By Cleo E. Brown

The first African Slaves were brought to the North American Colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1620. The justification for enslaving these people had been that they were child-like, happy-go-lucky, heathens, barbarians and a licentious people who needed to be taken care of. In the slave holder’s view The Africans needed to be Christianized through baptism and told how to behave and conduct themselves as Christians. Thus began the use of Paternalism in The United States to create a servile and an inferior caste of people.

Similarly, in 1986, when newly acquired Boston Celtic’s first round draft pick named Len Bias dropped dead from cocaine-induced heart failure, The Federal Government responded by adopting a Paternalistic attitude in which it searched for punitive measures with which to stem the tide of escalating drug use – especially crack cocaine – among poor African-American Youths and young African-American Adults especially in the inner-cities. Bias, had been only twenty-two years old.

The type of cocaine he overdosed on was not in the powdered form used by the elite upper-middle and upper classes in America but the cheaper “crack” cocaine which takes the user less to get high on. “Crack” cocaine is also more easily available to poorer classes of people. Len Bias died on June 19, 1986.

By October 27, 1986 then President Reagan had signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 which only sixteen Congressmen had voted against. The Act established mandatory sentencing minimums including five to ten year minimums for the “distribution and/or importation” of illegal drugs. These mandatory sentences transferred the power to sentence an individual from the Presiding Judge to The Prosecutor who determined what charges were to be brought against a defendant.

Also containing elements of paternalism was the case of Regina McKnight in which a woman who used “crack” cocaine while pregnant was convicted of homicide in the death of her stillborn child. Although Regina McKnight was prosecuted by the State of Southern Florida, which sentenced her to twenty years in prison, The State used the reasoning process of The Federal Government under Ronald Reagan when his Administration enacted 1984, 1986, and 1988 Anti-Drug Legislation.

Paternalism in the United States has been used for hundreds of years to continue to promote a two-caste system in which Caucasians continue to be the dominant group in United States’ society while African-Americans are considered subservient. In the instance of mandatory drug sentencing for “crack” cocaine ,as opposed to powdered cocaine, the end result of this paternalism is that while African-Americans comprise less that ten percent of the total United States Population, they comprise twenty-five percent of “crack” cocaine users yet account for eighty-two percent of all people in the prison population convicted of “crack” cocaine offenses. Without the old criteria, which Judges used to sentence defendants, sentences are determined by the weight of the drug involved in the offense as well as by the type of drug involved in the offense. Consequently, a person would need to have one-hundred times more powdered cocaine than “crack” cocaine to be penalized as severely.

Just as in the Len Bias and Regina McKnight cases, The Government took the paternalistic position that far too many homeless addicts, crack babies, burglaries, muggings, and other heinous crimes existed as the result of “crack” cocaine. The Government believed, in these instances, that they must function in a caretaker capacity to create legislation to protect the crack addict from his/her self as well as from his/her victims. This was unlike The United States Government of old which had practiced a “hands-off” policy in the issue of drug use preferring to permit citizens to determine their own participation in the drug culture.

The old criteria used in sentencing, therefore, such as the character of the defendant, the effects of incarceration upon the defendant and his/her family, and the nature and the circumstances of the crime were no longer considered by the Judge. A woman, therefore, like Regina McKnight, although she had suffered the tragedy of giving birth to a stillborn child was convicted of homicide and sentenced to twenty years in prison, while a White Male caught with ten grams of powdered cocaine in his possession would be sentenced to a much less serious charge.

Paternalism in drug sentencing towards Blacks has not always been necessary to develop a two-caste system. In 1906, when the first drug laws were passed by The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 a two-caste system was already in place throughout The United States in which the paternalists had access to all of the best jobs, access to education, and access to public accommodations and facilities while the subordinate blacks had inferior accommodations in comparison.

This same atmosphere was in place when The Harrison Tax Act of 1914 and The Bureau of Narcotics in 1930 as well as The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 were created. These were lenient laws which placed a tax on certain individuals to prohibit them from selling drugs to Blacks, but did not severely or harshly penalize the Caucasian users of the substances. In fact, a secret covenant did exist in which White Drug sellers and users sold and used drugs recreationally with one another but were forbidden to sell and to partake of these drugs with African-Americans as well as with other people of color.

By 1946, however, after the end of World War II and due to the fact that returning African-American servicemen were no longer content to be subservient but did feel that they were entitled to the same rights in the society as their white counterparts some means of controlling The African-American population was sought by The United States’ Government. At the same time, not that it was true, the belief of Government officials was that African-Americans would earn their money to buy a house and attend school through the G.I. Bill with money acquired through professions which catered to the vices: Gambling, Prostitution, and Drugs.

Government officials also believed that ex-servicemen would use funds received from The G.I. Bill to support their Gambling, Prostitution, and Drug Habits. Consequently, The Boggs Act was created which classified Marijuana with other narcotics such as opium, heroin, morphine, cocaine, and chloral hydrate. It was believed during the 1940′s and the 50′s that the African American’s drug of choice would be Marijuana because the other drugs were only for use among the elite Caucasian Class, and because Marijuana was the cheapest of all of the other drugs to obtain.

By the late 1960′s, The United States had undergone a cultural revolution in which the use of Non-Prescription Drugs and obtaining Civil Rights for African Americans was central. No longer feeling the need to control The Masses through its consumption of drugs, therefore, The Controlled Substance Act of 1970 was enacted which lessened the severity of penalties for drug possession considerably and which confined the most harsh penalties for drug use to drug dealers. Then President Richard Nixon was extremely dissatisfied with this law which he did not feel leveled harsh enough penalties at the users of dope whom, he felt, were deteriorating moral values in the United States.

During the 1980′s, however, stories began to appear in the press which addressed the negative side-effects of drug use and abuse not only as the result of drug use during the counter culture revolution of the 1960′s and 70′s but also during the 1980′s. In story after story, bizarre crimes were committed against people and by people who were intoxicated on “crack” cocaine. Crimes were also, it was written, being committed by people high on powdered cocaine but these were usually crimes against themselves and non-violent crimes.

African-Americans, however, overwhelmingly committed the bizarre offenses on “crack” cocaine instilling fear in White hearts and making of the inner-cities uninhabitable places for Whites to live in. Whites, media maintained, were committing the criminal acts more closely associated with powdered cocaine. Soon, suburban people feared, these bizarre crimes would spill over into where they lived. It was also, an attempt to control the invasion of urban life into the suburbs passing strong drug legislation crafted during the Reagan Years.

Currently, experts agree that the hysteria which caused the 1984, 1986, and 1988 Anti-drug Abuse Laws leading to the current racial disparity in drug sentencing was a myth. Scientific evidence, as well as an analysis by The U.S. Sentencing Commission have proven that the data used to prove that “crack” cocaine was more addictive and caused greater violent behavior than powdered cocaine was manufactured. Consequently, however, the U.S. Sentencing Commission in a special report to Congress on cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy states, “the sentences appear to be harsher and more severe for racial minorities than others as a result of this law. T

he current penalty structure results in a perception of unfairness and inconsistency.” The Obama Administration realizing the unjustness in this situation has asked Congress to consider changing the Federal Regulations governing sentencing in “crack” cocaine cases so that the racial disparity in Our Nation’s Prison Systems, and with it a paternalistic Government which reinforces a caste system insuring that African-Americans are subordinate, will change.
Cleo Brown is an editor and writer at Hip-Hop Republican.com she is a moderate Republican who works as an Instructor and as The Dean of Student Affairs in a GED Preparation Program in New York City. Cleo holds a Master’s Degree in Contemporary African-American History from The University of California at Davis.

HHR NOTE: There are other views as well on this issue please read these articles also and make up your own mind.

The Reason Foundation – Liberratian View -    Opposing Views: http://www.opposingviews.com/topics/drug-law

The Heritage Foundation – Conservative View- Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,333990,00.html

Daniel Pipes – Has an article on his sites that details what he calls paranoid conspiracies in black communities on HIV & Drugs http://www.danielpipes.org/books/conspiracychap.php