Locked and Loaded: Reagan’s Crack Offensive
from Fraudsters Hosted by Seena Ghaznavi, Justin Williams, Ariel Leaty, Yasmin Cader, Sheila Vakharia, Anne Foster
We're not done with Reagan just yet! This week, we’re honing in on the crack epidemic and its devastating impact on Black communities. We unpack the 1980s shift in American politics, where Reagan's policies expanded Nixon's "War on Drugs" and utilized racially coded language to criminalize Black Americans. We’ve got expert guests, Yasmin Cader, Dr. Sheila Vakharia, and Professor Anne Foster on the show to talk through the anti-drug legislation that introduced harsh mandatory minimums and sentencing disparities, targeting crack cocaine users disproportionately over powdered cocaine users. Hmmm… I wonder why…. All that and we touch on the media’s role in sensationalizing the “crack epidemic,” Congress’s bipartisan support for punitive policies, and all of the devastating consequences of Reagan’s militarization of the War on Drugs. Follow The Show: Twitter: https://twitter.com/fraudstersLPN Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fraudsterslpn/ Discord: https://discord.gg/WRZ8zgusPT Website: https://fraudsters.fm/ Follow the Hosts: https://www.instagram.com/seenanow/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/justin_williams_comedy https://twitter.com/arielleaty Follow Our Guests: https://x.com/alfhistory https://www.instagram.com/myharmreduction/?hl=en https://x.com/myharmreduction https://www.instagram.com/yasmin_cader/?hl=en Sources for this episode: https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/v-on16.php[↩︎](about:blank#fnref1) https://millercenter.org/president/reagan/essays/reagan-1981-firstlady[↩︎](about:blank#fnref2) https://www.newspapers.com/image/313590547/[↩︎](about:blank#fnref3) https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/nancy-reagan/her-causes/[↩︎](about:blank#fnref4) https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/23/world/from-an-iranian-middleman-his-side-of-the-story.html[↩︎](about:blank#fnref5) https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-was-iran-contra[↩︎](about:blank#fnref6) https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4475045/user-clip-neat-idea[↩︎](about:blank#fnref7) https://theconversation.com/ronald-reagans-westminster-speech-why-it-is-still-relevant-40-years-later-183684[↩︎](about:blank#fnref8) https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/iran-contra-affairs.php[↩︎](about:blank#fnref9) https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/storm.htm[↩︎](about:blank#fnref10) https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-and-fall-of-ricky-ross/[↩︎](about:blank#fnref11) Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Fraudsters ad-free. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
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What this episode covers
We're not done with Reagan just yet! This week, we’re honing in on the crack epidemic and its devastating impact on Black communities. We unpack the 1980s shift in American politics, where Reagan's policies expanded Nixon's "War on Drugs" and utilized racially coded language to criminalize Black Americans. We’ve got expert guests, Yasmin Cader, Dr. Sheila Vakharia, and Professor Anne Foster on the show to talk through the anti-drug legislation that introduced harsh mandatory minimums and sentencing disparities, targeting crack cocaine users disproportionately over powdered cocaine users. Hmmm… I wonder why…. All that and we touch on the media’s role in sensationalizing the “crack epidemic,” Congress’s bipartisan support for punitive policies, and all of the devastating consequences of Reagan’s militarization of the War on Drugs.
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