The War on Drugs, Racial Meanings, and Structural Racism: A Holistic and Reproductive Approach

• Published date: 01 May 2018
• Date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12228

The War on Drugs, Racial Meanings, and

Structural Racism: A Holistic and

Reproductive Approach

By MICHAEL L. ROSINO* and MATTHEW W. HUGHEY†

ABSTRACT. The War on Drugs in the United States has been part of a

system of social control targeting low-income black and Latinx

communities. While this statement has been contested, its validity is

clear from an encompassing framework that considers the history of

racially motivated laws and practices and moral panics among whites

who have blamed drug-related social problems and crime on

marginalized racial groups. We develop a holistic and reproductive

approach to understanding racial oppression by analyzing racial

meanings and structural racism related to the War on Drugs. To

uncover structural racism, we propose a framework that captures the

relationship between drug policies and enforcement practices,

racialized mass incarceration, the distribution of resources, and the

reproduction of racial oppression in the United States. To examine

racial meanings, we present findings from an in-depth content analysis

*PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of Connecticut. Work focuses on (1) racial

oppression, (2) rights and political power, and (3) mass media representations and

digital communication. In Debating the Drug War (Routledge 2018), he examines the

role of racial politics and identity construction in debates over drug policy within

mass media. Dissertation on how participants in grassroots political organizations

develop identities and strategies while engaging with political barriers, racialized

boundaries, and social inequalities. Email: michael.rosino@uconn.edu

†Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut (USA) and Research

Associate in Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation at Nelson Mandela

University (South Africa). Previously, visiting scholar at the Institute of Advanced

Study at Warwick University (United Kingdom), visiting professor at the University of

the Free State (South Africa), visiting professor at Trinity College-Dublin (Ireland),

and a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia

University (USA). Focuses on the sociological study of race, racism, and inequality.

Email: matthew.hughey@uconn.edu

The authors would like to offer sincere gratitude to Stephen Steinberg, Victor Ray,

Kasey Henricks, and Mike King for their insightful feedback on this article.

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 77, Nos. 3-4 (May-September, 2018).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12228

V

C2018 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

of newspaper articles and digital media discussing the War on Drugs.

Based on over 30 years of news content—394 op-eds, letters to the

editor, and news articles and 3,145 comments drawn from the

comments sections of online news articles—we argue that criminal

justice practices and the distribution of racial meanings through the

media act as racialized structuring mechanisms. We demonstrate how

those mechanisms work in tandem to strengthen and naturalize the

connection between racial groups and unequal social positions. We

uncover how dominant racial meanings act as symbolic resources that

maintain forms of structural racism such as the War on Drugs. Finally,

we discuss the benefits of our approach and suggest relevant and

necessary future research and practices.

Introduction

Drug law enforcement strategies in the United States center on the use

of violence, force, and imprisonment and contribute to racial oppres-

sion. The earliest U.S. drug laws were tied to racist stereotypes and to

fears about the negative habits of immigrants. This connection between

racism and drug prohibition has continued since the 19

th

century.

Despite common misconceptions that associate drug crimes with low-

income communities of color, “for the last twenty years ...whites have

engaged in drug offenses at rates higher than blacks” (Fellner 2009:

266). However, the War on Drugs has largely targeted black and Latinx

communities (Beckett, Nyrop, and Pfingst 2006).

While the term “War on Drugs” originates from a 1972 speech by

President Nixon, drug policy enforcement formally took on the charac-

ter of a war in the 1980s(Suddath 2009; Alexander 2012). The 1981 Mili-

tary Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act, signed by President

Reagan, enabled police to carry out domestic military operations and

access military weaponry, equipment, training, and intelligence (Balko

2013). The U.S. military and the Pentagon provided military equipment

to police departments across the country to fight the so-called drug war

in America’s streets(Balko 2013) (see Figure 3.) The use of SWAT teams

to enforce drug warrants at homes and even schools became shock-

ingly common (see Figure 4.) During these raids, “police blast into

The American Journal of Economics and Sociology2

850

people’s homes,typically in the middle of the night, throwing grenades,

shouting, and pointing guns and rifles at anyone inside, often including

small children” (Alexander 2012: 75).

The policing style encouraged by the War on Drugs has increased

police violence in black communities (Cooper 2015). It has also been

accompanied by “racial profiling, psychological intimidation, harass-

ment of citizens, pretextual stops for trivial infractions, and selective

enforcement of the law” (Meads 2016: 636). It also exacerbates racial-

ized mass incarceration, contributing to the United States holding the

largest prison population per capita in the world, largely comprised of

black and Latinx people (National Research Council 2014). The 1994

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, signed by President

Clinton, allowed the War on Drugs to take more prisoners of color

away from their families and communities (Johnson 2014). For instance,

those convicted of a “serious violent felony” in federal court who have

“two or more previous convictions in federal or state courts, at least

one of which is a ‘serious violent felony’ (the other offense may be a

serious drug offense)” received a life sentence (FindLaw 2013).

In short, the War on Drugs contributes to a racialized system of social

control (Provi ne 2007; Alexan der 2012). This sy stem stigmatizes and

harms already marginalized racial groups and helps maintain racial

inequality (Coates 2003; Rios 2013).

The defenders and enforcers of U.S. drug policy routinely deny that

it is being implemented with any intent to harm or control specific

racial or social groups.In print, these laws and practices appear ostensi-

bly racially neutral. Police training, guidelines for sentencing, and other

rules generally do not overtly state that black and Latinx communities

and individuals should be unfairly targeted. Yet, that is the practical

reality of drug law enforcement and incarceration. Empirical evidence

overwhelminglydemonstrates blacks are targeted for arrest and punish-

ment in disproportion to their actions relative to whites. However,

many politicians, legal authorities, members of the public, and even

criminologists fail to identify racial prejudice and discrimination as sys-

temic factors in criminal justice. Discussions around drug policy and

criminal justice often hinge upon assumptions that rates of arrest and

incarceration are a straightforward product of individual choices to

engage in criminal behavior or that these systems are inherently fair

War on Drugs, Racial Meanings, & Structural Racism 3

851