Since the year 1609, when the first slaves were brought to America, racial inequality has run rampant in the United States (Slavery in America). Slavery was a national abomination that lasted until the year 1865 (Slavery in America). Slavery began the disgraceful roots of racism in the United States that are still seen today. Since the abolition of slavery, through President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, many would say that America has taken great strides against racial inequalities. What most people fail to see is the consistent use of institutional racism put in place by politicians in order to suppress people of color. One specific example of this is the War on Drugs. As the War on Drug’s forty-fifth anniversary just passed, the repercussions surrounding it are very much still alive today (Williams). Although this issue is country wide, one community that directly shows the dire effects of the War on Drugs is the city of Baltimore. The misfortune happening in Baltimore today shows that the War on Drugs does not do what politicians have claimed it does but instead shows that War on Drugs was created by corrupt politicians to oppress people of color in the United States.

The War on Drugs is just a continuation of the pattern of racial inequality has been rooted in American society for centuries. In the United States there is a common misconception that the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery. The amendment reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” (Dargis). What most people don’t consider is the loophole in the amendment: “except as a punishment for crime” (Dargis). In layman’s terms, this means that if you are arrested you can be treated as a slave. This tiny loophole is what laid the foundation for mass incarceration and eventually the War on Drugs. 

In order to fully understand the War on Drugs it is important to note how hard life was for African Americans during the Reconstruction Period: the period after the Civil War. In this period of time the south needed to be re built. It was a time full of “trauma and shame” (Graff  121). The new Jim Crow Laws were racial laws that prohibited African Americans from having equal rights the white people. African Americans could be arrested for almost anything according to said laws (Graff 122). As a result, African Americans were arrested for petty crimes and thrown into the prison system to act as a free labor source (Graff 122). They were once again slaves except now their job was to re build the south (DuVernay). Once in prison they would usually be worked until they fell victim to the horrid working conditions and died. 

The idea of a free labor source is still wildly appealing to big business today, and is achieved via mass incarceration made possible by the War on Drugs. Anyone who pays attention to current events has heard politicians say that privatized prison systems are one of the largest businesses in the United States. Due to the War on Drugs the number of people who have been incarcerated each year in the United States has grown by 700%. (Rasor). The United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the world (DuVernay). To put this in perspective, “the United States has five percent of the world’s population, but twenty five percent of its prisoners” (DuVernay). This means that one out of every four prisoners in the entire world, are locked up in the United States (DuVernay). With one tenth of the United State’s prisoners being held in privatized prisons it is no surprise that CCA, one of the largest companies in privatized prison, has a constantly rising stock value (Stroud). Privatized prison systems have evolved from the Reconstruction Era. They are now not just looking for a free labor source, but are simply looking to fill beds. The CCA actually holds states responsible via contract to fill the beds of their prisons (Rasor). This obviously has a chain effect that leads to more and more unnecessary arrests. With one of the CCA’s largest prisons just thirty minutes south of Baltimore (Facilities List), the members of Baltimore’s community have surely felt the effects of a privatized prison system first hand. 

The history of Baltimore is a perfect example of how the War on Drugs leads to issues of racial tension. Baltimore is located in the south of Maryland, just south of the Mason Dixon line. It has been a place of racial inequality almost since it’s founding. During the Rodney King protests of the 1980s members of Baltimore experienced unrest and destruction that has not been prepared to this day. In the year 2015 a young man named Freddie Gray was killed in police custody. This tragic event triggered much unresolved animosity from the broken system that is mass incarceration. Protests for Freddie Gray mimicked the ones that took place in the 1980s. The incident with Freddie Gray triggered many conversations in Baltimore about mass incarceration and its negative effect on communities of color. The truth is that mass incarceration, caused by the War on Drugs, has put Baltimore in a downward spiral. Politicians are the ones that created the War on Drugs and are the ones that are reaping the benefits while United States citizens suffer. 

Nixon motivations for creating the War on Drugs were corrupt. The Nixon association was the first to discuss the War on Drugs. During this time baby boomers were becoming adults. There were more adults in society and subsequently there was more crime (DuVernay). Also during this time was the Civil Rights Movement. Politicians saw an opportunity here and linked the rise in crime to the Civil Rights Movement (DuVernay).  The civil rights movement was huge in Baltimore. Baltimore is 63 percent African American (Quigley) and is located in state below the Mason Dixon line. Segregation and racism were very much alive during this time. In fact, there is an entire Broadway play, Hairspray, written about the civil rights movement in Baltimore. During this time Nixon was looking for a way to overcome obstacles caused by communities of color, such as Balltimore, and the hippies (Williams). This is when the evil idea of a war on drugs was born. Nixon waged the War on Drugs and promised the American people “law and order” (DuVernay). Nixon’s plan was working and the United States started to see the realities of mass incarceration in the 70s as a direct result (DuVernay). According to one of Nixon’s closest advisors during his time in office, John Ehrlichman, Nixon, “knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities” (Lobianco). 

The Regan administration began the modern War on Drugs in 1982 (DuVernay) which devastated communities of color all over the United States. Regan went on to call the War on Drugs a “crusade” that would save young people in our country (DuVernay). The War on Drugs immediately became more severe and started to resemble an actual war (DuVernay). It was during the Regan administration that the term “super predator” was coined (DuVernay). “Super predators” were characterized as young African American men that were dangerous and would attack unless they were put in prison (DuVernay). Regan launched commercials with his wife, Nancy Regan, warning parents to protect their children against drugs (DuVernay). These commercials sparked a flame of fear in American’s so that the War on Drugs could take off like wildfire. Some propaganda used even claimed that marijuana would cause a person to go into a “delirious rage” (Robinson and Scherlen 11). Baltimore saw dramatic effects of Regan’s efforts. The incarceration rate in Baltimore, like so many other places in America, skyrocketed. Many people in surrounding areas saw the “super predators” warnings that Regan sent out. As a result, young African American men in Baltimore were picked up for minor drug charges and sent away to jail. Madatory sentencing for drug charges caused over crowding in prisons. This lead to violent offenders being let out to make room for those arrested for drug charges (Robinson and Scherlen 176). Nancy Regan also went to school and started the “Just Say No” programs that were advertised as a way to educate parents and children about how to deal with drugs. As a result of all these things the prison population in the United States grew from 513,900 prisoners to 759,100 prisoners in just five years (DuVernay). Although polls show that drugs were only an issue for a small fraction of the population of the United States, Regan had an agenda to brain wash Americans into believing that this was a very serious issue that needed to quite literally be attacked (DuVernay). 

The Clinton Administration created laws and policies that further harmed communities of color. Bill Clinton became president in 1993 and was the first democratic president to deal with the new War on Drugs. Almost immediately in his term as president, the California three-strike system came to be. The three-strike system meant that after being arrested for you third violent crime, you were in jail without parole (DuVernay). Clinton’s 1994 Federal Crime Bill was perhaps one of the most detrimental things that had happened to communities of color in decades. It poured thirty billion dollars into the United States’ prison systems (DuVernay). The thirty billion dollars was used to build prisons to lock drug offenders up, put 100,000 more police officers on the streets, and provide incentives more those police officers to make sure there was a steady flow of incoming prisoners (DuVernay). During Clintons administration, half of African American men in Baltimore were put behind bars at some point (The Punishing Decade 5). This statistic is absolutely horrendous to think about. That is half of African American families in one community without their fathers, brothers, or sons. How are these areas expected to be functioning parts of society when one fourth of their work force is stripped from them? Bill Clinton recently apologized for this bill and his role in The War on Drugs, admitting that he was wrong (Merica). 

Due to the racial biases of The War on Drugs it is no surprise that a community, such as Baltimore, that is predominantly African American would be so hugely affected. Since the War on Drugs began, the amount of African Americans arrested for drug charges quadrupled (Alexander 98). This is wildly disproportionate to ho many African American people are actually doing drugs  (Alexander 99). When looking at how many African Americans get arrested for drug violations it may be easy for one to assume that African American communites have a huge drug problem. When one takes a closer look they will actually see that African Americans do drugs at smaller rates that white people do drugs (Alexander 99). One study shows that, “white students use cocaine at seven times the rate of black students, use crack cocaine at eight times the rate of black students, and use heroin at seven times the rate of black students,” (Alexander 99). 

Many politicians wrongfully argue that the War on Drugs is necessary to keep our community safe. They say that drugs are increasing crime and killing citizens. They will also claim that the War on Drugs is going to fix these things. To be frank, the War on Drugs simply is not working. Since it began we have actually seen an increase in drug consumption (Ranken). All it was done is imprison people of color and dig them into this figurative hole that they can’t get out of, which is the United States’ prison system.  The fact that the War on Drugs is not working just further proves the racist and greedy motivations of the politicians who enacted it.  

The War on Drugs has created a cycle of poverty in Baltimore that is simply impossible for many to break. In the United States, getting a drug charge can make you unable to receive employment, food stamps, health benefits and financial aid (Boester and Lutz 24). Crazily sex and other violent offenders are still offered all of these things (Boester and Lutz 24). If one is unable to receive employment, food stamps, or financial aid and has children to feed how else, other than drugs, are they supposed to care for their young? This and the fact that once you are arrested you can go back to jail for even just missing a meeting with your parole officer make re incarceration rates overwhelmingly high (Alexander 141). 

Today in Baltimore members of the communities of color are actively dealing with the consequences of the War on Drugs. Due to the War on Drugs close to 25 percent of Baltimore’s citizens are living below the poverty line (Quigley). In Baltimore, even though white people use and deal at the same rates, African Americans are, “more than 5.6 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana” (Quigley). In fact, out of all the cities in the United States Baltimore has the fifth highest arrest rate for marijuana possession (Quigley). There is also a huge police brutality issue in Baltimore. This was brought to light recently during the Freddie Gray trials. Nearly six million dollars has been spent in Baltimore since 2011 to try to pay out law suits about police brutality in the city (Quigley). 

Racial issues were never more apparent in Baltimore as they were during the Freddie Gray protests and trails. Freddie Gray, like so many members of his community, was a victim of the War on Drugs. His record was full of drug charges. He was stopped and searched one day simply because he had a record and was spotted by a Baltimore City policeman. To this day there is not a clear answer on why we was arrested but it is clear that he died in police custody while being given a “rough ride”. This is a tactic, used by Baltimore police that involves driving recklessly with the person you’ve arrested handcuffed in the backseat without a seat belt on. Many members of communities of color in Baltimore protested the death of Freddie Gray as a way of showing their exhaustion with being taken advantage of by the system. With incidents like this happening, it is easy to see where members of the community have developed distrust with the police. During these protests the people of Baltimore showed that they are tired of the mistreatment. They are ready to fight for their rights. They know that they are victims of an oppressive system and they want out. As tragic as the death of Freddie Gray was, the events that followed seemed to give communities of color in Baltimore a beacon of hope. They learned that they do have a voice. 

The War on Drugs has been a disaster from the beginning. Nixon created it with the evil intent to secure his political power. Regan expanded the war on drugs into a “literal war” (DuVarnay) by arresting hundreds of thousands of people of color in a span of just a few years. The Clinton era then brought the mandatory prison sentencing that communities of color are still battling today. The city of Baltimore is one of these communities. To this day members of Baltimore’s communities of color are struggling to become functioning members of society. They struggle to feed their families or even find employment after a broken system has branded them with a daunting record that they are forced to disclose to any potential employer. How can people call America the land of opportunity when so many cant even get a job interview? How can people call America the land of the free when so many are locked away in prison cells (DuVernay)? It is the job of American’s to pay attention to this broken system and to fight for our fellow citizens to change it. If the system doesn’t change Baltimore and communities like it will become obsolete, no longer being able to deal with the overbearing consequences of the tragedy that is the American War on Drugs. 

 