The war on drugs - just those folks who chose to do drugs. Jim Crow was instituted against all blacks. This difference fueled democratic politicians, specifically the Black Democratic Caucus, to demand the govt intercede in black neighborhoods with great force.Īdditionally, her parallel with Jim Crow falls flat.
The white stock broker who was powdering his nose in the bathroom at Spago’s wasn’t turning his neighborhood into a war zone. What mitigates her point is the understanding that crack was destroying black neighborhoods. There’s definite a strong shadow of racism in the way these drug laws meted out incarceration. The racism was most obvious in the harsh penalties for crack cocaine versus the much more mild punishments for the “white” powdered version. This hyperbolic response landed squarely on the black man. Humans have walked the planet for around 250,000 years and the evidence supports the notion that slavery has existed over all that time.Īlexander’s contention is that the Drug War was racist a hysterical response by politicians and some people that fed a burgeoning prison-industrial complex.
I might point out her “birth of slavery” section is myopic. Possibly, but he had a pound of cocaine, so one might point out that maybe he shouldn’t have had a pound of cocaine and not worried about the constitutional niceties of his situation.Īlexander’s back story is a fine representation of slavery, Jim Crow, and the legal advances and losses for the civil rights movement over the last 150 years.
She often acknowledges the counter argument, though she quickly dismisses the contrary notion.Įxample: an anecdote about a black man who may have had his drugs discovered by an illegal search. So the new Jim Crow is always a book the Left demands everyone read to understand the plight of the black man.Īlexander’s book is not as one note as the likes Kendi or Coates.
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