African American Crack Cocaine Essay

The late 1990’s was a rough period of time for young African Americans. Many African Americans faced oppression that was not seen by their caucasian counterparts. Young African Americans were seen as the lower class of American society and did not receive the same benefits that the white youth had. Stereotyping and other forms of discrimination forced many young African Americans into lives of poverty. Overcoming adversity was a major part of young African Americans’ life. According to Watkins, 44 percent of all African Americans under the age of 18 lived in poverty at the end of the 1980’s, compared to 11 percent of white Americans(Watkins 56). The long term impoverishment of African americans led to the term of underclass being applied solely
Crack cocaine can cause people to go insane and do things they would not normally do if they were sober. One of the main side effects of crack cocaine is aggression. The emergence of this drug in black communities caused many Americans to label the entire population of the African American youth as dangerous drug users. Cocaine had once been characterized as a high-class drug, due to the cost of the drug. As crack became more accessible to lower class communities, the connotations of the drug changed from class-coded themes to race-coded themes that focused on violence, criminality, and punishment(60). This new view that crack was no longer a high-class drug but rather a race-coded drug made it harder for African Americans to thrive in society, as they were seen as violent drug users that committed crimes. It was not uncommon for employer’s to discriminate against the black youth due to the stereotype that all of the black youth were dangerous criminals. Songs such as “A Bird In The Hand” by Ice Cube and “Dope Man” by Eazy-E were both songs that promoted the use of crack cocaine amongst the African American youth, which further pushed the notion that crack was a drug for young black