Politics and Current
OP-ED: We must hold the Biden administration accountable to the Black community for marijuana reform

WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 28: U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to meet with police chiefs from across the country and members of his administration in the State Dining Room at the White House on February 28, 2024 in Washington, DC. Biden touted achievements in reducing crime thanks to investments made possible by the bipartisan infrastructure bill. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
No one must be in jail or arrested for marijuana. However, despite evidence that white and black communities use marijuana at similar rates, Black persons are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. Even though dozens of states have passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use and adult use, each are still punishable under federal marijuana law. A federal marijuana conviction can severely impact an individual’s ability to feed or house their family, and consequently, many individuals have lost food advantages, housing, employment and education.
In 2020, President Biden ran a campaign promising to end the criminalization of marijuana. To keep this promise, marijuana must be delisted, meaning it must be completely faraway from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA regulates certain drugs under federal law, placing them on considered one of five schedules and criminalizing unauthorized activity. For far too long, Black communities have borne the brunt of CSA’s criminal penalties. It’s time to finally end federal criminalization of marijuana by rescheduling it.
Let’s be honest, the Biden administration has yet to deliver on its guarantees on federal marijuana reform for Black communities. And while each President Biden and Vice President Harris have called federal marijuana criminalization a difficulty of racial equity, the recent and anticipated actions of their Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) underscore the disconnect between the administration’s rhetoric and its willingness to actually address the issue in this fashion .
While the remainder of us recognized the starting of Black History Month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as an alternative selected the first day of February to rejoice #DEAHHistory and President Nixonwho signed the CSA and the infamously weaponized federal marijuana policy that targeted and harmed Black communities.
For many, the Biden administration’s DEA news was a wake-up call. It’s no secret that racism has been at the center of the DEA’s history and the criminalization of marijuana. Harry Anslinger believed it “Reefer makes black people think they are as good as white people” and as director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (the predecessor of the DEA), Anslinger championed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which criminalized marijuana at the federal level. In line with the celebration of presidency leaders who used drug policy to criminalize the Black community, the DEA museum has an exhibition online exhibition on Anslinger’s “life of service.”
The same federal agency that today celebrates the racist history of President Nixon and Harry Anslinger is now tasked with: and he already has a final decision, official review of marijuana classification under the CSA. While this review doesn’t mention this history in any respect, it should likely have the effect of further perpetuating racial inequality.
“Committing to decriminalize marijuana and just floating it around CSAs is nothing greater than shifting peas in your plate to trick your mom into pondering you are eating vegetables. Your mother wasn’t fooled and neither were we.
Starting this review in 2022President Biden has called the criminalization of marijuana a failure, acknowledged that Black and Brown people have been disproportionately arrested, prosecuted and convicted, and suggested that his actions on marijuana reform will “end the country’s failed approach” and “right its wrongs.”
Despite this rhetoricthe DEA is anticipated to propose that marijuana be placed on Schedule III, a classification that, while technically less restrictive in some respects, would proceed federal criminalization of marijuana and its harms. The marijuana industry will rejoice this as a victory because it should give them a tax break, but individuals will still be susceptible to federal penalties. An individual can still lose their job due to a marijuana conviction. An individual can still be deported for working at a licensed dispensary in a state where marijuana is legal.
The hard truth is that rescheduling won’t decriminalize marijuana use, expunge records, or decriminalize activities currently permitted under dozens of states’ medical and adult-use marijuana laws.
In 2020 Biden and Harris have pledged to decriminalize marijuana use and take away related provisionsmaking this commitment your individual The “Lift Every Voice” plan for black America. President Biden acknowledged his role in passing drug policies that ‘harmed Black communities’ calling it a “mistake”. Vice President Harris called for systemic change while discussing marijuana decriminalization in 2020, saying, “This will not be the time for half-dancing. This will not be the time for incrementalism”
Now the administration is taking responsibility for reforms which are, at best, gradual, and haven’t even been fully implemented. Regardless of this reality, the Biden administration is already claiming in its promoting campaigns that it does “revised federal marijuana policy”and in campaign speeches, President Biden is already alluding to his actions of granting federal pardons for easy possession of yaks proof of “promises kept” on marijuana reform.
In fact, pledging to decriminalize marijuana and easily moving it around on a CSA is nothing greater than shifting peas in your plate to trick your mom into pondering you are eating vegetables. Your mother wasn’t fooled and neither were we.
We know the difference between scattered guarantees and systemic change. We bear the brunt of disproportionate criminalization, and it’s up to us to hold the Biden administration accountable to its guarantees to our communities. If the Biden administration truly intends to keep its many guarantees and end the harm of marijuana criminalization, it will not be too late. However, President Biden guarantees that until marijuana is totally faraway from CSAs decriminalize marijuana will remain unfulfilled.
Politics and Current
Metro Atlanta City of Decatur to start the compensation task group

The city of Decatur in Metro Atlanta unanimously approved the creation of a compensation task group.
According to Decatur City Commission adopted a resolution On May 5, the 11-person task group will publish a report in three years, including recommendations regarding policy for black city residents.
The message appears a yr after the city leaders signed a contract with Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights to “discover the heritage of racial damage” in Decatur. The alliance managed research work in the field of compensation, organizing community meetings and listening sessions about how racial injustice has financially and systematically hurt these residents.
Their research described the role of decatur in slavery and segregation, in addition to red and real estate against the black community. Decatur also showed many monuments of the confederation, especially one earlier in the court of Dekalb.
The city not only recognized its oppressive tactics towards its black inhabitants, but additionally apologized for the actions that suppressed their progress.
“The city of Decatur formally recognizes its earlier role in the systemic oppression of people of African origin through enslavement, trafficking in human beings, conviction, discriminatory zones and development, underestimation in African -American communities, school segregation, racist police operation, destruction of African American estate, business and institutions and erosion and erosion and erosion and erosion, population, population population, population, population, population, population and culture – we read in resolution.
The city goals to designate 11 members, with the help of Beacon Hill Black Alliance, in the next 60 days. They will bring a various specialist knowledge group, and members consist of historians, legal experts and youth supporters. Over the next three years, the Task group will develop records regarding the loss of black land and real estate, being attentive to economic resettlement, while interviewing the descendants of those to which these oppressive tactics affected.
City officials added: “The city is expanding the full and public apology to the black residents of Decatur – Past and Present – and their descendants for its role in consolidating discrimination, pressure, subordination and the resulting damage, drawing on the principles rooted in the white supremacy system.”
The Compensation Task Group may even propose the commemorative projects sponsored by the city, economic tools and other investment strategies and community initiatives to treatment its racist past. This move will happen from other communities, even in the Atlanta Metro, which introduced initiatives regarding the repair of black residents. In the neighboring Fulton, his task group will resume the meeting this yr.
While the plan appears amongst the domestic shuffle of anti-dei attributable to the Trump administration, local leaders remain involved in the same efforts of the judiciary that began before taking office by Trump.
(Tagstranslate) compensation Task group
Politics and Current
Social media reacts to a series of funny faces of George W. Bush during the inauguration of Trump, when Barack Obama jokes that “he could barely behave

Former President Barack Obama jokingly told the reporter that former President George W. Bush “barely” behaved during the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Monday.
When there have been presidents and other noteworthy VIP guests waited for the USA ceremony to sit in the US Capitol, a member of the staff asked 78-year-old Bush if he “behaved” and 63-year-old Obama at the back to answer on behalf of Bush with “No”.

A brief, viral clip shows briefly looking around the Capitol and smiling at the members of the audience during the inauguration, which the viewers considered funny.
When Obama left the American Capitol Rotunda after the ceremony, the same post reporter quickly asked Obama if Bush behaved and Obama replied: “barely” during a smile.
The viewers had a day in the field with many Bush faces. One person joked: “Bro was beyond his mind”
The secular behavior of former presidents was, unlike incorrect boos imposed on Obama by Trump’s supporters watching the ceremony from the rally at the Capital One Arena in the center of Washington. Bill and Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Trump Mike Pence was also not spared heavy Boos.
The first lady Michelle Obama was noticeably missing amongst the chosen group of former residents of the White House, who confirmed that she wouldn’t participate on the days before the inauguration.
About her absence, unidentified source he said People: “There is no exaggeration of her feelings about (Trump). She is not one of the plasters on a pleasant face and she pretended that the Michelle protocol does nothing, because she is expected, protocol or its tradition.”
The source said that Michelle “no longer feels the need to be public” and added that the verbal attacks of Trump on Obama and his offensive rhetoric addressed to colourful people could even be a factor wherein she decided to skip.
In addition to Michelle, every living former president and the first lady was present, including former President Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden, George W. Bush and Laura Bush, in addition to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s swearing in the US Capitol for the first time in 40 years, the presidential inauguration took place, ignoring the customary configuration outside the Capitol, wherein 1000’s normally observe from the national shopping mall.
Officials stated that the polar vortex, which brought dangerously low temperatures to the part of the eastern coast, was the most important reason why the ceremony was moved inside.
The last time the inauguration was moved in the room, when former President Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term in 1985.
(Tagstranslate) Barack Obama
Politics and Current
Governor Illinois Governor Julian Stratton will make us official in the Senate, slammed Trump “Crisis and Chaos” in the video start – Essence

Photo: Cook County Demes
Lieutenant Governor Illinois Juliana Stratton Movement for the next office. On Thursday, she announced her offer to the US Senate, only at some point after the Dick Durbin Senator for a few years – which he had been in this place for nearly three many years – he presented that he wouldn’t search for re -election in 2026.
“I am Juliana Stratton and I run for the United States Senate,” she said in a two -minute film published on social media.
On Friday morning she received serious support from the Governor Illinois JB Pritzker.
“At this dangerous moment in Washington, the spirit of Juliana’s struggle and commitment to improving life are exactly a kind of Illinoisans representation and I am proud that I support her for the United States Senate,” said Pritzker in an announcement by Stratton’s campaign, Reports.
In her starter, Stratton didn’t waste time on applying rates. She formulated her candidacy as a direct response to former President Donald Trump and GOP emphasis on deep cuts of expenses and economic policy, which, he claims, will not be in contact with on a regular basis Americans.
“I am applying for the Senate, because the only way out of this mess is to introduce new energy, new voices and new leaders who understand the lives of working people,” said Stratton. “Join our campaign and together we can stop Trump and stand up for Illinois.”
Stratton didn’t mention the words about “chaos”, which she sees in Washington.
“Since Donald Trump took power, they were non-stop messages, non-stop chaos and non-stop crisis is not accidental,” she said. She also called on former president and billionaire Elon Musk for working on “distracted” American public opinion and “creating such a mess that we don’t even know where to start.” In her opinion, “the old textbook does not work”.
Instead, she pointed to her recorder’s recorder’s record, emphasizing her partnership with Pritzker as evidence of what effective leadership could appear like.
“While Trump and the Republicans in DC proposed a limitation of almost billions of dollars in healthcare in Illinois, we removed the medical debt. While their reckless tariffs make the prices increase rapidly, we eliminated the food tax for families in Illinois,” she said.
Stratton also shared her personal journey – developing on the southern side of Chicago as a navy teacher and veteran, raising 4 children and taking care of the mother after the diagnosis of Alzheimer.
“My story is not a typical senator. On the other hand, typical is not what we need now,” she said. “My journey to public service was inspired by the function of my mother’s main guardian when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer.”
She said that her decision to make a policy was called by the then Gova. Bruce Rauner’s attempts limit health look after seniors like her mother.
“So I decided to apply for a representative of the state and won,” said Stratton. “I took the votes of working families with me.”
She also distinguished key achievements during her office – from increasing the minimum wage to USD 15 per hour and creating jobs through serious investments in infrastructure, to adopting provisions regarding the safety of weapons and rights to abortion.
While Stratton has long been seen as a probable claimant to take a seat Durbine, he’s now officially the first one who jumped into the race. Her candidacy is historical: if she is elected, she could join the Lisa Blunt Rochester Senators from Delaware and Angel Alsobrooks from Maryland – and mark three black women in the Senate at the same time.
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