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Racism is behind many bans. I think that the goal is not so much to harm the minority group as it is a form a status signalling: showing that "we" disapprove o
by tjic 14y ago
Racism is behind many bans. I think that the goal is not so much to harm the minority group as it is a form a status signalling: showing that "we" disapprove of what "they" do.
Cocaine was banned in the US because of its use by blacks.
Marijuana was banned because of its use by hispanics.
The first gun bans were in the post Civil War south, where armed black citizens stood up to the KKK riders (the phrase "Saturday Night Special" is a contraction of "Niggertown Saturday Night Special" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_night_special#Origin_of_the_term http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_night_special#Origin_o...).
Tangentially, I strongly recommend the book _Albion's Seed_, which traces American culture to four different subcultures prominent in England in the 1500s - quite enlightening.
- ZeroGravitas 14y agoRelatedly, the KKK supported women's right to vote, but they did so mostly because the women were more likely to vote for prohibition, and prohibition gave them a chance to put the Catholic-Irish immigrants on the wrong side of the law.
- loeg 14y agoObligatory plug of Bootleggers and Baptists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleggers_and_Baptists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleggers_and_Baptists
- saraid216 14y agoYup. Very few progressive measures are passed for reasons that we'd recognize as progressive today. I'm going to highlight a book that I haven't read: http://www.amazon.com/Liberalism-Counter-History-Domenico-Losurdo/dp/1844676935 http://www.amazon.com/Liberalism-Counter-History-Domenico-Lo...
- Symmetry 14y agoI'd say that the Progressive movement of the early 20th century and the Progressive movement of the early 21st really aren't any more similar than you'd expect any two randomly selected political groups to be.
- saraid216 14y agoI didn't capitalize "progressive" very intentionally. And further, I am not talking about merely the 20th century, but also the 19th, the 18th, and the 17th.
- illuminate 14y agoSouthern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South is also useful in tracing behavior and codified practice.
- campbellmorgan 14y agoAlso worth seeing this http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125653/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125653/ - in addition to lots of great observations on the state of the war on drugs, it makes a persuasive argument that heroin was made illegal because Chinese workers were threatening to undercut white workers in LA.
- bjourne 14y agoDo note that cocaine was banned all around the world at the same time. The <a href = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Opium_Convention>International http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Opium_Convention&... Opium Convention</a> in Hague in 1912 was the first drug control treaty which lead to anti-drug laws in many Western countries. There were many more conventions following that one that caused outlawing of many more narcotic substances. Even if Americans were very racist at the time, maybe they were at the same time sane enough to realize that putting cocaine in soft drinks wasn't a good idea?