A Republican congressman–that should tell you all you need to know but I’ll continue–from Maryland is against statehood for the capital of the United States: Washington, District of Columbia. DC, as it is affectionately known, is not a “state,” it is a federal district that is controlled by the U.S. Congress. It has no representatives in Congress (it’s not a state, remember?) and it has no control over its own budget, although its residents pay taxes (taxation without representation … sound familiar?) That sounds so unfair, so exploitive, so … un-American. Why on earth would he be against statehood? Because the residents of DC make “irresponsible decisions.” Gasp. Why on earth would he say such a thing?! (Gasp again).
Well, according to ThinkProgress.org, Congressman Andy Harris of Maryland thinks DC residents wanting to legalize marijuana when African Americans in DC have a high school graduation rate of 12 percent and an unemployment rate of 40 percent is a poor decision. Well, that certainly sounds like somebody has their priorities mixed up. Too bad it ain’t true though.
Although Black unemployment is high in DC, as of last November it was 13.6 percent–not 40 percent. And according to data from September of last year, based on the 2013-14 school year, the Black high school graduation rate in DC is 59.7 percent, not 12 percent.
How could Cong. Harris have been so way off base with his data??? Probably because he made it up, that’s how.
DC had long been known as a “Chocolate City” but the dizzying pace of gentrification has turned that around. And the person Cong. Harris made those comments to was a marijuana legalization activist named Adam Eidinger. But Cong. Harris’ comments centered on Black folks. I’ll let you figure out the reason why.
Claims of paternalizing racism aside, folks should probably be more mad at Harris’ nerve. I mean, if he thinks DC folks make “irresponsible decisions,” what’s he got to say about this guy? Or this one?
Crickets. Just like I thought.