[atonparker]

There is a very real problem here, and you don't have to search hard for it. An entire sub-population of this country was disproportionately sentenced to felony convictions. If we don't recognize that for what it was, we are condemning a generation of black people to just "suck it up, because we're thinking about the future now". That is a mistake because these people are part of the future, and they deserve a fair chance in it. Laws preventing felony offenders from finding work in their field only make sense if the felony conviction actually made sense. Preventing non-violent drug offenders from finding work in the burgeoning drug industry is as nonsensical as the offense they were charged with.

You can't just hit a reset button on racism and say all our mistakes our behind us, now we're all on the same level. Especially not when those mistakes were felony charges with lifelong consequences.

[traviswingo]

Agreed. I don't think we should ignore the problems, I just think we (and especially the heavy-influencing media) should be much more intelligent about crying "racism" when the issue was not a racist one to begin with.

There are far too many publications going out that overreach and point out minor details to make something seem racist or sexist. It's total bullshit and out of context.

[kennywinker]

If a felony means you can't work in an industry, it's a race issue. Felonies are associated with poverty, and for historic and social reasons poverty is associated with being black. Just because they didn't say "sorry we can't hire you, you're black" doesn't mean it doesn't further the cycle of poverty.

I'm not wagging my finger at the weed places. I get their logic, they're running a business that's already on shaky ground... avoiding any employees who might increase that risk makes sense. I'm wagging my finger at society for providing another example of how we keep perpetuating systemic racism.