Waubonsee Community College

Unequal under law, race in the war on drugs, Doris Marie Provine

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-195) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Unequal under law

bibliography

84903534

Doris Marie Provine

race in the war on drugs

Race is clearly a factor in government efforts to control dangerous drugs, but the precise ways that race affects drug laws remain difficult to pinpoint. Illuminating this elusive relationship, this book lays out how decades of both manifest and latent racism helped shape a punitive U.S. drug policy whose onerous impact on racial minorities has been willfully ignored by Congress and the courts. The author's analysis traces the history of race in anti-drug efforts from the temperance movement of the early 1900s to the crack scare of the late twentieth century, showing how campaigns to criminalize drug use have always conjured images of feared minorities. Explaining how alarm over a threatening Black drug trade fueled support in the 1980s for a mandatory minimum sentencing scheme of unprecedented severity, the contention is that while our drug laws may no longer be racist by design, they remain racist in design. Moreover, their racial origins have long been ignored by every branch of government. This dangerous denial threatens our constitutional guarantee of equal protection of law and mutes a much-needed national discussion about institutionalized racism

Racial discrimination in the eyes of the law -- Race in America's first war on drugs -- Negro cocaine fiends, Mexican marijuana smokers, and Chinese opium addicts : the drug menace in racial relief -- Congress on crack : how race-neutral language hides racial meaning -- The racial impact of the war on drugs : how government coped -- Racial justice : the courts consider sentencing disparities