When Crack Was King
A People's History of a Misunderstood Era
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3.0 • 1件の評価
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- ¥1,800
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- ¥1,800
発行者による作品情報
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A “vivid and frank” (NPR) account of the crack cocaine era and a community’s ultimate resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the dramatic rise and fall of the epidemic
“A master class in disrupting a stubborn narrative, a monumental feat for the fraught subject of addiction in Black communities.”—The Washington Post
“A poignant and compelling re-examination of a tragic era in America history . . . insightful . . . and deeply moving.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Mercy
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • ONE OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND VULTURE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, She Reads, Electric Lit, The Mary Sue
The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with today: a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality.
When Crack Was King follows four individuals to give us a startling portrait of crack’s destruction and devastating legacy: Elgin Swift, an archetype of American industry and ambition and the son of a crack-addicted father who turned their home into a “crack house”; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an early advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist, basketball prodigy, and a founding member of the Zoo Crew, Newark’s most legendary group of drug traffickers.
Weaving together riveting research with the voices of survivors, When Crack Was King is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his illuminating debut, journalist Ramsey interweaves a history of the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and '90s with the stories of four people who lived through it, demonstrating how a racist and overly punitive government response added to the trauma of addiction endured by many Black Americans. His profile subjects include Lennie Woodley of Los Angeles, whose crack addiction led to prostitution before she got sober and became a substance abuse counselor, and Kurt Schmoke, Baltimore's first Black mayor and an early advocate for decriminalizing drug offenses. Along the way, Ramsey shows how the moral panic around crack "continue to distort the image of Black communities." For example, he tracks the rise of hysteria around "crack babies," which was based on a study of only 23 women that was later disproved in studies with larger sample sizes. He also revisits the link between the Iran-Contra affair with crack distribution in the U.S., which was substantiated by the 1989 report on the findings of the Kerry Committee, a three-year effort led by Senator John Kerry that also revealed efforts by government officials to cover up the connection. But Ramsey's focus remains on the injustice of the response to addiction, not its cause: "The crack epidemic was not the product of an anti-Black conspiracy but the product of an anti-Black system." It's an essential reconsideration of a troubling era.
