Divisions in races and between races

The riots illuminated a wealth of social inequalities and injustices, but the government and media did a creative job framing the issues so the white public remained ignorant and so the minorities affected believed they were the cause of the problem. In different ways, before the riots and continuing to this day, the government has created divisions between races and in races that prevent/limit meaningful resistance to the system. Former president Ronald Reagan began the era of personal responsibility. He implemented trickle down economics, expecting market force to solve social problems. Former president George Bush continued this era of personal responsibility by encouraging local solutions and advocating private non governmental solutions to social problems(lecture 4-11-18). This attack on the welfare state hit minorities the hardest, particularly individuals did not have familial wealth to provide for them. In light of this, the federal government painted minorities, particularly African Americans, as personal failures for being unable to support themselves. To add insult to injury, during this time there were a large number of Asian immigrants entering the country. The U.S. government didn’t grant these immigrants the same rights as white Americans, but instead used their perceived success against African Americans. Framing Asian immigrants as the “model minority” meant that African Americans’ inability to succeed without the welfare state was due to personal failure and not systematic racism (Kurashige 11). While it was due to systematic racism, pitting Asian immigrants and African Americans against each other meant both groups focused on surviving and hating the other instead of uniting against the racist system that created inequality for both groups. Also starting in the 1970s and onward was the Drug War. In one sentence, the Drug War criminalized drugs that had previously been viewed as a social problem in order to imprison and control minorities, particularly African American men. The government used the Drug War to frame African Americans as criminals and that combined with the era of personal responsibility politics made it shameful to be a criminal. Police targeted African Americans neighborhoods more heavily for drug raids and laws imposed longer harsher sentences for African American drug users. Still, the media and the government portrayed prison as a personal failure of African Americans. This shame and fear of public opinion made prison the worst kept secret in the African American community, given that ¾ of African American men in Washington, D.C. spend some time in prison but no one discusses that fact. Families and friends work hard to hide their loved ones’ prison sentence, while blaming themselves and their loved one for having been locked up (Alexander 164-165). As just the model minority image damaged potential unity between Asian immigrants and African Americans, prison and the government fueled shame around it destroyed the unity of the African Americans who could protest the targeted raids and the highly unfair sentencing laws.

--Diana Rendler.