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Millions of people each year are arrested for marijuana possession, but a black person is 3.73 times as likely as a white person to be arrested for the same offense. That, says the American Civil Liberties Union, is a form of racial injustice.
So, this week, the organization launched The Uncovery, an advocacy tool that lets users take their own local facts (in Pennsylvania, for example, the racial disparity is even more extreme, with black people 5.19 times as likely as whites to be arrested) and turn them into clear graphic messages like the ones below.
They’re visual representations of what the ACLU calls “The war on marijuana in black and white.”
1. This first statistic isn’t too surprising.
2. But every 37 seconds? Wow.
3. This is the important part. It’s not that black people use more marijuana than white people …
4. … It’s just that the consequences are worse when they do.
5. In some parts of the country, the difference is even more dramatic.
6. And, according to the ACLU, these disparities have costs—in ruined lives and actual dollars.
Jenée Desmond-Harris is The Root’s senior staff writer. Follow her on Twitter.