Attitudes about addiction reveal racist double standard

Crack cocaine first descended upon the U.S. in the 1980s, wreaking havoc on the black population and leading to an epidemic of fatal addictions.

Everywhere, images of emaciated bodies and crying, malnourished “crack babies” sprung up. Almost always, the people were black, and in every image, their eyes seemed lifeless and dull, their lips cracked and expressions desperate. Inner cities were plagued by gangs and violence, devastation and poverty pervading the streets. Tales of beaten children and bloody gang standoffs seemed to grace the front of every newspaper.

The black community was seen as a lawless, thuggish group who deserved the consequences of their drug use, and incarceration rates of African-American males spiked. Black males were seen as the new “super predator,” characterized by sagging pants and bandanas.

The black community received minimal assistance or sympathy for this dire situation, but instead were condemned and alienated, with 40,900 individuals being put behind bars for drug-related offenses in 1982 alone, according to The Sentencing Project.

Now, almost 30 years later, we are again seeing the destruction caused by drug addiction, mostly heroin and other opioids, with drug deaths affecting 15 of every thousand people, according to The New York Times. There is one main difference: This outbreak is predominantly among young white adults. And in a remarkable turn, the national attitude toward drug use has completely shifted.

Many presidential candidates have opened up about struggles in their own families, including one of the Republican frontrunners, Ted Cruz. During a speech in New Hampshire, Cruz told a rapt audience about the death of his sister, who had struggled with addiction. He then called for more community support for those afflicted with drug problems.

Former GOP candidate Carly Fiorina spoke about her stepdaughter who passed away from a drug overdose, Jeb Bush revealed the story of his daughter and proposed a drug control bill, and Hillary Clinton has unveiled a $10 million plan to combat drug addiction.

Why is it that this response did not occur 30 years ago when the black population was being decimated by an earlier drug plague?

It is heartening to see the community embrace addicts and promise compassion, but it is also a bittersweet reminder of the racial inequality that still exists throughout the U.S.

What’s disturbing is that it wasn’t until addiction affected the white community that people began to take action and see addicts as people in need of help, rather than thugs who deserved to be incarcerated. Whereas heroin addicts today get rehab and overdose treatments, the black community has more often seen the inside of jail cells. In fact, African Americans constitute over 40 percent of those incarcerated in federal or state prison for drug violations, according to The Drug Policy Program.

This racial prejudice has been reflected in many modern issues. For instance, when a white gunman kills three people in Colorado Springs, he is simply mentally ill, whereas a Middle Eastern gunman who kills four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga is immediately deemed a jihadist terrorist. There is a constant unconscious preference for the white population, even in today’s somewhat more inclusive society. We cannot, as a society, wait until issues seep into the white community before we take action on them.

The main point to gather from this change in attitude is simply that unconscious racism is continuing to pervade society.

As Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote in his book, “Between the World and Me,” “Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.”