Russell Childree
Poverty Studies
May 4, 2010
The War on Drugs: Jim Crow for Post-Civil Rights America
The age of Jim Crow laws in America is an embarrassing period of time in United States
history. Even after the abolition of slavery with the 13th Amendment in 1865, black Americans
were treated unfairly through less overt but equally prejudiced practices such as the segregation
of public places. Despite their supposed freedom, in relation to their white American
counterparts, black Americans were treated unequally under the law. In his poem entitled
“Justice”, the great poet Langston Hughes wrote about this perversion of the law:
That justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are wise;
Her bandage hide two festering sores
That once perhaps were eyes.1
Given the segregation, discrimination, and lynching of the time; portraying justice as beaten,
diseased, and maimed in 1923 is historically accurate. In the United States today, we like to think
that corrupted justice towards black Americans is a thing of the past. After all, the Civil Rights
movement occurred over 40 years ago and now there is even a black American in the Oval
Office. Yet, upon examination of what is called “The War on Drugs”, it becomes evident that
discriminatory and prejudiced practices similar to the old Jim Crow laws still exist in the United
States today.
1
Langston Hughes. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes.(Columbia, University of Missouri Press, 2003), p. 27.
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The evidence that the War on Drugs is racist towards black Americans is undeniable,
thorough, and convincing. Black Americans make up 12.8% of the population and a
proportionate 13% percent of drug users, but they also compromise an egregiously
disproportionate 38% of those arrested for drug offenses and an even worse 59% of those
convicted for drug offenses2. Somehow, black Americans comprise over half of drug
convictions even though they represent less than a seventh of drug users. The disparity of
treatment under law is so vast that black men are incarcerated at a rate 9.6 times higher than
white men3. Therefore, in post-Civil Rights America, black Americans are still being unfairly
treated under law.
While discriminatory treatment is a significant transgression by itself, the effects and
consequences of its existence are far reaching. One of the areas it most directly affects is the
economic sector. As the great black American intellectual W.E.B. Dubois said on the subject:
“Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if
they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meager chance for
developing their exceptional men? If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an
emphatic No."4
As Dubois explicates, freedom from oppression is needed for economic improvement.
Considering that in America today 24.7% percent of black Americans live in poverty compared
to only 11.8% of white Americans5, and black Americans are disproportionately affected by the
War on Drugs, the two appear directly related. And yet, the War on Drugs’ draconian policies
negatively affects black communities in other ways as well such as disenfranchisement and
health. After deliberate examination of the War on Drugs, two things become clear. First, its
2
3
Drug Policy Alliance Network. www.drugpolicy.org/communities/race
Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/drugs/war/key-facts.htm
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Rockville, Arc Manor, 2008), p. 43.
5
U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty08/pov08hi.html
4
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disproportionate effect on black Americans perpetuates an economic underclass and mistreated
populace based on race. Second, it is clear that policy reform is desperately needed.
One way the War on Drugs negatively affects the financial circumstances of families is
through its increased levels of incarceration. More than six times as many Americans were
incarcerated in 2006 than in 19766. During this time, white drug arrests increased by 86% and
black drug arrests increased by 400%7. So, the War on Drugs is increasing the number of all
Americans sent to jail, which greatly strains families, and is having an even worse effect on
disproportionately affected black American families. New York Times writer Jason Deparle
wrote about the importance of an adult’s income while observing a woman named Angie’s
journey with welfare, “Finances had rested on the usual three-legged stool...welfare, a sporadic
under the table job, and whatever money Greg [her boyfriend] brought in. No single income
stream sufficed, but together they provided a living on the borders of just enough.”8 Deparle
creates the image of a family held up by the female’s income, the male’s income, and welfare.
Thus, the problem with the War on Drugs is that it creates a disproportionate number of “twolegged” stools in black communities. With more and more people being sent to prison for drug
use, and because those convicted are disproportionately black, these families are bearing the
brunt of increasing incarceration rates. One out of every 14 black children has had a parent in
jail9, so black families are suffering financially due to the fact that the breadwinner of the family
is often in prison.
6
Marc Mauer. “Race, Class, and the Development of Criminal Justice Policy.” Review of Policy Research 21: 71-92.
Cassia C. Spohn and Jeffrey W. Spears. Crime Control and Social Justice: The Delicate Balance (Westport ,
Greenwood Press, 2003) p. 197.
8
Jason Deparle. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, And a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare (London, Penguin
Press, 2004), p. 53.
9
The Sentencing Project. http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/womenincj_total.pdf
7
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Another way the War on Drugs harms black communities is that it scares businesses
away from opening operations in drug infested areas, which are most often low income areas and
areas with the highest need for community development. After all, it is not good for business if
drug busts in your parking lot are a weekly occurrence. The lack of business presence negatively
affects communities in two ways. First, it scares away middle class Americans whose higher
taxes could help fund community development. Second, there is a lack of employment
opportunities which means more people on the street and not bringing in money for their
families.
Although many of the negative effects on the finances of families affected by the War on
Drug are more visible, it may only be the tip of the iceberg. Poverty is a strange phenomenon,
where many of its effects may be invisible or may not surface for a long time. In his book about
the working poor in America, David Shipler contends, “For practically every family, then, the
ingredients of poverty are part financial and part psychological, part personal and part societal,
part past and part present. Every problem magnifies the impact of others, and all are so tightly
interlocked that one reversal can produce a chain reaction with results far distant from the
original cause.”10 Statistics or reporting may not be able to capture the negative effect of many
aspects of the War on Drugs. Perhaps the psychological toll of living in a drug infested, criminal
area, cut far deeper than statistics can show.
However, the financial sector is not the only place that the War on Drugs negatively
affects black Americans; it also disenfranchises them. Over 1.4 million black men have lost the
right to vote, which is 13% of all black men and seven times the national average11. The NAACP
10
11
David K. Shipler. The Working Poor: Invisible in America (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2004), p. 11.
The Sentencing Project. http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/fd_bs_fdlawsinusMarch2010.pdf
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completed a study in 2005 which estimated that nearly 30% of black men in Florida and
Alabama have permanently lost the right to vote12. These statistics illustrate that the War on
Drugs not only threatens black Americans financially but also threatens their civil rights. If the
War on Drugs fairly affected all groups, then perhaps its effect of mass disenfranchisement
would not be as contentious. But given the fact that it disproportionately affects black
Americans, the loss of right to vote for distribution of an illegal substance ought to be
reconsidered. As drug policy scholar Doris Marie Provine says, “The fundamental question is
whether the United States has developed a fully functioning democracy, based on equal respect
for all members, or whether it remains, in important respects, a racial state where opportunities
are hierarchically organized”13. Similar to disenfranchisement under Jim Crow voting
prerequisites which sent many black Americans away from the polls, the mass
disenfranchisement of the War on Drugs makes a mockery of democracy considering that one
racial group is disproportionately affected.
Community health is another area affected by the War on Drugs. Although it may seem
that it is improving community health by decreasing the use of harmful substances, what the War
on Drug actually is doing is making the use of harmful drugs even more dangerous. For instance,
many drugs such heroin and cocaine can be inserted into the body intravenously, so needles are
needed. Black Americans represent 13% of the U.S. population but 43% of those living with
AIDS14. While this number is not solely related to the War on Drugs, the fact of the matter is that
12
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (2005).
www.naacp.org/programs/vote/vote_reenfranchisment.html.
13
Doris Marie Provine, Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007),
p. 2.
14
Drug Policy Alliance Network. http://www.drugpolicy.org/reducingharm/needleexchan/
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many states forbid needle exchange programs even though they have proven to reduce the spread
of AIDS. The main reason for the refusal to sponsor needle exchange programs is that it
encourages drug use. So, considering that the U.S. government implements policies that both
actively hurt and abstains from helping black Americans through the War on Drugs, it can
indisputably be considered a racist policy.
It seems strange that policies so blatantly racist can exist in 21st century America In order
to understand why the policies that exist today are so racist, a glimpse into the history of the War
on Drugs is needed. After realizing where the War on Drugs originated from and its current,
blatant legal negligence, the need for reform becomes crystal clear.
In providing a brief historical narrative of the War on Drugs, a good place to start is the
Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914. This law made it illegal to distribute opiates without official
registration with the federal government. This meant that only corporations or doctors could
possess codeine, morphine or heroin, and they had to get permission from the U.S. government
to have it. While this may not seem strange to a 21st century, this legislation was somewhat
radical for its time. An 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog advertized hypodermic needles for morphine
users, so drug use did not have the social stigma it does today15. In 1930 the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics was created, which was the predecessor of the DEA which we still have today. In 1937
the Marihuana Tax Act was passed which held the same restrictions for marijuana that Harrison
Act had for opiates. In 1971 President officially declared a “War on Drugs" and two years later
he created the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). In the next decade Reagan stepped up the War
15
Doris Marie Provine, Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007),
p. 2.
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on Drugs through his Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, and his wife publicized her “Just Say No
Campaign”.16
A quick narrative of the War on Drugs does not make it seem like it was intentionally
racist. Rhetoric like “Drug enforcement", “Anti-Drug Abuse” and “Narcotics Tax Act” don’t
seem threatening at all. However, a closer look reveals that the history of the War on Drugs is
laced with racial bigotry. A constant theme perpetrated by the media was that if there was a drug
problem, it was a black problem. Two New York Times articles published during the early 20th
century were entitled “Cocaine Evil Among Negroes”, and “Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’ Are a New
Southern Menace.”17 The drug abuse problem was easy to blame on black Americans because
they were already looked down on in American society. Doris Marie Provine explains,
“Stereotypes of cocaine crazed blacks…were powerful because they aroused deep-seated
emotions about race, sex, and social control…The criminalization of so-called hard rugs thus
arose out of a complex of related white fears that nonwhite ‘others’ in American society, assisted
by drugs, could destroy…America’s essential goodness”.18 The racial tendencies of the War on
Drugs drastically increased with appointment of Henry Aslinger as the first Deputy of the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Aslinger said such racially charged things like “Reefers make
darkies think they are better than white men”, and “The primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its
effect on the degenerate races”19, and he created equally racially charged policies during his 32
year tenure in charge of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Whether it was a deep-South stereotype
16
Ibid p.63-119
“Cocaine Evil Among Negroes”. New York Times. November 3, 1902. “Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’ Are a New
Southern Menace”. Dr. Edward Huntington Williams. February 8, 1914.
18
Doris Marie Provine, Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007),
p. 88-9.
17
19
Media Awareness Project. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n201/a01.html
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that the drug problem was a black problem or a bigoted federal commissioner, the crusade
against mind-altering drugs in the United States has always been fueled by paranoia of
minorities.
I do not think that bigots like Aslinger are still in charge of U.S. drug policy and make it
intentionally racist, just that the same racial paranoia that has been present through the history of
the War on Drugs still permeates the thinking behind legislation today. The best example of this
is the disparity that exists between the sentencing of crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Even
though the two drugs are pharmacologically identical, it takes 500 grams of powder cocaine to
receive the same sentence length for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine. This topic is
racially charged for two reasons. First, the drugs which are pharmacological twins are usually
consumed by different audiences. Crack cocaine is considered to be a black drug, and powder
cocaine is considered to be a white drug. The reason for this is most likely that crack is cheaper.
So, two drugs that are pharmacologically identical were given a 100:1 sentencing disparity,
which has led to blacks serving an average prison time that is 39% longer than their white
counterparts.20 The other more startling racial issue in regards to crack cocaine is that even
though more white Americans use crack, more black Americans are convicted for possession. In
2003, over half of documented crack users were white, but 81% of those sentenced for crack
offenses were black.21
I do not think that these policies have been implemented to intentionally be racist. I think
that the media seized the opportunity play on the public’s fear of drug use by exaggerating the
use of crack in the U.S. Scholar Doris Maries Provine clarifies this point, “Moral panics create
20
Department of Justice. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2056
Ryan S. King. The Next Big Thing? Methamphetamine in the United States. (Washington D.C., The Sentencing
Project , 2005).
21
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‘folk devils’, elements in society who are stripped of all favorable characteristics and blamed for
the condition…As in other moral panics, media hype was an essential element in the
mobilization of public opinion about crack”.22 So, the media took a hot-button issue and
completely blew it out of proportion, but the public bought the ploy. Author Mike Gray contends
that politicians responded to this increasing popular disdain towards crack, “When a CBS-New
York Times poll showed that half of Americans queried said drug traffic was the number one
international problem, Democrats and Republicans alike tried to outbid each other in an orgy of
breast-beating”.23 Therefore, I think a mixture of both the media and politicians attempting to
capitalize on a growing fear of crack cocaine led to the extremely racist policies we have today.
Given the racist effects of the current crack cocaine legislation, I think reform is
immediately needed. The easiest and most simple way to decrease the disproportionate affect the
War on Drugs is having on black Americans is by passing legislative reform that treats
possession of crack cocaine and powder cocaine equally. As the U.S. Sentencing Commission
states in regards to the disparity between crack and powder cocaine:
“This one sentencing rule contributes more to the differences in average sentences between AfricanAmerican and White offenders than any possible effect of discrimination. Revising the crack cocaine
thresholds would better reduce the gap than any other single policy change, and it would dramatically
improve the fairness of the federal sentencing system.”24
Thus, by establishing parity between the treatment of crack cocaine and powder cocaine, a
significant portion of the racial inequalities of our current drug policy could be removed and
reformed.
22
Doris Marie Provine, Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007),
p. 88-9.
23
Mike Gray, Drug Crazy: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out (New York, Random House, 1998),
p.112.
24
U.S. Sentencing Commission. Fifteen Years of Guideline Sentencing. (Washington D.C., Government Printing
Office, 2003),
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Another way to reform our current drug policy so that it does affect black Americans in
such a negative way is to legalize marijuana. As cliché as it has become to say it, the legalization
of marijuana would be good for American society. The main reason for this is that it would free
up our courts and prisons for violent offenders who are the real ones who should be experiencing
the ins and outs of our judicial system.
A key step in drug policy reform in the U.S. would be to shift our approach towards
dangerous drugs from punishment to rehabilitation. Rather than sending our citizens to months in
prison because of the possession of a substance, the government should instead provide rehab
services for drug users. One study showed that 57% of those needing drug treatment in the U.S.
did not receive it.25 So, thousands of Americans who need medical help do not receive it because
our government would rather spend money on capturing them and throwing them in jail. The
effects of this lack of adequate medical treatment are vast. Perhaps your dad can’t keep a steady
job because he is addicted to crack. Maybe, you become a victim in a robbery because a man
needed money to get his daily fix of meth. The possibilities of bad things happening due to drug
addicts roaming the streets with nowhere to turn for help are endless. The lack of treatment
doesn’t make fiscal sense either. Domestic law enforcement costs 15 times as much as treatment
to achieve the same reduction in drug abuse and related social costs. 26 Therefore, it makes both
logical and fiscal sense to implement drug policies focused on rehab rather than punishment.
The purpose of this paper is not to downplay the seriousness of drug use or to advocate
for any form of blanket legalization. Even the legalization of marijuana, would have both its
merits and faults. While the revenue that would be created through taxation could be used to
25
RAND Corporation Drug Policy Research Center
http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/factsheets/effectivenes/index.cfm
26
C.P Rydell and S.S. Everingham, Controlling Cocaine, ( Santa Monica, RAND Corporation Drug Policy Research
Center 1994).
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fund drug treatment, the actual amount of revenue it would create is often over estimated. This is
largely due to the fact that if it became legal, the potential danger in producing it would drive
prices down, decreases the tax revenue. Second, marijuana use would most likely increase due to
decreased price.27 So, legalization of marijuana would not necessarily be the panacea the
legalization advocates like to think it would be.
I don’t think that blanket legalization should be considered for any of the drugs that are
illegal right now. I don’t think you should be able to go to a gas station and get a gram of heroin
with your hot dog and Coke. The War on Drugs is a contentious issue, because it is at the
crossroads of personal responsibility and community safety and health. Blanket legalization
would increase access to dangerous drugs and therefore their use. However, the current policies
we have in place make calling America “The home of the free”, an outright lie. America has the
highest incarceration rate in the world. Americans make up about a fifth of the world’s
population, but a fourth of the world prison population.28 Add to this the racial disparities that
exist in our current drug polices, and what you have is a gross violation of human rights.
Therefore, the drive to reform the War on Drugs is more of a human rights issue than a political
or fiscal one. The reality is that drugs are harmful, but our current policies are so egregiously
unfair that they are sentencing black Americans to a life of economic and political inferiority
compared to white Americans. Social commentator Tim Wise captured the spirit of the drive for
reform in a 2008 speech when he said:
“[Consider] The Department of Justice report from three years ago which found that black and Latino
males, two to three times more likely than white males to have their cars stopped and searched for drugs
and other illegal narcotics even though white folks, on the occasion when we are stopped (which is one
third as often), and searched (which is one third as often), we’re actually four times more likely to actually
27
Dr. Rosalie Pacula. “Legalizing Marijuana :Issues to Consider Before Reforming California State Law”. Testimony
before California State Assembly in 2009.
28
Roy Walmsley. “World Prison Population List”. (London, International Centre for Prison Studies, 2008).
Childree 12
have the stuff in our car…Which means the war on drugs is not just racist, it’s not really about drugs.
Because if it was about drugs you would go where the drugs are.”29
So what the debate really boils down to is whether or not we want justice in America to be
beaten, maimed, and diseased as Hughes saw it during Jim Crow America—which is how it is
today, or we can reform policies to reflect the equality under law that all people are entitled
which leads to greater economic and political opportunities for those who were previously
oppressed.
29
Tim Wise. Speech given on November 2, 2008 before the United Congress of Community and Religious
Organizations.
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Works Cited
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State Prisoners, By Offense, Admission Type, Gender, And Race”. Retrieved from
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2056
Deparle, Jason. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, And a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare
(London, Penguin Press, 2004).
Drug Policy Alliance. (2010, May 4) “Effectiveness of the War on Drugs”. Retrieved from
http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/factsheets/effectivenes/index.cfm
Drug Policy Alliance Network. (2010, May 4). Race and the Drug War. Retrieved from
www.drugpolicy.org/communities/race
Drug Policy Alliance Network. (2010, May 4). Sterile Syringe Access. Retrieved from
http://www.drugpolicy.org/reducingharm/needleexchan/
Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk (Rockville, Arc Manor, 2008).
Gray, Mike. Drug Crazy: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out (NewYork,
Random House, 1998).
Hughes, Langston. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (Columbia, University of Missouri
Press, 2003).
Human Rights Watch. (2010, April 24). Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the
War on Drugs. Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/drugs/war/key-facts.htm
King, Ryan S. The Next Big Thing? Methamphetamine in the United States. (Washington D.C.,
The Sentencing Project , 2005).
Mauer, Marc.. “Race, Class, and the Development of Criminal Justice Policy.” Review of Policy
Research 21: 71-92.
Media Awareness Project. “US: Marijuana's Illegal Status Attained Through Racism, Fraud”.
Retrieved from http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n201/a01.html
Pacula, Rosalie. Legalizing Marijuana :Issues to Consider Before Reforming California State
Law”. Testimony before California State Assembly in 2009.
Provine, Doris Marie. Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs (Chicago, University of
Chicago Press, 2007).
Shipler, David K. The Working Poor: Invisible in America (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2004).
Childree 14
Rydell, C.P. and Everingham S.S. Controlling Cocaine, (Santa Monica, RAND Corporation
Drug Policy Research Center 1994).
Spohn, C. Cassie and Spears, Jeffrey W. Crime Control and Social Justice: The Delicate
Balance (Westport , Greenwood Press, 2003) .
The Sentencing Project. “Women in the Crininal Justice System: Briefing Sheets” (Washington
D.C., The Sentencing Project, 2007).
The Sentencing Project. “Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States” (Washington
D.C., The Sentencing Project, 2010).
U.S. Census Bureau. (2010, April 24). Poverty: 2008 Highlights. Retrieved from
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty08/pov08hi.html
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Walmsley, Roy. “World Prison Population List”. (London, International Centre for Prison
Studies, 2008).
Williams, Edward Huntington. (1914, February 8). “Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’ Are a New
Southern Menace”. New York Times. sm12.
Wise, Tim. Speech given on November 2, 2008 before the United Congress of Community and
Religious Organizations. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldAnV-r4neo