Former US official: "We purposely screwed over black people and the left"

[Supersonic 49,376]

According to Watergate mastermind and former Richard Nixon aide John Ehrlichman, the then-president launched the notorious (and ongoing) war on drugs in 1971 to disrupt that administration's two greatest perceived threats: black people and antiwar leftists.

The brazen quote surfaced in the April cover story of Harper's magazine that was written by Dan Baum and went online Tuesday. The reporter recalls an interview back in 1994 in which Ehrlichman bluntly explained the whole thing.

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying?" Ehrlichman told Baum. "We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

Full article: http://www.vice.com/read/a-former-nixon-aide-admitted-the-war-on-drugs-was-designed-to-screw-over-blacks-and-hippies-vgtrn?utm_source=vicetwitterus

[dannydevito 10,658]

say something new

[Jesse Pinkman 4,660]

No kidding.

[Bad Bromance 5,809]

Doesn't surprise me one bit. 

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

I mean the government also literally assassinated MLK (Jr.) Is this really any surprise?  

Bring this up when people say that things aren't harder for black people and that the system isn't stacked against them in some ways  

[Wenli 826]

Really? 

[Edonis 28,974]

It's so interesting how this stuff, that the public has always kind of known or speculated, comes out.

 

[Wenli 826]

3 minutes ago, ItsVenusBitch said:

I mean the government also literally assassinated MLK (Jr.) Is this really any surprise?  

Bring this up when people say that things aren't harder for black people and that the system isn't stacked against them in some ways  

I don't know why people think we're lying about these things..

Native Americans are the only ones in worse shape in the U.S.

[Jesse Pinkman 4,660]

1 minute ago, Wenli said:

I don't know why people think we're lying about these things..

Because they aren't black, and they think we're being "dramatic." Funny isn't it?

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

1 minute ago, Wenli said:

I don't know why people think we're lying about these things..

It fits their (n)ever evolving worldview that claims black people are just lazy and looking for handouts I suppose  

[Supersonic 49,376]

Notice how little people are on here discussing this but as soon as there's a thread about how white people shouldn't appropriate black culture every white gay behind a keyboard seems to feel the need to flex their debating skills, especially when it's on the expense of black people in general.

[Nemo 4,410]

I think we knew this since 1968.

[Wenli 826]

17 minutes ago, amenvodka said:

Notice how little people are on here discussing this but as soon as there's a thread about how white people shouldn't appropriate black culture everybody white gay behind a keyboard seems to feel the need to flex their debating skills, especially when it's on the expense of black people in general.

Interesting indeed...

[Higher 2,406]

Shocker.

[lego 44,165]

This is disgusting.