“Criminal justice and race relations experts say the only value in pointing out the race of a drug dealer – as Gov. Paul LePage has done several times since January – is to inflame the public.
“’I don’t think his remarks have any bearing on the real issue, except to deflect and create tensions,’ said Shay Stewart-Bouley, executive director of Community Change, a Boston-based organization devoted to fighting racial injustice and a blogger who writes ‘Black Girl in Maine.’ “’It does nothing to address the matter of addiction, but what it does do is inflame racial tensions at a time when we need it the least.’”