Russell Simmons: Biden was Right

AUTHOR

Russell Simmons

Aug 15, 2012 2:53 PM EDT

The Vice President made headlines Tuesday when he told a mostly black audience that Romney’s economic policies would “put y’all back in chains.” While some have called the comments offensive, for music mogul Russell Simons, Biden was speaking the truth.

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Joe Biden's truthful comment that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would put "y'all back in chains" sat fine with me. Here's why and here's one example.


Joe Biden and Russell Simmons. (AP Photo; Getty Images)

The greatest cause of the destruction of the fabric of the black community in the past forty years is drug legislation that targets and imprisons those who live in under-served communities. The consequences of these draconian laws are that it takes diseased people, locks them up for long periods of time, educates them in violent criminal behavior and dumps them back into the community. The money for this operation is obviously funded by the "good old boys" who run Wall Street.

So, when Joe Biden’s comment yesterday made Republicans jump out of their seats, I wondered why they were so upset. Black people certainly were not. If Republicans really want to know how to help black people, then end the war on drugs, because that really is a war against our own people. Changing those policies will start to free "the chains." Instead, these and other biased policies supported by the Republican Party disempower blacks and all other minorities in various ways. Without healthcare, quality education, equal rights for women and gays and a just tax code (that raises my taxes!), under-served communities will be hit the hardest by the election of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. We must do everything in our power to make sure that doesn't happen.