Blacks are Not Good at Selling Drugs
In response to my article Why So Few Blacks Open Stores, a reader left this comment: "I thought blacks were very enterprising when it comes to dealing in narcotics. Could I be wrong?"
Yes, dear reader, you are wrong. Blacks are no more adept at running a drug business than in running a Chinese take-out restaurant. Most of the expansion of drug selling throughout the country by black gangs is disorganized and without leadership; if there are any street gangs engaged in interstate drug trafficking it is the exception, not the rule (1). If I were the leader of the Bloods in California I would have sent whole groups of gang members to various cities to help organize a national cartel of drug distribution and sales. But that would have meant cooperating with other blacks and as I have written before (read What Makes Jews So Successful?), blacks are not culturally brought up to help other blacks.
One may ask if blacks are not good at drugs then why are so many involved in that business. The answer is that there are no other jobs available (2).
If our country weren't so stupid, instead of a War on Drugs we would have a War on Milk with the same penalties for possession and distribution as we have on drugs. In this manner, black youth could be making money selling illegal milk which is a bigger market than drugs. The revenue from illicit milk sales could reach more than 100 billion dollars annually although I suspect violent property crimes would increase dramatically by mothers who cannot nurse and who could not afford the $100 per gallon price on milk. As a consequence, lactating mothers would be abducted from their homes and forced to pump their milk by roving gangs of milkless mothers.
But at least milk is not harmful as drugs are.
By the way, if you think a War on Milk is not only stupid but absurd, since it would only make criminals rich, increase milk-related violence, and make criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens, then think what our War on Drugs has done.
ENDNOTES
(1):
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Youth Gang Drug Trafficking and Homicide: Policy and Program Implications
NDIC (1994b) conducted a Street Gang Symposium in 1994 that assembled 16 recognized street gang experts from State and local law enforcement agencies, rep-resentative of cities across the Nation. Although the symposium was not limited to youth gangs, it focused primarily on the Bloods and the Crips. The experts concluded that, in exceptional instances, some well-organized street gangs are engaged in interstate drug trafficking. As gang members relocate throughout the country for diverse reasons, their gang's drug trafficking connections are indirectly expanded. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials acknowledge that, although gang drug "franchising" exists, it is the exception -- not the rule. Their view is that when gangs such as the Crips and the Bloods travel to other States, it is generally to supply goods to homegrown gangs, not to set up their own operation.
(2):
JSOnline, Ald. Davis: Blacks use illegal drug trade for economic needs
In a statement expressing his frustration with how growth in the local economy bypasses black males in the city, Ald. Joe Davis said Friday that the illegal drug trade is the "common way" for many African-Americans to provide for their basic financial needs.
...
Davis said the city's rate of economic growth involving the private sector was "pathetic." He added that that poor performance was directly related to the city's crime rate.
...
Davis conceded people would be offended by his statement. He continued: "The illegal drug trade is the common way in the City of Milwaukee’s African American community of providing the basic financial needs of many residents, and its mere presence is creating instability that is directly related to our violent crime statistics....
Estimates vary, but academic and labor experts say the unemployment rate in the African-American community is at least 40% or perhaps higher.
