White House staffers are losing their jobs because of past marijuana use. It’s time to ask Biden why

This isn’t just any broken promise. This is one with deep implications for the Black community

(AP)

President Biden campaigned on promises to get proper justice for the most marginalized people in the United States, particularly Black people. But his latest actions — reportedly firing, suspending, and demoting White House staffers to remote positions due to past marijuana use — are yet another example that he is failing to live up to his grand promises. 

Last Thursday night, The Daily Beast reported that “dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use.”  This was in apparent contradiction to previous statements from the Biden administration, where “staffers were informally told by transition higher-ups ahead of formally joining the administration that they would likely overlook some past marijuana use”.

Many rightfully interpreted this news as profoundly ridiculous, especially in light of Vice President Kamala Harris’ laughing admission that she previously used marijauna and supported legalization. It’s also in contrast with Biden’s claims during the 2020 campaign — that he would switch from his previous position of unequivocally denying support for legalization to supporting the decriminalization of the plant, and leaving the question of legalization up to the states. 

One could brush on this all aside as bureaucratic nonsense that will be sorted it out further down the line. One could roll their eyes, proclaim the move out of touch with the current times —15 states have legalized marijuana and DC has legalized possession for recreational use, while 68 percent of Americans support legalization, the highest number in five decades — and say that it the policy will surely be quickly changed. One could dismiss it as a hiccup on the way to progress.

However, this “hiccup” is fully in line with Biden’s prominent role in the War on Drugs during the 1980s and ’90s, which devastated Black communities. Because marijauna legalization and racial justice are intertwined, the mixed messages are not merely annoying; they are deeply dangerous. 

According to the ACLU’s 2020 report, ‘A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform’, Black people and white people use marijuana at roughly the same rates — something almost anyone who’s lived in a college town can attest to — but Black people are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. In some parts of the country, such as Ozaukee County in Wisconsin, the stats are even more shocking: Black people are 34.9 times more likely to be arrested than their white counterparts.

And the consequences for Black people of drug possession are much more severe. Between 2012 and 2016, Black people were five times as likely to be arrested for felony possession. Felonies impact almost every facet of one’s life. Most importantly,  they come with longer prison sentences — over a year — and can lead to a permanent loss of rights, such as the right to vote. It is important to note that if Biden does not legalize marijuana at the federal level, he will be contributing to the very voter suppression of Black and Indigenous people that his party claims to want to dismantle.

The Biden White House’s decision to sanction staffers for past marijuana use is a bad sign. As the weeks continue, we will be told to “give him time,” or, “There’s nuance to this,” or, “Soon we can push him left.” All that may be true. Maybe he will change in time, maybe he will become more progressive, and there is certainly nuance in everything people do.

At the same time, we can’t afford to be too complacent. The danger of Trump was his instability. The danger of Biden is his inconsistency. This will be his established pattern for the rest of his presidency unless we rise up against it. Adam Serwer famously reflected on  the atrocities of the Trump presidency forThe Atlantic, writing, “The cruelty is the point.” It seems with Biden, the confusion is the point. And it’s our responsibility to demand some clarity.