Section 1: Identification and evaluation of sources
The question of this investigation is: “To what extent did Nixon’s june 1971 speech, where declared a “Drugs are public enemy #1” for the first time, set the grounds for future anti-black political standpoints and mass incarceration of black and brown people?”
The war on drugs was created by the conservatives in the 70s, to have a justifiable reason to persecute black and brown communities with political power. The original “War on Drugs” was the one started by president Richard Nixon in 1971, where he became the first political figure to use the term, and also declared narcotics “Public enemy #1”. With modern knowledge of the Nixon administration it is important to look at his word choice
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and actions with hindsight to see that the modern effects on black and brown communities were intentional. The most relevant sources to this investigation were “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander, and the video of the Nixon 1971 speech “President Nixon Declares Drug Abuse “Public Enemy Number One”. These sources decided the format, and initial decision for this investigation. Source 1 (The New Jim Crow) The origin of this source is the research and writing of civil rights lawyer, Michelle Alexander. This book was written with the intent to expose the connections in between racial segregation and the institution of mass incarceration. This book connects the actions of the Nixon presidency to the administrations of all preceding presidents, and the conservative party. It exposes racial undertones in policies, and holds the government accountable for the mass incarceration of black and brown people. This book has been the most help to this investigation. Alexander provides baseline information, viewpoints, and logistics of mass incarceration and the drug war in both a historical and modern context. She deconstructs coded language, and explains how the drug war was strategically created to target black and brown communities. A value is that this is Alexander’s job. To find inconsistencies in our political system and expose them to the public. She also constructed this book with the work of over 40 field professionals. This sources main limitation, is that it is written from the perspective of a person with modern ethical standards. Alexander has a very strong voice in this writing and the bias towards proving a racist government is prevalent. Source 2 Nixon’s 1971 address was another prompting force for topic decision in this IA. This speech was given in a press conference, where Nixon declared “America’s public enemy #1 in the united states, is drug abuse”.The main purpose of this source is to send out a message to the general public that introduced a new political stance to the American population. Nixon uses statements like “wage a war” and references the “Rightfully concerned American Families”, with potent negative language to sway the populace. He puts emphasis on the idea that this is a bipartisan issue, and is not just an issue of the conservatives. A value is that this is a 1st person source. This is not an interpretation, or in any way altered from what Nixon himself said. This allows me to act as a historian and interpret the intended message, and choice of language, to connect the actions he took to mobilize the battle against drug use. A limitation to this source is that because it is a video, I am only getting a glimpse into the past. I can only see the period of time that the camera captured, and this leaves me without knowledge of what else he said at the press conference, and what was said at the meeting preceding the press conference. Section 2: Investigation The first rendition of the “War on Drugs” was led by Nixon in 1971 Ebbing America into an era of mass incarceration, and furthering the divide in between white Americans, and their marginalized counterparts. This internalized war fought against black and brown communities was fought over many presidencies, liberal and conservative alike, but the establishment of this “all out offensive” is attributed to President Richard Nixon. Nixon pioneered the anti-Drug political standpoint, and race based political strategies. Over the past 30 years since his presidency, the prison population has grown from 300,000 to over 3 million. The Nixon administration has been proven to have racist and classist motives that were meant to demonize the black community with political justification.The actions of his administration intentionally led to the mass incarceration of black and brown people, voter restriction, and furthered the racial, and class divides in this nation. Nixon's 1971 speech began this internal conflict by using very calculated language to sway public opinions. He made statements like “America’s public enemy #1 in the united states is drug abuse”, and “all american people need to be alerted of this danger”. These statements were made to give the false pretense that drug use was rapidly rising, but in fact in 1971 drug related crimes were on a decline. And a poll conducted in 1972 found less than 2% of Americans saw drugs as the main problem facing this nation. The nature of his language is in an accusatory tone that pushed the public towards picking out an antagonist. At the time the public didn't know, but Nixon had already selected an enemy. One of Nixon's key advisers, John Ehrlichman, states “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people - We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. -- Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” This statement reveals the truth of the Nixon administration. This modern knowledge solidifies a key viewpoint proving Nixon had racist, and classist motives during his presidency. He dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies, by doubling their funding in under 1 year. He capitalized on increasing the minimum sentencing laws established in the 1952 Boggs act , originally intended to prevent white communities to discourage drug use, but rephrased to specifically raise sentences on drugs associated with lower class black and latinx people. And "no-knock raids," that would give the power to federal agents conducting federal anti-drug investigations to enter buildings under investigation without first announcing themselves. In terms of creating a political justification to criminalize black and brown people he had already succeeded. There was opposition to these laws from Sen. Sam Ervin, the Democrat from North Carolina who served from 1954 to 1974. Ervin implored the Senate "not to enact a bill which contains provisions that are absolutely hostile to the traditions which have prevailed in our country ever since it became a Republic. Once gone, the liberties which the bill threatened would be gone forever." A common standpoint of liberal politicians was to call out the unconstitutional and loss of liberties that were created by enforcing policing of marginalized communities. Nixon continued to incite demonizing of black and brown communities by attributing the rise in crime rates of the 60’s to the civil rights movement. Nixon stated “The spread of a corrosive doctrine that every citizen possesses an inherent right to decide for himself which laws to obey and disobey them” This was a sentiment of anti-civil rights language that mirrored the beliefs and concerns of the white working class that he was pandering to. Nixon had created a new conservative ideology that was successfully using the insecurities of white America as a political platform. The conservative ideology at this time was very race based, as the first civil rights act was passed less than ten years ago.
The south, the most conservative of the states was still weary to give black people a place in society. The Nixon administration purposely pandered to the concerns of the white working class who made up the majority of the vote; recognized as “the republican Majority”. Kevin phillips stated “Nixon’s successful political campaign could point the way toward long term, political, and ethical realignment of the new Republican majority” Nixon established an era of Republicans that continued to primarily campaign on the basis of racial issues, by using coded language and racial insecurities as opposed to traditional arguments politicians based their presidency on. Essentially making racism a political viewpoint. The liberal branches of government knew this and attempted to thwart Nixon. In 1973 a recommendation was issued by the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals “No new institutions for adults should be built, and institutions for youth should be closed” , this statement represented the voice of liberal America, who was pro-integration and against the race based campaigning instituted by Nixon. This viewpoint was against the historical conservative agenda but had no space to prevent the massive influx of new inmates over the next 20 years. The following elections were determined based on attitude towards race, as opposed …show more content…
to social or economic issues. Reagan's campaign began where Nixon had left off. If Nixon invented the drug war, Reagan operated it . He more openly pandered to the conservative white working class by introducing a slew of coded words into his addresses. Reagan described to white Americans who believed they were being overtaxed the “welfare queen, with 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 social security cards, whose tax free income alone is over $150,000”. Welfare queen became a term synonymous with “Lazy, greedy, black, ghetto mother”, a common perception of poor black America. Reagan labeled black men as “predators” and this language carried through his administration. Reagan announced his war on drugs in 1982. At this time the Black and brown communities were in turmoil. A study states that in in 1970 over 70% of blacks were holding industrial jobs generating a stable income, but by 1987 the percentage of employed black was down to 28%. The decline in legitimate job opportunities led members of black communities to turn to selling drugs as a source of income. Most notably, crack cocaine. “The crack cocaine epidemic swept through poor black neighborhoods like the horsemen of the apocalypse” The Reagan administration established the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act. This act was riddled with ways to lawfully imprison marginalized inmates at a higher rate than white inmates. Specifically the 100-1 sentencing laws. These laws stated 50 grams of crack, merited a ten-year minimum sentence, but 5,000 grams of cocaine, which is the exact same substance had the same punishment. Trafficking 50 grams of powder cocaine carries no mandatory sentence. This became a justifiable way to stunt poor black and brown communities by putting key members of their community in jail without criminalizing blackness. In 2005, African Americans constituted more than 80 percent of those sentenced to federal prison for crack cocaine offenses, even though two-thirds of crack cocaine users are white or Hispanic. This created an obvious disparity in racial sentencing, and liberal politicians attempted to fight this. But due to the McCleskey v Kemp case of 1987, racial bias in sentencing, even if proved with statistical evidence couldn't be challenged under the 14th amendment. Permanently solidifying 100-1 crack sentencing, and all other laws that disproportionately target marginalized communities. To this day there hasn't been a single challenge to this case. The Reagan administration borrowed strategies that made Nixon successful, and finished the goals of his administration. The fears of the concerned white population had officially been enacted permanently. Leaving a mark on all poor, black, and latinx communities to this day. Conclusion The actions of the Nixon administration created the system of mass incarceration and systematically instituted a new method to disenfranchise racially marginalized communities.
In modern day, 1 in 3 black men have felonies on their record. Meaning they can't vote, they are virtually unhireable, and were absent from their family lives. In 1970’s anti narcotic spending was around 1 billion per year, in the 80’s it spiked to above 8 billion per year, and to this day, the U.S has spent over 1 trillion on this so called “War on Drugs” that has done nothing to lower rates of drug use, or even rehabilitate drug users. It only functioned as a justification to put black and latinx people behind bars, despite the fact that all races of people use drugs at the same rate .Punishment, became less of a reflection of what safety entails, and a means of social control. It all began with the establishment of racism, and classism as a political viewpoints by the actions of the Nixon administration; Through the war on
drugs.
It is clear that Richard Nixon was elected as a conservative. He promised themes of “law and order” (Lecture 24, November 14), pandered to what he called the “silent majority” (Silent Majority Speech, 1969) and promised to end the unpopular Vietnam War, a product of liberal policies and ideals. He offered a sharp contrast in rhetoric between the soaring “we can do it all” language perpetuated by Kennedy and Johnson (Lecture 25, November 19). But how truly conservative was “Tricky Dick’s” presidency? Did the man who was elected specifically to end the seemingly endless chaos of the sixties actually prolong the national nightmare?
This has unfortunately become a viscous cycle because the war on drugs are so strict its become a slavery or cast system that has taken so much of the black race and incarcerated them for drug crimes for as long as murder crimes. This system is dehumanizing and should be looked over and lifted. Every race uses and sells drugs, it is unjust to use drug laws just to control the black race under imprisonment for small crimes.
Human rights experts have reported that in the 70s, African Americans in the U.S were already being overrepresented in drug arrests, with twice as many arrests as Caucasians (Fellner, 2009). Since the war on drugs began, African
Mass Incarceration: The New Jim Crow is the direct consequence of the War on Drugs. That aims to reduce, prevent and eradicate drug use in America through punitive means. The effect of the war on drug policies returned de jure discrimination, denied African Americans justice and undermined the rule of law by altering the criminal justice system in ways that deprive African Americans civil rights and citizenship. In the “New Jim Crow” Alexandra argues that the effects of the drug war policies are not unattended consequences but coordinated by designed to deny African Americans opportunity to gain wealth, be excluded from gaining employment and exercise civil rights through mass incarceration and felony conviction. The war on drugs not only changes the structure of the criminal justice system, it also changes the ways that police officers, prosecutors and judges do their jobs.
The War on Drugs is believed to help with many problems in today’s society such as realizing the rise of crime rates and the uprooting of violent offenders and drug kingpin. Michelle Alexander explains that the War on Drugs is a new way to control society much like how Jim Crow did after the Civil War. There are many misconceptions about the War on Drugs; commonly people believe that it’s helping society with getting rid of those who are dangerous to the general public. The War on Drugs is similar to Jim Crow by hiding the real intention behind Mass Incarceration of people of color. The War on Drugs is used to take away rights of those who get incarcerated. When they plead guilty, they will lose their right to vote and have to check application
While the War on Drugs may have been portrayed as a colorblind movement, Nixon’s presidency and reasoning for its implementation solidifies that it was not. Nixon coined the term “War on Drugs” in his 1971 anti-drug campaign speech, starting the beginning of an era. He voiced, “If there is one area where the word ‘war’ is appropriate, it is in the fights against crime” (DuVernay, 13th). This terminology solidified to the public that drug abusers were an enemy, and if the greatest publicized abusers were black, then black people were then enemy. This “war” started by Nixon claimed it would rid the nation of dealers, but in fact, 4/5 of arrests were for possession only (Alexander, 60). Nixon employed many tactics in order to advance the progress
In reality, the war had little to do with drug crime and a lot to do with racial politics. The drug war was part of a strategy used by the government. The President identified drug abuse as a national threat. Therefore, they called for a national anti-drug policy, the policy began pushing for the involvement of the police force and military in drug prohibition efforts. The government did believe that blacks or minorities were a cause of the drug problem.
The war on drugs began with the presidential term of President Nixon in the 1970s. According to drugpolicy.org, “He dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies, and pushed through measures such as mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants. Nixon temporarily placed marijuana in Schedule One, the most restrictive category of drugs.”
The phrase, “war on drugs” was first used by Former President Nixon. The polices created tried to control the supply and demand of drugs but “the war on drugs” turned into a war on minority communities, especially African Americas. At this time, cocaine was introduced to the scene, but was mainly used by Caucasians. The police did not pay much mind to it until this very same drug started to show up in African American communities. (Welch 2007) “Urban black Americans have borne the brunt of the War on Drugs. They have been arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned at increasing rates since the early 1980s, and grossly out of proportion to their numbers in the general population or among drug users. (Welch 2007) The war on drugs helped create the stereotype that African Americans are the top users and distributors of drugs which is untrue. This made police single out minorities, especially African Americans when it came searches, arrests, and convictions. As stated earlier, police raid Dee’s project and arrested her and several other people. This was a pre-determined raid that in the eyes of many, was unlawful and unjust. Many people that were locked up with Dee and/or prior to Dee arriving at the prison, were there on drug charges. This is not the first time when drug raids have plagued the African American community. Police target these populations quite often. African Americans
In an attempt to reinforce his dominance over the political spectrum, Nixon capitalized upon the fear which surrounded a legitimate public health issue by twisting it into an opportunity to stifle and alienate his political opponents. Nixon recognized that the American desire for government action regarding substance use essentially granted him the power to enact any reform which he pleased, seeing as due to the severity of the issue, the public would openly embrace any change to the status quo. Although Nixon initially increased allocated funding for drug-control agencies, he lacked any political force to truly implement stricter measures against drug use. Thus, demand for a federal means of enforcement spurred the creation of the Drug Enforcement
The War on Drugs, as previously stated, was first introduced by Nixon and reinforced by its preceding presidents. It is a campaign that was launched in 1971, by President Richard Nixon during his time in office, but was not enacted into full force until the 80s when Ronald Reagan was in office. Between 1980 and 1984, FBI anti-drug funding went from eight million to 95 million dollars. During the same time, funding for treatment and prevention was reduced (Florio 2016). As a result, convictions for drug offenses, after the announcement of the War on Drugs, are the single most important cause of the explosion of incarceration rates in the United States (Alexander 2012:60). That is to say that if the War on Drugs was not introduced and reinforced following Nixon, the United State’s prison system could have avoided mass incarceration, exceptionally for people of color. To illustrate, nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of people of color in the United States than the War on Drugs (Alexander 2012:60). Sadly, it is more than obvious that it appears that the War on Drugs was a certain phenomenon that was distinctly formulated to target individuals of color. Although the War on Drugs was in reality created to diminish the drugs and punish those that were located with them, it did absolutely the opposite. Few would guess that the
In 1971, President Nixon declared a “war on drugs.” He substantially increased the presence and size of federal drug agencies, and passed legislation like mandatory sentencing laws and unconstitutional warrants. Nixon even listed marijuana as a Schedule One drug, the most constrictive drug category. Over forty years later, the U.S is still waging a war on drugs, spending billions of dollars per year and creating major social issues.
Though President Nixon launched “The War on Drugs” in 1971, the most aggressive antidrug policies, including harsh mandatory prison sentences for possession of even small amounts of narcotics, were enacted during the Reagan administration. Thirty years later, 20 million Americans (roughly 1 in 15) use illegal drugs regularly. We seem to be losing the war. Some, including Columbia University neuroscientist Carl Hart, think we were fighting the wrong war to begin with.
From 1970 to the end of the decade, Americans role became more defamatory. In 1970, 60% of drug overdoses were suicides, while 31% were accidental. Drug use rose considerably in the 1970s. In 1970, there were 350,000 arrests for drug abuse. People were taking drugs because they were less moral. They were becoming less moral because they weren’t religious. People started to abandon their religion. To people of religion, the public that was taking drugs took them because they were immoral. Also from 1970 to 1979, the total reported crime rate went up by 51%, while the population only went up by 8%. Another big issue was abortions. From 1970 to 1979, the legal abortion rate rose 535%. During In 1979, there were 1,497,670 legal abortions in the United States Women began to have more abortions, mostly due to the facts that they weren’t married to their partner, the pregnancy was result of rape, the woman didn’t have enough money, or because of religion. Many religious people were against this, and they believed that these women were slaughtering babies by having abortions. One of the most well-known crimes occured in the White House, with President Richard Nixon’s scandal. Richard Nixon was the 37th president who served from January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994. Nixon was involved in a scandal that fell on June 17, 1972 that involved a break in at the Watergate
In the early 1980s, policymakers and law enforcement officials stepped up efforts to combat the trafficking and use of illicit drugs. This was the popular “war on drugs,” hailed by conservatives and liberals alike as a means to restore order and hope to communities and families plagued by anti-social or self-destructive pathologies. By reducing illicit drug use, many claimed, the drug war would significantly reduce the rate of serious nondrug crimes - robbery, assault, rape, homicide and the like. Has the drug war succeeded in doing so?