Blavity hero Franchesca Ramsey, who as you may have read, may very well be bringing just the show we need to Comedy Central soon, is, as of now, the host of MTV’s Decoded.
And today, in honor of national day of getting high, 420, Ramsey took some time to decode marijuana and racism.
Ramsey dropped some facts that you probably already know, like that blacks and whites smoke the same amount of weed here in the U.S., but that black people are four times more likely to arrested for partaking.
But she also brought out some interesting history, telling viewers how the founding father of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger, used marijuana to advance a racist agenda in the 1930s.
“Half the country’s crime comes from Mexicans, Latinos and Negroes who use marijuana,” Anslinger said, adding, “This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes.”
Things are getting better, however. Ramsey says that nowadays, only one out of every 10 Americans believes that weed possession ought to result in jail time, and that states that have legalized weed have seen reductions in black marijunana arrests of up to 98 percent.
That’s really something to celebrate this 420.