Analysis Of When A Heart Turns Rock Solid By Timothy Black

The book When a Heart Turns Rock Solid by Timothy Black follows the experiences of the Rivera brothers over the course of eighteen years during which they encountered the trials of the war on drugs. A symbolic interactionist such as Howard Becker would say that if a person begins to internalize or identify with the label they are given such as “addict’ then the person’s deviant behavior will probably continue to occur. An example of this would be when one of Fausto’s friends from the Salvation Army, Trevor, said “It’s like we wear a mask, you see, the mask of an addict. They can’t see me, the me that is flesh and blood…. They only see me as an “addict” (Black 325). Once people are labeled deviant by society it is hard for both them and the

society surrounding them to recognize a change in pattern. In the article “A tale of two drug wars” the author Jared Keller draws a sharp contrast between the way that we are treating the opioid crisis today in comparison to the crack cocaine crisis of 30 years ago.

The victims of the crack crisis of 30 years ago were mostly people of color and the victims of the opioid crisis today are mostly Caucasian (Keller). While the approach to the crack cocaine crisis of 30 years ago was to criminalize and jail the people suffering from an addiction through the mandatory minimums, the approach towards the opioid crisis is to take a public health response. There is a clear racial bias that is being shown as stated by the article: “For the first time the, the rate of opioid related over dose deaths among non-Hispanic white Americans is comparable to the rate of cocaine-related overdose deaths among African Americans” (Keller). This racial inequality in regard to the way we approach people with a drug addiction seems like it will continue to be a problem considering that our current attorney general wants to continue to rage war on street drugs like cocaine and marijuana while the president declares the opioid crisis to be “a national emergency”

(Keller).

The #Metoo movement was created by a black activist named Tarana Burke 10 years ago and the movement has recently emerged into the public consciousness after famous women such as Rose McGowan and Taylor Swifts began to talk about sexual harassment that women face.

In the article “The 97 Men (and One Woman) Taken Down by the #MeToo Movement” by Lizzie Crocker the author questions whether or not the #metoo movement will truly lead to change. The author says that the #metoo movement has definitely led to a positive shift in the culture but also states that “Women and their male allies need to put more energy into affecting permanent change through activism and legislation. That’s the only way forward for #MeToo”(Crocker). As we discussed in class society views women weak and feeble minded in comparison to men that are seen as decisive and strong. Considering the emphasis, we place on patriarchy especially in the United States, it is not surprising that there are such high levels of sexual harassment when it is a common practice for men to be celebrated for their sexual conquests and for women to be slut-shamed. In the article the author states that the “#MeToo movement has been a bit confusing…many men have expressed anxiety and confusion about interacting with women, particularly in the work place” (Crocker). This statement did not surprise me because there is not a very clear societal standard as to what is considered deviant in regard to relations with women in the

workplace. Over the years it has been a dark secret that women should keep quiet about the way they are treated in the work place and there has not been a lot of dialogue about what they find to be unacceptable. Since there has not been a lot of discussion about it occurring it is not surprising that men are confused and a bit afraid of how to interact with women in the work place. For once women are being truly listened too and speaking up, because of this there is a need for a discussion of what and what is not acceptable.