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.
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So, this week, the organization launchedย 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.
Theyโre visual representations of what the ACLU calls โThe war on marijuana in black and white.โ
1. This first statistic isnโt too surprising.
2. But every 37 seconds? Wow.
3. This is the important part. Itโs not that black people use more marijuana than white people โฆ
4. โฆ Itโs just that the consequences are worse when they do.
5.ย In some parts of the country, the difference is even more dramatic.
6. And, according to the ACLU, these disparities have costsโin ruined lives and actual dollars.
Jenรฉe Desmond-Harris is The Rootโs senior staff writer. Follow her on Twitter.
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