MSNBC Guest: There Are Different Responses to Crime When We Assume It’s Done by White People

On Saturday’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” on MSNBC, host Melissa Harris-Perry compared the response to drug crime by President George H. W. Bush in the 1980s to GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie’s approach

Show guest Nicole D. Porter, Director of Advocacy for The Sentencing Project, said that white drug users receive a “more humane” response than when it’s assumed the crimes are done by “people of color,” who become “demonized” or “dehumanized” in the United States.

“I think it’s the story of how people are using heroin today. There is general consensus that because the users are white, the response is more humane. It follows the pattern of responding to the crimes in the U.S. overall when the users are black, or people of color, there’s a tendency to demonize and dehumanize. When the users or people perpetuating the crime tend to be white, there is a tendency to be more curious.”