The war on drugs was tough on people. This so-called war increased the rates of people in prison and specifically it increased the number of black people in prison. Policies on drug usage started getting increasingly harsher. Getting caught with drug possession would result in immediate prison time. The documentary specifically mentions the difference between getting caught with cocaine and crack. Simply getting caught with cocaine would essentially let you off with a warning, but getting caught with crack would send you to life in prison. I believe the documentary also mentions that at the time black people would overwhelmingly use crack more than white people. These new drug policies resulted in the drastically increase of prison population, and in the case of policies such as crack the increase in population was predominantly black. These kinds of policies seem to be a direct attack to communities of color. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documentary talks about how communities of color were being labeled as dangerous and specifically black males were labeled as criminals, murderers, and rapists. This kind of language was being overly displayed in the media and it made people not just white people but also people of color themselves that this was true. I believe the argument can be clearly made that the authorities enforcing these policies knew what the effect on communities of color would be. Especially with the overwhelming portrayal in the media, it seems clear, at least to me, that governmental officials were well aware of the effects of their policies and either simply chose to ignore them or didn\u2019t care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The war on drugs should have been an attempt to move Americans towards a healthier lifestyle but it was not viewed or addressed as a health issue but rather as a crime problem. Big companies started profiting from issues that the American people were facing and the media never addressed any of these situations so America continued to live blind-sighted to the real issues going on in the world. (332)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The war on drugs was tough on people. This so-called war increased the rates of people in prison and specifically it increased the number of black people in prison. Policies on drug usage started getting increasingly harsher. Getting caught with … Continue reading