The United States began as a control society. Slavery -- America's original sin depended on the harshest conceivable controls. Jim Crow and redlining continued that legacy.
But in the decades following World War II, the nation began inching toward social investment -- the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and substantial investments in health and education.
Then America swung backward to social control.
Of those arrested for possession, half have been charged with possessing cannabis for their own use. Nixon's strategy had a devastating effect on Black people that is still felt today: a Black person is nearly four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than a white person, even though they use it at similar rates.
Bill Clinton put 88,000 additional police on the streets and got Congress to mandate life sentences for people convicted of a felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug offenses.
This so-called "three strikes you're out" law was replicated by many states, and, yet again, disproportionately impacted Black Americans. In California, for instance, Black people were 12 times more likely than white people to be incarcerated under three-strikes laws, until the state reformed the law in 2012. Clinton also "reformed" welfare into a restrictive program that does little for families in poverty today.
Why did America swing back to social control?
Part of the answer has to do with widening inequality. As the middle class collapsed and the ranks of the poor grew, those in power viewed social controls as cheaper than social investment, which would require additional taxes and a massive redistribution of both wealth and power.
Meanwhile, politicians whose power depends on maintaining the status quo, used racism -- from Nixon's "law and order" and Reagan's "welfare queens" to Trump's blatantly racist rhetoric -- to deflect the anxieties of an increasingly overwhelmed white working class. It's the same old strategy. So long as racial animosity exists, the poor and working class won't join together to topple the system that keeps so many Americans in poverty, and Black Americans oppressed.
The last weeks of protests and demonstrations have exposed what's always been true: social controls are both deadly and unsustainable. They require more and more oppressive means of terrorizing communities and they drain resources that would ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive.
This moment calls on us to relinquish social control and ramp up our commitment to social investment.
It's time we invest in affordable housing and education, not tear gas, batons, and state-sanctioned murder. It's time we invest in keeping children fed and out of poverty, not putting their parents behind bars. It's time to defund the police, and invest in communities. We have no time to waste.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
