The Carl L. Hart article linked below was written for The Nation and discusses the historical connection between black men and cocaine usage. He argues that this standing connection has always caused inexcusable harm to black men and has allowed racism to stand in our drug laws and enforcement of them. Hart believes we cannot hide behind the excuse of ignorance anymore; the damage of this racism needs to end, and it cannot do so until we change our policies.
http://www.thenation.com/article/178158/how-myth-negro-cocaine-fiend-helped-shape-american-drug-policy#
The idea of the “Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’” began in the South and induced fear into the public, which was constantly washed in media where “crack was portrayed as producing uniquely addictive, unpredictable and deadly effects associated with blacks”. Supposedly crack (not powder cocaine, associated w/use by rich white men) made black people randomly aggressive, murderous, accurate, killing machines. This continued into the 1980s where “problems to crack were described as being prevalent in ‘poor’, ‘urban’ or ‘troubled’ neighborhoods, ‘inner cities’ and ‘ghettos,’ terms that were codes for ‘blacks’ and other undesired people”, as blatant racist terms/slang were unacceptable. By 1968 the Anti-Drug Abuse Acts passed, giving harsher penalties (100:1) for crack than powder cocaine, and resulting in 85% of sentenced men being black, despite the majority of users were and are white. Currently these policies stand, and money is poured more into law enforcement in poor communities rather than the job opportunities and area rehab they need. Blacks may not be lynched anymore but they receive continuous damage in unnecessary killings (like that of an unarmed Bronx teenager chased and shot by police who thought he possessed drugs), diminished opportunities via frequency of imprisonment (1/3 of black boys born today will spend time in prison).
This connects to Drake’s (Aubrey Drake Graham) song “Started From the Bottom”, which celebrates him and his friends success in becoming famous and highlights Carl Hart’s argument of the current state of things and the stigma that it won’t change. Drake describes his poor community and lifestyle in the first verse, working night shifts, his aggressive and unhappy family dynamic:
“I done kept it real from the jump
Living at my mama's house we'd argue every mornin'
Nigga, I was trying to get it on my own
Working all night, traffic on the way home
And my uncle calling me like ‘Where ya at?
I gave you the keys told ya bring it right back’
Nigga, I just think it's funny how it goes
Now I'm on the road, half a million for a show”
All of this he describes as the “bottom”, the chorus of the song being:
“Started from the bottom now we’re here
Started from the bottom now the whole team here, nigga” x4
He highlights the current view of others that were in his situation, the poor black boys who are unable to believe that he started out poor and moved up:
“Boys tell stories about the man
Say I never struggled, wasn’t hungry, yeah, I doubt it”
He became rich and famous of his own accord, starting from the bottom. It wasn’t a result of better circumstances for him as a black man. He figured it out and could show anyone how to do it.
“I could turn your boy into the man
There ain’t really much I hear that’s poppin’ off without us, nigga
We just want the credit where it’s due”
It’s the same for every black man, and that carries through even in his good fortune. It all began at "the bottom", and won’t change with black men becoming famous like him. Just because he's famous now, nothing is different about his past.
“Story stays the same I never changed it”
“Story stay the same through the money and the fame
‘Cause we…
Started from the bottom now we’re here”
It won’t change because, as Hart exposed, they’re all starting from “the bottom”, those poor neighborhoods with the same terrible racist circumstances.
