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How Did The Crack Epidemics Influence The Other Wes Moore

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During the War on Drugs, the federal government cut down on the presence of drugs by taking money out of other federal spending to militarize police and build strong law enforcement. As a result, throughout the War on Drugs in America, black communities all across the country were devastated, specifically in Baltimore. The Other Wes Moore, which takes place in Baltimore, focuses on two boys who share the same name but have vastly different life stories and covers the environment of Black America during the 1980s. In the text, one of the protagonists' childhoods is influenced by the War on Drugs and concurrent events, while the other protagonist, Wes, is dragged into the Crack Epidemic. The War on Drugs and Concurrent Events during the 1980s contributed to and drove Wes’ connection to the crack epidemic by creating a lack of opportunities and by developing an environment …show more content…

During the 1980s and 1990s, the federal government applied many methods of responding to the crack epidemic in minority neighborhoods. For instance, as a result of the War on Drugs, “drug arrests in Baltimore jumped 72 percent, compared to 99,561 arrests in the 1980s and 171,348 in the 1990s.” (Miller). The War on Drugs in Baltimore drives and contributes to the rampant drug arrests by creating an environment where drugs and drug use are widespread. Additionally, “homicides peaked at a city record of 353 in 1995.” (Metropole). The War on Drugs in Baltimore drives and contributes to the number of homicides by possibly influencing the formation of illegal drug markets, which often operate within marginalized communities like West Baltimore. In these quotes, the drug arrests and homicides in Baltimore serve as a testament to the violence created by the War on

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646 Words | 3 Pages

The Other Wes Moore, a story of two boys with the same name living in West Baltimore, epitomizes the struggles of growing up in a tough low income area. From a young age, both Wes Moore, and the other Wes are raised by only their mother. Without a father, the life’s of each Wes’s mother becomes harder to manage. As the story carries on, Wes Moore moves to the South Bronx, where his mom is supported by his grandparents. Meanwhile, the other Wes remains in Baltimore for the remainder of his adolescence, watching his mother raise two boys without help.

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493 Words | 2 Pages

Starting from their years of adolescence both Moore’s were exposed to physiological altering events. The main difference between the two was which events were inflicted upon them and how they handled witnessing or taking part in the given event. From observing both Moore’s it can been seen that the main contributor to the end result of their varying paths would be from their loved ones and where they lived at the time. Therefore, the most significant third party influences that resulted in both Wes Moores differing fates were primarily from familial influences and the environment in which they resided in.

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1223 Words | 5 Pages

Growing up Wes was always surrounded by crime whether it was in his community or even with family. It's unfair for society to expect kids to grow up in these conditions and not make mistakes. Although it may be true that Wes started dealing drugs, a more valid argument is how did the community help to prevent drugs? The answer is they didn’t. Drugs in Baltimore were nearly inescapable for Wes, for anyone.

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Racial Profiling, though a 300-year-old problem for Blacks, became an even bigger problem during the “War on Drugs” carried forward from President Richard Nixon’s original declaration off a war on drugs in 1971(Alexander 48). Presidents Reagan, Bush Senior and Bush Junior and President Clintons neoliberal “war on drugs” over the years saw the number of people incarcerated in U.S. prison rise from 300,000 to 3.1 million mostly minority Black and Brown people in prison or on probation. A 2010, U.S. Bureau of Justice stats report showed that during the war on drugs era black men had an imprisonment rate of close to seven times the incarceration rate of white men, with the rate of incarceration for black women nearly triple that of white women

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Many factors of the crack epidemic influenced the crime drop. First, the “precipitous rise in crack cocaine in the mid-to-late 1980s in America” made violence and crime increase drastically (Baumer and Wolff, 2014, p. 21). Since crime shot up, it made statistics seem to drop even more in the 1990s, especially for homicides, as stated by Levitt (2004). The shift from young people to a “graying” society is another point at which Baumer, Wolff and Levitt can all agree could be a cause for the crime drop of the 1990s (Baumer and Wolff, 2014, p. 20).

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

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526 Words | 3 Pages

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