main problem with the notion of "institutional discrimination" is that it will obviously be destructive if taken to far - it is nothing less than an assault on the notion of "objective" performance. Some people (like Diversity consultant Chales Jamison) have gone so far as to say that any real emphasis on punctuality is "racist" because it ignores the cultural differences between "black time" and "white time" (where "white time" is presice and "black time" is more approximate and rough) - in other words, we have racial activists saying that expecting black employees to be on time for work is racist. Please. For instance, women can speak of the "institutional sexism" in requiring a certain level of strength from firefighters, but to the person who may need to be carried out of a burning building that requirement is not sexist at all - that persons life depends on it. We should dop what we can to eliminate unecessary requirements that don't serve a real purpose but which hurt some more than others, but when it comes to the BASICS of a persons ability to do a good job - basic job skills, basic physical prowress appropriate to the job, and basic things like punctuality and motivation to do a good job, there should be no relaxing, even if insisting on them causes a disparate impact.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 01, 2005 22:00 PM
bwong, I am familiar with the concept of "institutional racism", but insofar as there are not actually racist people or intentions, I reject it as a flawed theory. If we are going to use the term "racism" to describe phenomena of disparate impact without any racist intent, then it seems we should also use the term to describe genetic conditions like Sickle-Cell Anemia or Sarcoidosis. Frankly, it means that if we found one race was disproportionatly hit by lightning that suddenly we could speak of "racist" weather, and this just doesn't pass the smell test. The old Jim Crow laws were racist in that, even though they sometimes did not specifically mention race (aka. race-neutral poll tax or literacy test for voting) they WERE INTENDED to have a negative effect on the black population. So it's not like I'm saying "if the law doesn't mention race it is not racist" - I'm not THAT naive. I will admit that it is hard to judge intentions, and we don't want to assume that all laws are passed with good intent, so disparate impact should be used as a warning flag to spur research into the situation, and if the evidence points to racist intent we can meaningfully speak of racism - but it, in itself, is not racism unless it is caused by laws with racist intent. I know that some will disagree, but this is my opinion and reflects the way I see the world.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Organum, Baby at Apr 01, 2005 18:47 PM
"the intent versus outcome dichotomy becomes tiring, apologist, and reactionary" P.Street: Just look at the washing of hands and blaming the cia that most likely was Told what results to produce. Of course the same general dynamic applies to ethnic economics and punishment for poverty. In my hometown we have hade demostrations against "statlig rasisme" Translates into burocratic, legislative ( operative ) racism

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 01, 2005 08:13 AM
Perhaps I may offer an observation. I think r4d20 understands "racism" as an individual attitiude, a microspocic phenomenon. While Paul seems to use the word in a broader sense to also describe macroscopic power structurem which is interwined with class and other forms of oppressions.In that sense racism is not just an attituude. It is an institution. The two types of "racism" are of course related and they feed off each other, but they are not identical. I think in general liberals tend to look at things from a microscopic level and emphasize on intent and motives. Whereas radical critique is more structutally oriented. Sometimes that can lead to misundertsanding. I think that is one reason why radical ideas often come across as "conspiracy theories" to liberal ears.The liberal assumes that the radical is ascribing PERSONAL motives in a situation while the lattter may not be.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Apr 01, 2005 04:14 AM
As long as the ostensibly color-blind game of American (state-)capitalist poker is played with whites permitted to keep the accumulated stash of chips ("but we won't cheat ANYMORE") from 1607-1865 [not to mention Jim Crow and the rest], it seems to me that the nation's "vicious class system" (Martin Luther King, Jr. , 1966, in Chicago) will be heavily racialized and objectively racist.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Apr 01, 2005 04:04 AM
Yes, many favored mandatory minimums initially out of a liberal desire to reduce racial disparities, but, well so what? For some time now, however, the in fact racially disparate outcome of MM's (in combination with more clearly racist policing practices and broader racial inequities) has been well known and there's excuse for continuing with them. It is in fact now fair to call it racist to persist with many such sentencing procedures. There's a strong measure of intentional ignorance in mainstream white cluelessness about black experience and the way that unresolved historical race crimes interact with contemporary "color-blind" social policies to perpectuate savage race inequality. At some point, the "but my intentions are noble" claim runs out. Back on foreign policy, I think there's a significant dimension of insufficiently acknowleged racism behind many Americans failure to grasp the basic elementary reality that the government and people of Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Apr 01, 2005 04:00 AM
rd420, the intent versus outcome dichotomy becomes tiring, apologist, and reactionary after a certain (admittedly difficult to precisely time)short grace period. It's way too late in the bitter record of US imperialist justification, for example, to give George W. Bush and other Americans a pass for perhaps actually believing the White House's claims that US foreign policy is about spreading democracy. That's what Woodrow Wilson said. Ostensibly "color-blind" policies and practices that have widely and comprehensively demonstrated racially disparate outcomes (say school funding on the basis of local property wealth, refusal to hire people with felony records, refusal to hire people with a history of welfare recipience, home-lending discrimination against people with fewer financial resources) are in fact racist as far as I'm concerned. This is what the "level two racism" I referenced is all about and much of the mass ignorance about how it all works is itself significantly intentional.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Apr 01, 2005 03:59 AM
It is all so tied together, I would think it was a giant conspericy, but that would entale intelegance. On the other blog they are discussing the fear of crime and how it helps to increase the power of the state and convinces people they need to give up rights for protection. It ties right into this one, increased fear of crime means you can incarcerate more people which limits the competition for the limited wealth. Drugs, sex and oligarchy thats what the USA is all about.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Apr 01, 2005 03:54 AM
"Actually, this is the result of garaunteed government loans." My university has raised tuition by 60% in three years. All while implementing a freeze on faculty pay increases. It is a direct result of cuts in funding, which was caused by the reduced state income, which was caused by the bush tax cuts for the rich. It is an attempt by the rulers of a dieing system to maintain there life style at the expense of everyone else. An upsidedown redistribution of wealth.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By J, Big at Apr 01, 2005 03:26 AM
Black murderers are put to death with far more frequecy than white murders on a per capita basis. Perhaps there is no racist intent here (though I have my doubts), but the end result is a disproportionate numbere of black inmates being executed. In my eyes this makes the death penalty racist- intent or no. Why- other than the stakes- is this drug conviction provision any different?

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By J, Big at Apr 01, 2005 03:21 AM
r2 "..does not show racist intent" There is a chance that the racism may not be intended, but if the end result is a policy which negatively affects one race so disproportionately, then how can you say that it is not racist? It would be very difficult to divine every minor motive of the architects of this wretched law, but isn't the end effect on minority populations often singled out for prosecution on these very same drug offenses by law enforcers enough to prove racism?

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 01, 2005 00:27 AM
"My point is simple. Real wages have gone up by 2.5 times the cost of Tuition has increased 17.34 times. That is the social policy of Tax Cuts and the Right." Actually, this is the result of garaunteed government loans. Colleges know they can overcharge because they know that the government will loan their customers enough money to pay - there is NO chance they will ever price themselves out of buyers, especailly since many people think that hgiher tuition = better education" even though it is simply false. I'm not against loans per se, because I beleive in education, but I do think that we need a system that helps people get one without giving colleges and incentive to increase their prices at WAY above-market rates.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Organum, Baby at Apr 01, 2005 00:22 AM
Yes. Sorry for digressing, but ethnic conflict in USA is allso a fight for resources, and knowledge is at the root of power. These things connect.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Apr 01, 2005 00:20 AM
Judging by the responses to my comment I think I was not clear. I was not characterising all claims of racism to be inane. Race matters and I do believe that racists cops, judges, etc. do exist and selectively enforce the law. However, I catagorically deny he facile equation of "disparate impact = racism". Not only is it often factually untrue, but it also just lowers the intellectual environment why making "Racism" a truism wherever there is a disparity of results and discouraging the search for the real problems that actually cause this disparity. Mandatory Minimums, which are nw called "Racist", were actually an attempt to reduce racism and make snetancing more even. A federal study back back in the 60's showed that white/black & rich/poor offenders were getting radically different sentances for the same offence. Mandatory minimums were designed to make ALL people, regardlesss of color, do the same minimum time - they were designed to PREVENT racism. Now, they obviously did not work, but their failure should not be sen as evidence of racist intent.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Organum, Baby at Apr 01, 2005 00:17 AM
The problem is practical and not one of theory. Without ( The seemingly impossible ) focus on a total solution, i think any improvement will be bound to follow the old systems of energywaste and thus be counterproductive. We allso fight systems of beliefe that take presedent in individual lives. CHRISTIAN If the end of the world is near then why save a doomed world. Thats Gods business. Condomes are a sin for some. And it should not go unnoticed that the Good Book was used to defend the genocide in Rwanda. LIBERALIST New technology will allsays solve the problems we have created. ( With the additional darwinist attitude that natures disasters and peoples lack of greed will lead to a reduction in their ability to compete; Read: survive. SOCIALIST The deterministic nature of revolution will solve problems through the power of the freed mind of the people. ( Forgetting the chaos that societal change leads us into ) Treehuggers as members of an anticapitalist movement? I do not see any likelyhood of ousting the corporate beast. What we can do is give it ideas and incentives to let us live. Preferably, and out of neccesity, without fighting each other. ( Bickering as a way of testing ideas exempted ofcourse )

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Gammon101, Bwong at Mar 31, 2005 22:12 PM
"I now struggle with the need to preserve energy and habitats for non-humans as opposed to bettering the lives of fellow man. This eco-facistic paradigm bothers me. " Actually the eco facist paradigm harms every living thing, human and non human. In addition to green house gas being at a dangerously high level, a comprehensive UN report on enviromental degradation has just been released(maybe someone like David Peterson would dig up some exceprts and comment on it). It warns that the capacity of the eco system to regenerate and regulate itself may have been irrepairably(I guess that means in our time scale)damaged. That spells great disasters to all life forms, we included. The ecology is a complex feed back system.The destruction of habitats and the extinctions of species upset that delecated balance and there will be ramifications for us. Our short sightedness does not just harm non humans. Enviromentalism is no longer a "fringe" concept embraced only by "tree huggers". I think this may prove to be the (only?)basis of a board base anti capitalist movement that has a chance to succeed.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Mar 31, 2005 21:16 PM
"PS: I now struggle with the need to preserve energy and habitats for non-humans as opposed to bettering the lives of fellow man. This eco-facistic paradigm bothers me." Why is it an either or situation? Does the betterment of fellow man [sic], have mean the further degradation of the earth? WE simply do not know what a different society would look like or how it would impact the earth. One cannot assume that an ecologically more benign [sp?] society would be less benificial to people. It is just as likly it would be more benificial. Sorry to further the digression of topic.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Organum, Baby at Mar 31, 2005 21:12 PM
To a certain extent the populi of Usa should be excused from guilt in this. The massive propaganda of consumerism leaves little room for free thought. ( As Germans 33-45 ) A schitzophrenia between guilt of exploited as well as extermined ethnic groups on one side and the wild abandon of free consumerism and joy based on planetmurder on the other would confuse anyone. PS: I now struggle with the need to preserve energy and habitats for non-humans as opposed to bettering the lives of fellow man. This eco-facistic paradigm bothers me.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Mar 31, 2005 17:47 PM
I forgot to respond to moderne, who asks how the 1998 Drug Provision to the HEA could get "widespread acceptance" among US populace. Actually, I think few Americans knew or know about the provision. I didn't hear about it until 2001 or early 2002, when it got some press coverage because it was actually being aggressively enforced for the first time. The bigger point, however, is that most Americans would probably reject the provision in a (hypothetical) straight-up policy referendum. There's lots of polling data showing that Americans prefer to see money invested in education and drug treatment over incarceration and drug war. So this is just one of many reactionary social policies that is being conducted in the US without support from the populace. We have this savage disconect between policy and opinion in practically every area --- an example of how much the masters have diluted and marginalized meaningful democracy in the "land of the free" IMO. But "we the people" bear no small responsbility for letting policy proceed without our understanding and engagement.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Mar 31, 2005 02:34 AM
....The regressive/repressive right hand of the state (including the interrelated military and prison industrial complexes) is fed with impunity and indeed seems to flourish under the neoliberal/ necconservative reign. Here is an interesting line from Edward Galeano, The Open Veins of Latin America (1973): "The more freedom is extended to business, the more prisons have to be built for those who suffer from that business." I suppose one footnote to that is that prisons themselves become business platforms of a sort.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Mar 31, 2005 02:34 AM
tvekey - the "war on drugs" is among other things a business, one that employs a vast army of cops, parole agents, prison guards, crop eradicators, border guards and so on. It provides enormous profits for corporations that supply the arrest and incarceration and patrol regime. The "war on drugs" is also a pretext for U.S. intervention in various parts of the imperial periphery (Columbia being perhaps the most spectacular example). It's a pretext for further degrading and marginalizing the black population and turning millions of black Americans into raw material for the prison industrial complex. People who are marked for life with felony records are denied access to public services and decent wages that hurt profits. The freaking defense-connected RAND corporation itself calculated that mass incarceration and crop eradication programs were ridiculously inefficient uses of taxpayer dollars compared to drug treatment programs when it comes to eradicating substance abuse. American authorities only want to shrink the left hand of the public sector - the part that meets social and democratic needs and reflects the legacy of past popular struggles for justice....ctd.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Vekey, Tvekey at Mar 31, 2005 00:50 AM
I recently red somewhere, that the Pentagon to compensate for slow recruiting, has relaxed the entry requirements. Beside allowing older recruits and lowering the phisical and educational thresholds, they are also willing to overlook minor criminal and drug offences. So, according to this logic ex drug offenders are trustworthy enough to be armed and sent to war zones, but they not to be helped for civilian high education, ie. allowing upward mobility.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Shannon, James at Mar 31, 2005 00:20 AM
bwong - "The law is like the "free market". Theoretically speaking everyone is equal. But in real life this is never the case because of built in power inequity in the embient society." Equality ends at birth - "and you can take that to the bank" - Robert Blake The constitution has been destroyed by judges and lawyers and politicians and is now used exclusively to protect the "property" rights of wealth before all other human rights. Under the "Law" the one who spends the most money on his Lawyers/ defense / Prosecution almost always gets what he wants. There are few exceptions - period. Might aka money makes right. History and Reality.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Mar 31, 2005 00:18 AM
I meant to add my latest piece in BC: "Savage Morality: Selective Concern and Dominant Media in an Age of Empire and Inequality" (March 25, 2005) available online at http://www.blackcommentator.com/131/131_think_savage_morality.html I am doing a follow up piece for ZNet which contrasts the obsessive media coverage given to the death of one white woman in Florida (T. Schiavo) with the mild coverage given to recent (early March) reports showing that tens of thousands of blacks die early each year because of savage health inequalities that emerge from racial socieconomic, health-coverage, and other racial disparities related to persistent residential race apartheid. Racism is alive and well in the USA; its power is deepend by the notion that it no longer exists and that we are all "color blind" now, an illusion that is fed by partial civil rights victories and their legacy. Martin Luther King Jr. sensed this danger at the outset. The criminal justice system is the most transparently racist sector of American life today; it's so bad there that even the conservative black writer John McWhorter (whose whole line is that black poverty today is all about black self-sabotage) acknowledges the persistent legacy of slavery in matters of law, arrest, and incarceration.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Shannon, James at Mar 31, 2005 00:05 AM
Oh for the days of my 383d 727 automatic tire smokin cop evading Factory New Cuda. To be young & insane & fearless & "Above the Law". 40 years ago when I entered college at Ohio State tuition was $375 for a full year. I earned $4 an hour summers as a rodman at the new Budweiser Plant in Columbus. With a little help about $75 a month from my parents - I made it thru debt free - commuting. Today my youngest of 4 is at Northern Illinois - Living at home and commuting. Tuition is $6500 a year, and she works as an aid at a hospital for $10 an hour. She works over 1000 hours a year and needs over $500 a month help to run her car and buy books and gas and and and. My point is simple. Real wages have gone up by 2.5 times the cost of Tuition has increased 17.34 times. That is the social policy of Tax Cuts and the Right. Our country wants us all to be mindless and uneducated - We are far easier to brainwash and manipulate - and that is Government by the people at work. In the end "life is about cash flow" that is simple reality. 'He who has the gold makes the rules'. Life and history.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Mar 31, 2005 00:00 AM
r4d20, with all due respect, you can't be serious. Let me offer you some primers I've done over the years on the continuing rich relevance of racism in American life and the different levels at which it operates. My guess is that you have gotten lost in the difference between what I call level one and level two racism. Here are the most relevant pieces: “Skipping Past Structural Racism: Center Trumps Left in Recent PBS Series in Race in America,” Black Commentator (April 8, 2004), available online at http://www.blackcommentator.com/85/85_think_street.html. “ ‘ Everything Changed' ? Hidden Continuities of Urban Racial Inequality Before and After 9/11,” Black Commentator (September 11, 2003), available online at www.blackcommentator.com. “ ‘How You Gonna Export Something You Ain't Even Got At Home?' Notes from Chicago. Originally posted April 26, 2003 at The Black Commentator at www.blackcommentator.com. Also linked by Alternet at wwwlalternet.com “A Lott Missing: Rituals of Purification and Deep Racism Denial,”at http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=2784 Sorry I don't have full URLS for all of these but you can get to many of getting into Black Commentator's archives, which are very well organized and accessible.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Gammon101, Bwong at Mar 30, 2005 23:38 PM
"I would not assume that the majority of the white priviledged class doesn't see or know about it. I think they do and they actually approve" I don't know. This seems to be the handiwork of the ultra social conservatives(the law and order conservatives, anti Choice, anti gay , anti evolution people. I.e. Bush kind of conservatives and Jesus people) I won't be surprised if even the more cosmopolitan and liberal segments of the white privileged elite find that studpid.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Gammon101, Bwong at Mar 30, 2005 23:32 PM
I hate these split key boards. Lots of letters are missing from my post.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Gammon101, Bwong at Mar 30, 2005 23:30 PM
"I find the characterization of this act as "racist" to be inane. I am a white graduate student who smokes his share of pot, and I am as vulnerable to this law as anyone else"r4d20 The law is racist on two counts(that I can think of right now) 1. Unlike murder, the police have a lot of discretions in prosecuting drug related offences, especially for something trivial like smoking a joint. It has been ponted out by many that law enforcement is far frm colour blind. 2. The consequence of losing financial aid obviously hits the poor a lot harder than the rich and the middle class. Again racial minorities(especially blacks and Hispanics) tend to be at the bottom rung of the economical ladder and hence would suffer the worst conseqeunce. It is doubly regressive because eduction happens to be the single most important factor that may lift the disavantaged individuals out of poverty. The law is like the "free market". Theoretically speaking everyone is equal. But in real life this is never the case because of built in power inequity in the embient society.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Mar 30, 2005 23:29 PM
"I mean, even setting aside the obvious racism and classism, and assuming that the general (white) public is unable to perceive that, on what theoretical grounds is it supposed to offer something positive?" I would not assume that the majority of the white priviledged class doesn't see or know about it. I think they do and they actually approve. They of course will not talk about it overtly, yet it is within their cognitive dialoge. I think the corporate media should also take some heat here for a) not enlightening the general public (if they do not know) b) For portraying the drug problem as being solveble by prohibition. c) for not talking about alternatives d) for creating a false idea of a racial divide concerning drugs wow, I could go on and on.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Tolsen1, R4d20 at Mar 30, 2005 23:06 PM
I find the characterization of this act as "racist" to be inane. I am a white graduate student who smokes his share of pot, and I am as vulnerable to this law as anyone else. The law sucks because it is stupid and penalizes people for relatively harmless offenses - not because it falls under the warped definition of "racism" that has made the term meaningless over the last 30 years.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Jautter, Mind at Mar 30, 2005 22:45 PM
Me too,another youthful experimentor.Look where the laws come from and you realize the people in power think the only reason thier precious little darlings in college would do drugs is because of the degenerate addicts and pushers formerly allowed in by financial aid.If only more of THEM had done drugs and learned{unlike W.}from their experiences!

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Vekey, Tvekey at Mar 30, 2005 21:53 PM
While drug abuse can be a serious social concern, the solution the society offers to offenders or ex-offenders need not be based solely on punishment. Denying financial assistance for higher learning is of course only the tip of the iceberg. The exploding prison population can be atributed to the draconian drug laws as well. (From arund 300 000 in the 70's to over 2 million in 2002.) Punishment is also the most expensive and least efficient response to the vast majority of offenders, ie. the casual users. The Republicans who are zealously advocating government efficiency elsewhere, are making an exception in this instance. What hidden agenda they have?

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Kreuzberg_anto, Moderne at Mar 30, 2005 21:00 PM
Then again, I write this from Canada, and while we certainly have our own legacy of horrific injustice here, I guess there are some fundamental perceptive differences even within both dominant discourses.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Kreuzberg_anto, Moderne at Mar 30, 2005 21:00 PM
It's not immediately relevant to the discussion, but personally I am amazed that such a transparently discriminatory policy could receive such wide general acceptance in the first place. I mean, even setting aside the obvious racism and classism, and assuming that the general (white) public is unable to perceive that, on what theoretical grounds is it supposed to offer something positive? I mean, morality aside, just in terms of pragmatism, how do the inventors of this policy see any connection between someone's past drug use/conviction and their performance in universities and colleges? It even fails on amoral grounds. It seems to me rather akin to barring smokers from getting eyeglasses; the one has nothing to do with the other.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Street, Paul at Mar 30, 2005 19:26 PM
It's race and class discriminatory also in that only poor kids (and kids of color are disproportionately poor)rely on federal college financial aid. Also poor kids/families generally can't afford the rehabilitation programs needed to restore eligiblity. And of course they can't afford the lawyers and they lack the connections to beat drug raps or get expungements ala Dubya, who has traded in coke and booze for the special highs afforded by the brazen imperial breaking of international law. When Cosby goes off about the terrible behavior of "the lower economic [black]people," I am reminded of all the felonious shit my fellow youthful white middle class cohorts and I pulled off...with no real negative consequences. The system (in my case a wonderful alternative high school and then a strangely first-tier Marxist history department at a third-tier university) was there to rehabilitate, educate,and reintegrate white kids of privilege and to incarcerate and permanently mark/criminalize black kids by and large. The crime of genuine radicalism is still on my record, however, something that keeps me out of the "leftist" (yeah right) professoriate MTB despite or perhaps because of many publications and strong teaching evaluations.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By J, Big at Mar 30, 2005 18:50 PM
mt brad no know now- spell check wouldn't save you there;)

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By J, Big at Mar 30, 2005 18:48 PM
wow ps- right on the money! This policy is utterly reprehensible- why should poor people caught in the net of this idiotic drug war be kept from trying to better themselves? In fact, what bearing do prior drug convictions have on potential academic aptitude at all. I know a whole lot of very intelligent, hard working people who either use drugs(mostly pot) or have some sort of past drug convictions. Why not apply this provision to alcohol instead- this substance causes far more problems on campus. The provision is clearly discriminatory because our criminal justice system is discriminatory. Just one more sorry chapter in the drug war- what a waste.

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Organum, Baby at Mar 30, 2005 15:13 PM
The gain would bee that of revenge. The christian right again shows its face by choosing the Old testament ( Without the Tora as guideline ) In stead of the christian gospel. Satanist skum that they are. ( Sorry heathens ) ;-)

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Mar 30, 2005 09:26 AM
Wow, all of this aggressive abusive anti-feminist apoligetic of porn blogin' has really taken it out of me. one last time I am now a professor.. p.s. Does anyone know of a spell check that works on blogs?

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By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Mar 30, 2005 09:24 AM
I need to go to bed, that should read I am know a professor...

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Re: Repeal the Racist Higher Education Act Drug Provision

By Bauerly, Mtbrad at Mar 30, 2005 09:21 AM
Way to address a much overlooked issue Street. I was once a heavy drug user and addict. I was able to clean up my act and then attented a state school. I was able to afford this through the federal student aid program. I could not have done this with todays current drug laws and would probably have continued to deal drugs to others up to the day I final ended up doing serrious time in the pen. I am no a proffessor and teach wonderful students very interesting things about our society. Again what social gain would we have gotten out of keeping me down? What gain would we as a society have recieve for incarcerating me? The goal of this law is to keep people down!!!

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