First introduced by Richard Nixon, the ideology of harsh punitive measures on crime was ramped up further under Regan and then Clinton. Specific policies include mandatory minimums after “three strikes” of being charged with felonies relating to particular drugs. For an example, a man had to be sentenced to 25 years in prison if he was found guilty for marijuana possession for a third time. These sentences varied depending on the drug but all were significant especially when comparing the amount of time given is only for a non-violent crime. Although, certain details reveal that such severe punishments regarding drugs was less about the drugs themselves but rather who was doing them. Someone convicted of possessing one gram of crack would receive a sentence literally 100 times longer than someone possessing gram of powder cocaine. This distinction was no accident. Cocaine is noticeably more expensive than it’s derivative crack cocaine; meaning that it was less likely to be used by blacks who tend to be lower on the economic ladder. With this information at hand, it becomes obvious that these policies were used to covertly target blacks since they could no longer do so in public. These mandatory minimum laws were in place all the way up until 2010. In fact, this mentality is quite forwardly expressed by Nixon domestic policy advisor John Ehlrichman with the quote, The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We 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. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”.
In summary, keep in mind that the most destructive forms of racism often come in its most subtle forms.