Often seen as a political sop to the racial fears of white voters; aggressive policing and draconian sentencing for illegal drug possession and related crimes have led to the imprisonment of millions of African Americans―far in excess of their representation in the population as a whole. Michael Javen Fortner shows in this eye-opening account that these punitive policies also enjoyed the support of many working-class and middle-class blacks; who were angry about decline and disorder in their communities. Black Silent Majority uncovers the role African Americans played in creating today’s system of mass incarceration.Current anti-drug policies are based on a set of controversial laws first adopted in New York in the early 1970s and championed by the state’s Republican governor; Nelson Rockefeller. Fortner traces how many blacks in New York came to believe that the rehabilitation-focused liberal policies of the 1960s had failed. Faced with economic malaise and rising rates of addiction and crime; they blamed addicts and pushers. By 1973; the outcry from grassroots activists and civic leaders in Harlem calling for drastic measures presented Rockefeller with a welcome opportunity to crack down on crime and boost his political career. New York became the first state to mandate long prison sentences for selling or possessing narcotics.Black Silent Majority lays bare the tangled roots of a pernicious system. America’s drug policies; while in part a manifestation of the conservative movement; are also a product of black America’s confrontation with crime and chaos in its own neighborhoods.
#918472 in Books 2015-02-09Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.50 x 1.20 x 6.50l; .0 #File Name: 0674598474400 pages
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Highly recommend for those who are concerning the everydayness of the Cold WarBy Fang-Tze HsuIt's truly a wok firmly underpinned with the intensive archival research. Sharing the ground-up approach to the study of the subject of the Cold War; Masuda transforms the general Cold War geopolitics by probing not only the societies of pivotal players of the Korean War such as Korea; U.S.; and PRC; but also the peripheral actors such as Japan; Taiwan; the Philippines; and Britain. By avoiding depicting the social atmosphere from a top-down perspective; a series of seemingly unrelated incidents that took place within bureaucratic systems and everyday settings are revealed to demonstrate several similar patterns of sentimental forces that influenced political decisions and thus the actual existence of the Cold War. Masuda analyzed how the Cold War is “a gigantic social construction of an imagined reality†reconfigured as desired by a collective creativity expressed in the form of a political action; which mitigated the accelerating social conflicts and war anxieties inherited from World War II (Masuda 286). Masuda anchors the investigation around the Korean War and unfolds a ground-up constructedness of the Cold War world; which is contributed to by vivid wartime memory and a corresponding urge for stabilization. What Cold War Crucible reminds us of is the necessity of changing the way of asking questions about the Cold War; in order to find the intimate connections between “reality†and its historical construction. This may be taken as a plea for a more nuanced evaluation of the creation of the Cold War world and its meaning on a daily basis – a plea for; on one side; a serious examination of those indigenous forces that were spreading rumors with their context-specific personal agendas; on the other side; further research into what assembled a form of postwar governmentality that favored a conservative tendency in the materialization of the Cold War world. Overall; it opens up a new terrain to reconsider the everydayness of the Cold War and lights up those experiences ignored by previous discussions' about the Cold War.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. This book is so beautifully written that when I finished reading itBy CustomerThis book is so beautifully written that when I finished reading it; I felt sad as if coming to the end of a good novel. Based on an impressively broad range of thorough research; this is an academic page-turner that brings the social history of the Cold War vividly to life. It is the cutting edge stuff of the Cold War history field and worth reading for both the elegance in its style and rigor of its argument. It serves well as reading material for undergraduate courses as well.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A great read for both academics and history lovers.By white elephantRead this. You won't regret it. This is a cutting-edge work in international history and it is such an interesting; fun read. It breaks so many conventional boundaries; including those of social and diplomatic histories; propaganda and public sentiment; democratic and authoritarian regimes; WWII and the cold war. On the one hand; it makes me wonder why on earth historians had neglected the link between social and domestic struggle and the cold war before; but on the other; the width of research in this book set a totally new standard; posing a challenge to other historians to compete.
