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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / This Week In Blackness / Why Aren’t There More Black Potrepeneurs?

Why Aren’t There More Black Potrepeneurs?

by Elon James White|  April 21, 20152:06 pm| 16 Comments

This post is in: This Week In Blackness

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Yesterday was 420, the unofficial holiday of weed. But while marijuana is slowing becoming legal throughout the country, why aren’t more African Americans getting involved in this growing business? There are lots of reasons, from needing capital to enter the business to the industry still being legally hazy.

“African Americans know that whenever something is in a gray area of the law they will feel more vulnerable, and for good reason since statistically minorities are more likely to be targeted or seen as suspects,” [Ethan] Nadelmann [the director of Drug Policy Alliance] said. “It may be that the general element of racism and racial disproportionality in law enforcement around drugs can make minorities queasy about entering an area which is not fully legal.”

Team Blackness also discussed the news that the cop who shot and killed Rekia Boyd was found innocent of all charges, a California bathroom policing policy that could net people $4,000, and big changes in one Missouri town that has its first black female mayor.

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16Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    April 21, 2015 at 3:05 pm

    the Black folks are in jail. and if you have a record, you can’t get into the LEGIT pot business. Barriers to entry – lack of capital. So, just like the rest of it.

    They use Black men as fodder for the Prison Industrial Complex, but because White boys want to smoke pot unemcumbered, it must now be legal, thus enabling White folks to get rich.

    Uh huh

    uh huh.

    The cop who got off in the Boyd case went before a judge. That fix was in from the word GO.

  2. 2.

    ruemara

    April 21, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    @rikyrah: my army cubicle neighbor cannot believe the cop got off when he fired over his shoulder & off duty. This from the same type of person who felt Tamir Rice was moving towards his belt and was partially responsible for his death. He said I shouldn’t read any more of this stuff as it’s bad for me. I asked him if he thought that might make it go away, because that’s what will make me better.

  3. 3.

    Violet

    April 21, 2015 at 3:35 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): This post is extra crazy today. I replied to your comment, which on my computer shows up on the second post–which is all on one page, but with two comment boxes–and it replied to the top comment box. Bizarre.

  4. 4.

    Barbara

    April 21, 2015 at 3:41 pm

    Please read “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace.”

  5. 5.

    greennotGreen

    April 21, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    As I get older I get increasingly dyslexic, so I first read “industry still being legally hazy”, as “industrially being lazy.” Needless to say, I read it again.

  6. 6.

    aimai

    April 21, 2015 at 5:08 pm

    The Rekia Boyd story is so horrifying that I can’t even begin to discuss it. I know that it has always been this way, and worse, and yet it feels like in the last few years things have actually gotten worse–the police are acting with even more impunity, the white community is even more indifferent. Even, or especially, when video footage or the complete innocence of the murdered person, or the complete depraved indifference/negligence/or outright criminal intent of the police is obvious.

    I want to see a national law requiring a special inquest for every single incident of police violence, whether supposedly justified or not. And another law laying out a national standard of negligence that applies specifically to law officers which requires justification for each and every injury received by a person during an arrest, a stop, or while in custody. Its unbelievable to me–and yet totally believable–that the judge can assert that even the minimum base ilne required to find the cop guilty of some kind of negligent behavior in causing the death of miss Bryce wasn’t met. How can it not be met by the very fact that 1) she hadn’t done anything, 2) no one around her had done anything, 3) he did not articulate any legal reason for firing, 4) he did so in a careless and negligent way by shooting blindly, over his shoulder, into a crowd and 5) by the fact that she fucking died. by the fact that she fucking died.

  7. 7.

    Violet

    April 21, 2015 at 5:09 pm

    @Violet: Okay, and now Mnem’s comment, along with some other ones, is gone. The other post is gone too. I guess any comments under that are also gone.

  8. 8.

    Mandalay

    April 21, 2015 at 5:18 pm

    @aimai:

    I want to see a national law requiring a special inquest for every single incident of police violence, whether supposedly justified or not. And another law laying out a national standard of negligence

    Me too, but unfortunately I don’t see that happening in our lifetimes.

    A much lower but still worthwhile goal would be to establish a national registry detailing every time a cop fires a gun. Right now we don’t even know how many people get killed by cops.

  9. 9.

    Tommy

    April 21, 2015 at 5:26 pm

    Can’t we just make weed legal. I used to smoke a lot of pot, I don’t anymore. Large reason it is illegal and I tend not to do illegal shit. But I can buy a ton of booze, drink my way sideways, and that is OK. Stuns me.

  10. 10.

    Hob

    April 21, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    Statement by the cop who killed Rekia Boyd: “I think it was a mistake for the state’s attorney to charge me, but I also explained to the family that if this is what they needed for closure – for me to be charged – I hope they got what they were looking for.”

    I don’t know if that’s cruelty, or amazing obliviousness, or a mistaken belief that he was required to keep running his mouth, but… Christ, what an asshole.

  11. 11.

    Tenar Darell

    April 21, 2015 at 7:38 pm

    I must compliment Aaron on his “real life moments from YouTube comments” comment. Made me LOL in my walk tonight.

  12. 12.

    Tenar Darell

    April 21, 2015 at 7:43 pm

    @Hob: If he’s off-duty can he be held personally liable? I know the family got a 4.5 million settlement from the city, but in this case, can the cop be sued?

  13. 13.

    Laertes

    April 21, 2015 at 7:47 pm

    Good God, how did “potrepreneur” catch on? I can’t think of an uglier neologism.

  14. 14.

    Ganjapreneur

    April 21, 2015 at 8:52 pm

    I’m a long time lurker here who owns a cannabis business in Colorado. One reason there are so few black “potrepeneurs” may be that state laws where medical and recreational cannabis have been legalized exclude felons from being licensees in many instances. Here in Colorado you cannot have any drug related felonies in your lifetime or any felonies within the last five years to qualify for an occupational license which allows you to work in the industry and/or be an owner/licensee. Many who have participated in the black market are excluded from participating in the emerging legal market due to this one rule.

  15. 15.

    Zinsky

    April 21, 2015 at 10:01 pm

    The billions of dollars that the U.S. Government wastes on the War on Drugs is only exceeded by the War on Muslims.

  16. 16.

    duck-billed placelot

    April 21, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    I was coming here to say exactly what @Ganjapreneur said. I’m in Colorado, too, and through a local library program have helped a few (black) people to try to get certified to work in the production side. I also organized a talk with some cops from the Denver PD pot unit, who were very nice but also pretty unsure about some major points of law regarding use/public intoxication/etc.

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