A Critical Analysis of the Anti-drug Abuse Act of 1986 Through the Historical Context of Institutionalized White Supremacy

Download or read book A Critical Analysis of the Anti-drug Abuse Act of 1986 Through the Historical Context of Institutionalized White Supremacy written by John Saksa and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 is often viewed as a prominent piece of legislation that served to criminalize a significant portion of black and brown communities within the larger War on Drugs staged by the US government. However, my research seeks to contextualize the Act’s role in institutionally reinforcing new forms of white supremacy through examining how the policy its surrounding political narratives relate to the pre-existing ways in which white supremacy in US society had already functioned. Through examining the contents of the Act itself alongside its accompanying federal handbook, the paper assesses how the choice of targeting crack cocaine relates to the federal government’s efforts to demonize and imprison members of the black community as well as observes the effects of legally codified patriarchal thought. Then, through observing the remarks that were uncritically repeated within the New York Times and Wall Street Journal by Ronald Reagan, Edwin Meese III, and several other prominent political figures, this project examines, not only how their alleged justifications for enacting their drug crusade differed from the actual studied results, but how their remarks served the double purpose of reifying pre-existing forms of white supremacist and capitalist oppression. Finally, this paper examines the subsequent effects of the War on Drugs through tracing the deep-seated effects of “color-blind” racist ideology. Ultimately, this paper concludes that the US has always been and continues to be a white supremacist society that relies upon a series of policing, mass media, and economic systems to maintain the oppressive status quo in which black and brown peoples are continually dehumanized, imprisoned, and exploited by the ruling capitalist class.