Review Of Jay Z: 'The War On Drugs Is An Epic Fail'

American people identified the War on Drugs was launched to combat the crack crisis. However, Alexander claims that the crack crisis emerged some years after the War on Drugs was launched. She argues that negative racial stereotypes surrounding the crack crisis were widely dispersed on media. Reagan administration intensified a campaign to gain public and legislative support to the drug war in 1985. Suddenly media was saturated with images of black “crack whores” “crack dealers” and “crack babies” (p.5). There was a widespread discourse that crack crisis was a problem of the poor black neighborhoods. Thus, it was created and constantly reinforced the idea that African American people are drug addicts and dangerous. It is not surprising to know white people that is scared of black people. Moreover, in case you argue to someone that is scared of black people that s/he is being racist, they will claim that statistics prove that many African American are in prison due to drug issues.

“The War on Drugs” is commonly referred to terminology regarding the government’s efforts to rid society of dangerous narcotics readily available on the streets of America’s cities. In the early twentieth century, America’s urban minority population were struggling with a heroin addiction of epidemic proportions. This brought on stigma against urban minorities by uninvolved demographics across America. James Baldwin, an already influential African American author of the time, saw this prejudice within society and wrote Sonny’s Blues as an insightful work to illuminate the struggle behind the addiction. Sonny’s Blues acts as a satirical examination on the effects of adversity, in specific the stigma placed onto African American’s that have

With criminality already tied closely to race, the War on Drugs legislation expanded the definition of crime to drug usages. As demonstrated in The New Jim Crow, a 1995 survey found that 95% of participants pictured an African American person when asked to picture a drug user, but in reality, only 15% of the drug users were African Americans. This survey showed us the extent to which media’s overrepresentation of black

on Drugs, hidden racism and how it plays out with African Americans. The book details the Struggles of the black population during and after slavery and even before Ronald Reagan wrote into policy “The War on Drugs” which he officially announced October 1982.

During Richard Nixon’s second term, incarceration rates began to rise and Nixon declared a war against drugs (Coates 20). Whenever Nixon talked about the war on crime, he was using “dog whistle” politics, referring to the black political movements of the time, Black power, Black Panthers, as well as movements for women’s and gay liberation etc (DuVernay). Nixon’s call for law and order becomes part of

In October 1982, President Ronald Reagan announced his administration’s War on Drugs. Cloaked in race-neutral language, this so-called War on Drugs offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward blacks and black progress, without being exposed to the charge of racism. The racist response that Vanessa Williams received and her family faced in 1983 was clearly overt.

The documentary “the house that I live in” by Eugene Jarecki tells the tale of the true cost of America’s War on Drugs. A film that does not just tell the side of the addict but for everyone that becomes involved with the process. From the dealer to the narcotics officer, the inmate to the federal judge, a parent to the child that loses a parent to the system. It is a detailed and critical look on this so-called War on Drugs, a piercing look into America's criminal justice system, revealing the profound human rights implications of U.S. drug policy.

Drugs have been influencing the ideas, culture, and music of America for ages. Illicit narcotics have left the Union in a state of immense debt. Anti-drug policies have been dumping billions upon billions of dollars in prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation. From the roaring twenties, to the prohibition, drugs have always been fought (Bailey). Most times, the drugs start off as medicines and end up being harmful (Morris). Perhaps, the most prominent and influential eras of drug use in America are the two decades of the 60’s and twenty years later, the 80’s. It may very well be that these two decades molded America into what it is now.

An African-American gangster film, known as a gangsta film is about a heroin dealer name Frank Lucas. Lucas organized crime in Harlem during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. His tactics were cutting out the middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in Southeast Asia. Then he proceeded to smuggle the heroin from Vietnam to the U.S. by using the coffins of dead American servicemen (Frank, web). Another film called, “Boardwalk Empire who added a political dimension, continuing the gangster genre’s focus on the fragility of the American Dream by the links it made noticeable among family, crime, and national and local politics” (Friedman, 422).

In the lyrics of “Warzone”, T.I. addresses how the hegemonic ideology of black inferiority permeates through societal institutions of law. T.I. raps, “The war on drugs was just a war on us / Give us all these guns, give us all this dust / Change all them laws, lock all of us up”. Here, T.I. speaks on how the war on drugs was perpetuated by the media and has been used to disproportionately incarcerate black people, and fuel the prison industrial

After getting the public support for his campaign, America saw an unprecedented rise in its incarceration rate, particularly among African Americans. The “ War on Drugs ” has had a disparate impact on the black community even though blacks and whites use drugs at approximately the same levels. This is achieved through a myriad of formal and informal practices. African-Americans are targeted and prosecuted at a much higher rate even though they are not statistically any likelier to abuse or sell drugs than the white population.

The forceful criminal methods and practices constructed under Reagan's War on Drugs Administration were bound to enter into the school systems of many impoverished communities. As substantial drug use and youth violence increased, underprivileged schools began to see a rise in stringent law enforcement tactics (Kilgore 120). According to Kilgore, “this came in a variety of forms- metal detectors, police on school campuses, zero tolerance discipline policies, and so on” (119). In our song, entitled “Just Say No To My Future,” my partner and I display how unruly, racist, and harsh punishable actions conducted under Reagan's Administration tarnishes the future of African-American youth. Through suggestive details and vivid storytelling, we convey

Ahead the paper the evidences of failed War On Drugs will be presented and it will begin to dawn upon anyone the unholy nexus of Government and Media and how it destroyed lives of millions.

The war on drugs, which was declared by President Richard Nixon in 1971, is an epidemic that is still being dealt with today and that is trying to be stopped by any means. This so called “war on drugs” has killed many Americans and has created tremendous amounts of violence. For example, in the late 1960s, America's inner cities faced so much violence, and dealt with heroin users looking for money to feed their addiction. And according to the video, heroin is causing more deaths than car crashes and even more than violent crimes. And because of this, new laws and help from the government have begun. For example, New York’s governor at the time, Nelson Rockefeller passed some of the harshest Heroin laws the United States had ever seen. These

The very government and elected officials; specifically Ronald Wilson Reagan, would advise people to “Just Say No” and to seek counseling at local neighborhood rehabilitation centers. However, controversial reports and research would claim that the same government, who condemned and outlawed drugs and drug dealing, were not part of the solution, but instead part of the problem. Instead of writing an entire chapter about how Journalist Gary Webb suspiciously died, in 2004, from two self-inflicted gunshots to the head, after exposing the “Dark Alliance,” in 1996. Or, choose to provide several concluding paragraphs about the CIA’s involvement in the selling of narcotics by way of the Nicaraguan drug cartels, under the knowledge of President Reagan, I will instead focus on rap artists’ controversial relationship with drugs. However, the focus of the discussion will be on the lyrical contradictions surrounding drugs, in Hip Hop. Hip Hop culture has an un-healthy relationship with