There will always be a black market for something. If we legalize drugs, it will be something else.

Too simplistic.
There are many more factors to the inner-city black ghettos than just the drugs.

There are better arguments for legalization than this.

There would be a new black community in which all able-bodied men had legal work

And how, pray-tell, would these new jobs suddenly come in to being? and given the current unemployment rates, do you think they'd be many jobs available to folk living in those communities that they could reliably commute to?

And what about when their baby-mamma's start showing up and demanding a little child support, with the full weight of the government behind them?

Regarding I R A Darth Aggie's comment: "And how, pray-tell, would these new jobs suddenly come in to being? and given the current unemployment rates, do you think they'd be many jobs available to folk living in those communities that they could reliably commute to?"

This is going to sound really naive, and ignorant, and old fashioned, and it is, but after a life of reading James M. Cain and watching Kung Fu and Route 66 and The Hulk and the Twilight Zone, I think much of that problem is that it is so hard, that is, too much paperwork, too much liability, too much immigration nonsense, and perhaps too much minimum wage to legally hire day laborers.

Right now the entire country has some of the worse unemployment ever -- it might be a good time to make it easy to hire for one day to one week jobs, and you could be hiring just the guy you need to save you from the corrupt sheriff, or the mob, or the gang, or perhaps even the CIA.

That's a pipe dream, and the ghetto boys are as likely to do serious work as the mob did after prohibition ended. Persistence and ingenuity, sure, but it won't be aimed at low-paying legal work. They'll just find more crime, most of them at least.

Well then, momof4, at least they'll be in jail for a real crime instead of a 'moral' crime.

It really is a pity that drug users werent jailed back when they were all starting religions

Better they're put in jail for a crime where the only victim is themselves, I'd say.

I think legalizing just won't work, much as I can agree it's gotten absurd in enforcement. Decriminalizing possession is a more rational and logical route. Keeps the users out of jail, but the people committing the crimes-the dealers, distributers, etc still get put away.

So black people are on drugs. Black People are full of hate and violence because white policemen keep them from getting their drugs. We have to let the poor, stupid Black People have their drugs. Or they'll kill us.

Now suppose we only made drugs legal for black people, and told white people we expect better behavior from them. Could Mr. McWhorter see the racism a bit more clearly, then?

Although I agree with the decimalization of drugs, drugs in-of-itself is an over simplization of the problems in the ghetto regardless of race.

The government (progressives) has systematically chained certain classes to welfare, medicaid, wic, section 8 housing etc... Instead of giving the downtrodden a leg up, the government holds them under there thumb by giving them everything they need to survive without giving them the means to achieve. When you endeavor to remove self respect and pride from an entire class of people in exchange for votes, don't expect them to act respectfully or honorable towards the establishment or themselves.

Education is the way out. But look at there school systems, even worse look at the test scoring for achievement as opposed to more affluent neighborhoods. Even when they think they have a champion (Obama), it's still the same old same old lefty politics as usual demagoguery.

Since the left has spin-doctored there votes over last 40 plus years, things have only gotten worse and worse. Maybe if the progressives, who claim to be the champions of the poor, worried a little more about educating them and a little less about government hand-outs, they wouldn't need the handout at all.

We have over 10,000 government agencies, 75% of which we don’t need. We have the funds and the ability to fundamentally change there culture if we just applied a little common sense in Washington. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it…..

In McWhorter's ideal world, poor blacks would occupy the lower rungs of the economic ladder, then gradually work their way up from poverty as they became more skilled & better educated. In the real world, the bottom rungs on the economic ladder are occupied by millions of illegal Mexicans. Why hire a black man for $ 10 an hour plus benefits when there's a flood of brown men willing & eager to work under the table for $ 5 an hour? The notion that the economy (even in the best of times) has enough jobs available for 15 million illegals AND millions of black functional illiterates like the kids you see in your WIT program is delusional.

Even if drug dealing could be eliminated overnight, the black underclass would still have other options, namely sinking even deeper into poverty & welfare dependence, or just going out & mugging someone when they needed cash.

I think legalization would reduce the cost of imprisoning a significant percent of our population, but what then?

What do you do with an un or undereducated young guy without much in the way of self discipline?

The military won't touch them. Those jobs don't exist - unless you think we are taking them back from Mexico and China. Due to environmental laws, we couldn't do that if we worked for free. Robots do them better, and never strike or get hurt. There's already ten percent of the work force unemployed, and an equal number qualified for better than what they have, but not finding it.

I'm in favor of legalization, but it's not going to solve this problem.

Ed and Martin both hit on good points. I support legalization, but I'm afraid it is an oversimplification to assume that legalization will bring all those changes around by itself. It must be remembered that for each person who's selling, there is at least one person who is using. A cultural change needs to take place, and it won't happen overnight. And here's a hint: the black inner city isn't the only part of America where drug culture has taken over.

To bring about what McWhorter (and all the rest of us) want, legalization has to come in a package with welfare reform and economic liberalization. The black man in the inner city, or the white guy in the sticks, needs both a motivation to get off his ass and get legal, and something to reach for. The minimum wage is probably doing about as much harm to these classes as drugs are. Who is going to hire a guy with no education and no skills (and likely no manners) for a $10/hour plus bennies job, when they can get an XYZ-Studies college grad for that money? And then there's the cultural issues: for both of these groups, the culture they live in has taught them that, in a perverse way, they are inherently superior to middle class people, and therefore they should not have to work or bear responsibility for themselves. The punk in the hood thinks he's gonna rap his way to Easy Street, and the punk in the stick thinks he's going to get there playing lead guitar. They, and the cultures they live in, need a serious spanking and I don't know how that's going to get done.

and no more rappers pretending that they are drug dealers.

Hey, it's magic: legalize drugs, no more single-mother homes full of multiple children.

What?

There are a few drugs being used in the author's residence.

I can't offer any solutions. I know only that all living things will exploit potentially advantageous opportunities. Humanity fashions laws to regulate this instinctive behavior, but there are no corresponding natural laws.

"Who is going to hire a guy with no education and no skills (and likely no manners) for a $10/hour plus bennies job"
TSA...too obvious. Less obvious is that Amy's Ctrl+C Ctrl+V (oh wait, you're a mac*) disabled the link to his other work where he apparently slays that line of thinking. Haven't read it, no idea if he is more convincing in long form.

*has anyone else noticed how T Mobile is ripping off the whole I'm a mac/I'm a PC campaign and turning it right back around in Apple's face. Love that.

@smurfy: What does apple computers have to do in this? Get your ignorant anti-fan boyism or android-fan boy out of here and come back when you are mature and can discuss real life problems. Moving on from the troll.

I think education is the first thing that should be enhanced, but drug laws will come down the line.

Regarding the drug dealers going to get legal jobs, I don't think so. They will go into pimpin or something else. There will always be something illegal out there.

Quite frankly legalizing and taxing the hell out of pot (hate suggesting new taxes, but...) would make a difference.

You sell a pack of joints (20) $5 to the producer (Lorilard or R.J. Reynolds will run the pot dealers out of business very quickly); $5 to the state; $5 to the fed; $5 to on-demand rehab.

Think about.

Oh -- and half the money going to the fed -- build the freakin fence along the Mexican border.

Ed, Martin, Cousin Dave -- I agree. McWhorter's argument is way too simplistic.

Legalizing drugs may be a good thing to do for other reasons, but it will certainly not solve the problems of the black community.

The trade in illegal drugs, which leads to the tragic incarcerations and deaths of so many black youths, is not the problem. It is only a symptom of the problem.

Here is an impressively thorough and lucid analysis of the actual problem by Kay S. Hymowitz writing in the City Journal back in 2005:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_3_black_family.html

Rats! I forgot it was Amy who put me onto that piece by Kay Hymowitz in the first place.

Still, it's a great piece and well worth the read if you missed it.

Does anyone remember who it was who said that legalizing even just SOME drugs would be like legalizing slavery all over again?

@shamed*: asterisk = aside comment bitch.

There is a third option besides apple/microsoft /droid/linux/citrix, old school low tech devil gives a crap. They're all just tools, tool. Why are you so defensive on Apple issues, doesn't smack of maturity. Anti fan boy? My glasses are way too hip for that to stick.

And pointing out that there are links that many of the commenters very obviously did not follow is substantive. You label me a troll over that? I'm doubting your savyness.

Back OT, you are correct in your final paragraph. I live 15 minutes from legal brothels but you still see plenty of streetwalkers on hooker boulevard. We have medical marijuana states experimenting with this already. Whole counties are trying to zone the dispensaries out of existence. Some want you to put your name on a government list, while the activity is still federally illegal. Taxation is prima facia over pricing. When you make something inconvenient and expensive the black market will pick up the slack. Still, he's a lot right.

*yeah, that was on purpose.