Donovan X. Ramsey
Auteur van When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era
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- 1
- Leden
- 89
- Populariteit
- #207,492
- Waardering
- 3.9
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- 3
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- 3
The author described the development of crack from freebase, its spread across America, policy responses to the crack epidemic, the fearmongering about crack, and how the crack epidemic "resolved" itself.
Throughout he intersperses the life narrative of a series of people he has interviewed across the spectrum of the experience: the mayor of Baltimore; young people on both coasts; those who ended up using crack, those who sold it, and those whose lives were forever affected by it.
The author sympathizes with the plight of those caught up in the crack epidemic while remaining clear eyed about what crack did and how it affected people, families, and communities. He does well at contextualizing the crack epidemic in terms of the post-industrialization of American urban areas and the heavy handed response against Black liberation movements of the 1970s. He discusses the belief that crack flooded the cities because of CIA actions; he concludes it was not a deliberate policy but something the government was more than happy to look beyond or past even while they demonized and criminalized those who used crack. He concludes by telling the end of the story for each of his characters and how the next generation avoided crack after seeing what it had done for those who had come before them.
The author succeeds admirably at his goal of contextualizing and better explaining how the crack epidemic exploded and how it turned out the way it did. A lot of people covered themselves in shame in the way they demonized and condemned those who fell prey to the addiction while ultimately proving indifferent to their ultimate plight. The endeavor understandably took a heavy toll on the author's mental health; may he be healed and be gratified by the reception of the work he has done.
**--galley received as part of early review program… (meer)