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It's an incontrovertible historical fact that the prohibition of opium and and cocaine was substantially racially motivated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harr
by jdietrich 7y ago
It's an incontrovertible historical fact that the prohibition of opium and and cocaine was substantially racially motivated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Narcotics_Tax_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Narcotics_Tax_Act
- refurb 7y agoDon’t disagree, but that doesn’t prove racism was Nixon’s reason for the war on drugs.
- save_ferris 7y agoOne of Nixon's chief advisers admitted in an interview years later that the war on drugs was explicitly targeted at black people[0]. Criminalizing blacks was a primary objective of this policy. 0: https://qz.com/645990/nixon-advisor-we-created-the-war-on-drugs-to-criminalize-black-people-and-the-anti-war-left/ https://qz.com/645990/nixon-advisor-we-created-the-war-on-dr...
- refurb 7y agoThis is the same quote as above. Reporter does interview, waits until the guy dies, then says “he said this”, while people who knew him said “I don’t think so”.
- meowface 7y agoIt likely was a motive, but it doesn't necessarily make the quote real. I have trouble believing Nixon or his advisors would give a supervillain monologue like that, personally, even if those were their exact intentions.
- tim333 7y agoWell as one of the earlier links said >Nixon advisor: We created the war on drugs to “criminalize” black people and the anti-war left so it was more their political enemies in general rather than a race. Not to say it wasn't part racist.
- leetcrew 7y agoread the whole thread man. I don't think anyone here doubts that drug enforcement in America is racially motivated, but you're the third person to cite that very dubious quote.
- pm90 7y agoA simple google search will turn up many credible articles all of which show pretty substantially that Nixon was very much racist, and that many of his policies were... colored... by his racism. e.g. https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-a-historian-uncovered-ronald-reagans-racist-remarks-to-richard-nixon https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-a-historian-uncov..., https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-rich...