The Daily Background

At the Black and Brown forum Saturday night, Hillary Clinton borrowed a page from the Republican stancebook by defending racist mandatory minimum sentencing for crack users– something that every other Democratic candidate is opposed to. Watch the above video to understand why mandatory minimums for crack (but not cocaine) is racist if you’re not already familiar with this issue. Ben Smith reports on Clinton’s performance at the event:

The Democratic candidates for president were pressed from the left in two events in Iowa Saturday and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton emerged slightly, but noticeably, as the most conservative in the field.
[…]
Clinton, who said she supports a federal recommendation for shorter sentences for some people caught with crack cocaine, opposed making those shorter sentences retroactive – which could eventually result in the early release of 20,000 people convicted on drug charges.

“In principle I have problems with retroactivity,” she said. “It’s something a lot of communities will be concerned about as well.”
[…]
Her five rivals present on stage – Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich – all said they favor making the shorter sentences retroactive.

Honestly, if you agree, as most experts do, that mandatory minimum sentencing for crack users is racist (as Clinton does), there’s really no defending racist sentencing after the fact. Although Clinton is trying to do it, there really isn’t any ethical way of defending racist sentencing by not endorsing retroactivity. She’s just trying to pick up votes from people who are scared of Black ex-felons who have already repaid their debt to society, that’s the only way I can interpret this.

I just watched the excellent movie Inherit the Wind the other night, so I’ll use a metaphor from that. If somebody gets sentenced to prison for teaching evolution in a classroom– and then the law that makes that illegal is struck down as unconstitutional, then that person should be released. The same goes for retroactivity of racist sentencing as in the case of crack cocaine mandatory minimum sentencing.

The fact is, these grossly unfair mandatory minimum sentences that apply almost exclusively to African American offenders are racist and will probably be struck down sooner or later. The fact that Clinton is okay with getting rid of the inequality in the law but that she’s fine with leaving its legacy– thousands of people who are wrongfully imprisoned for an unequal amount of time based on their economic level– should give anybody who is opposed to systemic racism in the American justice system and is considering voting for her in the primary pause.

Either these people have paid their debt to society just like the White offenders have for the exact same crime, or they haven’t. If they haven’t, then the law should stay the same and they should stay in prison. But if they have, retroactivity must occur.

Update: Jack and Jill Politics has more.

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