Racial Profiling: President Ronald Reagan's War On Drugs

Racial Profiling” as it’s known today was started in 1980’s under President Ronald Reagans’ “War on Drugs” (a war Reagan declared while drug use and crimes were both on the decline (4). Regan’s “War on Drugs” was a partisan show of force that he, Bush Senior and Junior and subsequent Presidents used to try and convenience people they were concerned with public safety and American citizens who had fallen victim to crimes committed by drug users and drug dealers. (Even, while it was widely reported Ronald Reagans’ son, Ronnie junior and former President George Bush Senior’s son, former President George Bush Junior were both smoking weed and snorting cocaine (4). While the “War on Drugs” was based on political motives, (that is not the full story) as the “war on drugs” in hindsight proved itself to be a social containment strategy and ultimately a “war” on black and brown surplus people (). To understand the War on Drugs one needs to understand the cultural landscape that made the war on drugs advantageous. Ronald

This cultural and political shift during the Regan era moved toward constraining certain freedoms (4) a period of conservatism and neo-liberalism framed to push an agenda that fostered respect for the government authority and its administration. The neoliberal policy also emphasized personal responsibility and a backlash to the Civil Rights Movement. Thus, Reagan's election was a shift in political attitudes (similar to those of 2017 current President Donald J. Trump) attitude that reflects how people in the 80’s was looking for a” new sheriff.” What better sheriff than an admired actor who played a kick a** cowboy on the silver screen. Reagan embodied like (Trump) what many Black leaders considered a white backlash and reaction to the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s that established “civil rights” for people of color