Author Donovan X. Ramsey provides insights into the impact of the crack cocaine epidemic on Black communities in the 1980s and early ’90s in his new book “When Crack Was King: A People’s History of A Misunderstood Era.”
Historical overview: The advent of Crack cocaine was traced back to a group of chemistry students at U.C Berkeley who developed a recipe using water and baking soda, resulting in a cheap, smokable way for individuals to get high quickly.
* While crack spread across America, it hit Black communities particularly hard.
* President George H.W. Bush used Crack cocaine as a prop in a 1989 live television appearance where he called the substance the nation’s “gravest domestic threat,” creating a panic about the crack epidemic.
Cocaine influx and societal impact: During the 1980s, the U.S government allowed Contras from countries like Nicaragua to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. to fund their fight against their government because U.S wanted to support the rebels but Congress wouldn’t allow the funding for a war in another country.
* Crack was often seen as an escape from poverty for some members of Black communities despite the risks involved.
Government and media response: The media perpetuated warnings of a wave of “crack babies” and propagated apocalyptic views of Black neighborhoods ravaged by the drug.
* The government responded through harsh sentencing guidelines that punished crack users more harshly than users of powdered cocaine.
* Anti-drug campaigns like Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” and other propaganda vilified drug users, stigmatized addicts and misunderstood addiction.
Long-lasting impact: The crack cocaine epidemic left lasting effects on Black children, as it led to a pervasive perception that there was something fundamentally wrong with them.
* The war on drugs also led to the criminalization and harassment of Black drug dealers who Ramsey argues were mostly young men trying to escape poverty.
How the crack epidemic came to an end: According to Ramsey, the crack epidemic ended because the next generation of young people made a conscious decision to avoid following the destructive path of crack addiction.
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