4 ms·

Ehh, sort of. The congressional black caucus were ardent supporters of the war on drugs https://www.wnyc.org/story/312823-black-leaders-once-championed-strict-

by blq10 3y ago

Ehh, sort of. The congressional black caucus were ardent supporters of the war on drugs https://www.wnyc.org/story/312823-black-leaders-once-championed-strict-drug-laws-they-now-seek-dismantle/ https://www.wnyc.org/story/312823-black-leaders-once-champio... So I'm pretty sure that whatever motivation Nixon had, the Black community in the United States wasn't a big fan of drugs and wanted them gone.

yterdy 3y ago
There's a difference between not being a big fan of drugs and wanting the onerous law enforcement and incarceratorial regime which was eventually implemented. Without much meaningful input from the CBC, I imagine. Your "Ehh, sort of," is quite weak. Going back to marijuana, opiate, and even alcohol prohibition policies, drug laws have always been more about controlling the conjured threat of minority populations than anything else.
- blq10 3y ago
  Again, the Black congressional representatives (which, due to districting were mostly representing Black people) were rather openly upset with him...for not going even harder. That is difficult to square with Nixonian plot to use the carceral apparatus to keep Black people from gaining power. I guess it does track with revisionism to make anything we currently disagree with to be a product of original sin.
- bumby 3y ago
  I had never heard of prohibition as a tactic to oppress racial minorities. It seems like you’re trying to shoehorn a narrative. “nearly every major Black abolitionist and civil rights leader before World War I—from Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany and Sojourner Truth to F.E.W. Harper, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington—endorsed temperance and prohibition.” Hardly the group I would associate with oppressing minorities. [1] https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/06/forgotten-black-history-prohibition-temperance-movement-461215 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/06/forgotten-...
  - yterdy 3y ago
    >I had never heard of prohibition as a tactic to oppress racial minorities. Not everyone who is white today was white 100 years ago. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=prohibition+anti+immigrant https://duckduckgo.com/?q=prohibition+anti+immigrant Take your pick.

by blq10 3y ago

yterdy 3y ago

There's a difference between not being a big fan of drugs and wanting the onerous law enforcement and incarceratorial regime which was eventually implemented. Without much meaningful input from the CBC, I imagine. Your "Ehh, sort of," is quite weak. Going back to marijuana, opiate, and even alcohol prohibition policies, drug laws have always been more about controlling the conjured threat of minority populations than anything else.

blq10 3y ago
Again, the Black congressional representatives (which, due to districting were mostly representing Black people) were rather openly upset with him...for not going even harder. That is difficult to square with Nixonian plot to use the carceral apparatus to keep Black people from gaining power. I guess it does track with revisionism to make anything we currently disagree with to be a product of original sin.
bumby 3y ago
I had never heard of prohibition as a tactic to oppress racial minorities. It seems like you’re trying to shoehorn a narrative. “nearly every major Black abolitionist and civil rights leader before World War I—from Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany and Sojourner Truth to F.E.W. Harper, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington—endorsed temperance and prohibition.” Hardly the group I would associate with oppressing minorities. [1] https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/06/forgotten-black-history-prohibition-temperance-movement-461215 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/06/forgotten-...
- yterdy 3y ago
  >I had never heard of prohibition as a tactic to oppress racial minorities. Not everyone who is white today was white 100 years ago. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=prohibition+anti+immigrant https://duckduckgo.com/?q=prohibition+anti+immigrant Take your pick.