ipl-logo

Nixon War On Drugs Summary

531 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Richard nixon and the war on drugs

In this documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom. One issue that was discussed in this video was a “war on drugs.” War on drugs was a war on color declared by President Nixon. The drug war produced unequal outcomes across racial groups, exhibited through racial discrimination by law enforcement and disproportionate drug war misery suffered by communities of color. I thought the issue that was discussed to be quite interesting because a lot has not changed. After Nixon left the White House, Ronald Reagan was elected president. His administration carried on Nixon’s War on Drugs, but Raegan’s campaign was aimed at preventing kids from engaging in illegal drug use …show more content…

While watching the documentary it made me so upset to see numerous innocent black people get arrested because they were said to be a “criminal.” In reality, the DNA tests showed they were innocent, but because of the image that was portrayed to many all over the world of colored people, they were seen as guilty whether they really committed the crime or not. I believe this issue still occurs today. Even though it may not be as bad as it once was, it still occurs, and it is not okay. Due to the image, everyone still believes in, many colored people are seen as “bad” “scary” and “criminals.” The sad thing is, black people also believe this about themselves, they believe that they are “bad” “scary” and “criminals” and they are terrified. The mistake we have been making for many years is associating black people with crime and trouble. We have been making people there crime and that has been making it so much easier to accept that they are guilty and that they should go to prison. Throughout this video, many powerful messages were spread through the topics discussed. The overarching message that I believe people in this world need to know is black lives

Show More
Related
837 Words | 4 Pages

As an example, as the story is being told, you can see the growth in the number of incarcerated Americans over the years. Leading into another quote/fact from the documentary, “Right now, we now have more African-Americans under criminal supervision than all the slaves back in 1850’s”. So, the documentary unfolds from way back in time, during slavery, to times today, which are still so very relevant. It was sure to be known that the problem isn’t with whites and blacks, but rather the faulty laws that we have, which are the foundation of this nation. This documentary brings about many questions.

Read More
245 Words | 1 Pages

In the second article Mark Peffrey and Jon Hurwitz (1997) expres public perceptions of crime and the role stereotyping can affect the way people think. This article focuses more on the negative ways people of colour are perceived when it comes to crime, unfortunately till this day, this can still be an issue. The writers speak on how society has unfortunately suffered from how black people are more likely than whites to be seen as criminal suspects and also more likely portrayed as physically threatening which is noted by Jamieson (1992). There are a variety of opinions on this, when negative stereotyping like this occurs it can never be considered as a good thing for the world, and the fact that the media plays such a huge role in this is

Read More
1657 Words | 7 Pages

Sprinkled throughout the documentary are signs that society still suffers from racism, although it is now in a cloaked form. If systemic racism was not alive and well in the community, then the people would have been able to see the unethical behavior and hold the individuals accountable for their

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

His lecture gave an insight of the way that we think, talk and respond to African American criminality.

Read More
949 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
532 Words | 3 Pages

Purpose: The purpose of the documentary is to help understand racism and how it has evolved through slavery. Racism is caused by the fear and uneasy that is caused on a group of people. Europeans/Whites believed that they were of a superior white race. Message: Racism is evolved through the ignorance and assumptions of individuals, inequality leads to racism as well.

Read More
948 Words | 4 Pages

The statements illustrate the pain of the African American and state the kind of justice that they go through in the country. The opening of the documentary is significant in setting the tone for the storyline which lies on the revolutionary moves and activism of the black people seeking recognition as equal of the white people (Ellis and Stephen, 2010). Moreover, the racial injustice has been going on for decades while activist has had numerous attempts to lobby for the African American citizens. The opening speech of the documentary is significant in dictating the storyline, which revolves around the famous and most influential speech in the lead for African American activism. The opening speech is a good representation and guidance through the tangle that has gone on for many years in the American history.

Read More
478 Words | 2 Pages

The quantity of blacks entangled in crime has nothing to do with racism, but everything to do with one’s actions, history, and life choices. First of all, if one’s actions are not suitable for the law, understandably, they will face the consequences. In the article by Heather MacDonald, it states that 1 in every 33 black men were in prison against only 1 in every 205 white men were in prison. The actions of a fraction of the black prisoners may have not

Read More
605 Words | 3 Pages

War on Drugs President Nixon declared “War on Drugs” in 1971. Since that moment it has been a back and forth battle as to whether or not drugs should be decriminalized. Because of this the number of people behind bars for nonviolent drug law offenses increased from 50,000 in 1980 to over 400,000 by 1997. Some argue that there is not enough being done, while others think to much is being done and that we as nation need to change the way we combat this ever growing issue. As of today the drug industry is a multi-billion dollar operation.

Read More
1733 Words | 7 Pages

Images of blacks that portray them as criminals, drug users, and gang members are continually bombarded in the media. According to Sanders (2012), because stereotypical depictions of blacks brings in the dollar that is why negative narratives are always

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

Now say you were a black teenage boy and you are in the same situation, yet as you walk by the elderly woman grabs her purse, looks down and quickly walks past you. It is little things such as this that show the prejudice and discrimination against black people in our society. The way that a tv shows or movies have traditionally shown black people unrealistically shape the way we perceive them in everyday life. “The plethora of inequalities (and global systematic corruptions) affect me deeply- to my very core. I possess this passion for loving people and fiery desire for people to be seen, understood, and treated as the humans beings they are (Hu [facebook])”.

Read More
1780 Words | 8 Pages

With the most compelling example in 1994, John Ehrlichman’s interview, Nixon’s domestic policy chief, stated that the War on Drugs campaign design was to keep away Nixon’s two enemies: “The antiwar left and black people.” This led to excessive comments on Nixon’s campaign and whether racism played a major role. Ehrlichman stated that they wanted the “public to associate the hippies with marijuana and the blacks with heroin, and then criminalize both heavily” to disrupt the minority

Read More
605 Words | 3 Pages

Blacks are twice as likely to be arrested and about four times as likely to experience police force. Also, black's experience on average ten percent longer sentences than whites for the same crime. As if being arrested wasn’t bad enough, once framed with a felony, privileges are lost such as the right to vote, getting a good home, or getting a job. Taking away these rights is very similar to slavery and the amount of rights that they didn’t have. Ever since the start of settlement in America, people of color have been seen as less, and we still aren’t past it today.

Read More
566 Words | 3 Pages

​The “War on Drugs” began in June of 1971 and was brought about by President Nixon. He used this powerful statement to begin increasing federal drug control agencies across America. He even temporarily placed marijuana in Schedule One, which was the most prohibited category of drugs. Nixon’s extreme criminalization of marijuana was placed under review by a commission that he appointed, but in 1972 this commission unanimously agreed that possession and distribution of marijuana for personal use should be decriminalized. Nixon ignored their suggestion.

Read More
1460 Words | 6 Pages

In 1971, President Richard Nixon let loose 40 years of destruction and class separation when he declared this idea. The idea that drug abuse is "public enemy number one"("Thirty Years of America's Drug War"). Although fighting drug abuse is a noble endeavor, interdiction and incarceration are not. In order to solve the issue of mass incarceration brought on by the War on Drugs, we need to change the way we look at drugs and drug abuse: legalizing marijuana, decreasing penalties for drug

Read More

More about Nixon War On Drugs Summary

Open Document