White Rage

by Carol Anderson

  86. Jacob, “Black America, 1987,” 1.

  87. Jonathan Harsch, “Reagan Cuts Eat into School Lunches,” Christian Science Monitor September 17, 1981, http://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0917/091746.html, accessed August 14, 2015.

  88. David H. Swinton, “Economic Status of Blacks, 1987,” The State of Black America, 1988 (New York: National Urban League, 1988), 136.

  89. Robert W. Fairlie and William A. Sundstrom, “The Emergence, Persistence, and Recent Widening of the Racial Unemployment Gap,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 52, no. 2 (January 1999): 255, 257.

  90. Bernard E. Anderson, “Economic Patterns in Black America,” The State of Black America, 1982, 3–4; O’Reilly, Nixon’s Piano, 369–70; Green and MacColl, There He Goes Again, 92; Jacob, “Black America, 1987: An Overview,” 1.

  91. Peter Dreier, “Reagan’s Legacy: Homelessness in America,” National Homelessness Institute, Shelter Online, no. 135 (May–June 2004), http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/135/reagan.html, accessed January 12, 2010.

  92. David Cooper, Mary Gable, and Algernon Austin, “The Public-Sector Jobs Crisis: Women and African Americans Hit Hardest by Job Losses in State and Local Governments,” Economic Policy Institute, May 2, 2012, http://www.epi.org/publication/bp339-public-sector-jobs-crisis, accessed August 11, 2015.

  93. Bernard E. Anderson, “Economic Patterns in Black America,” The State of Black America (New York: National Urban League, 1982), 7; Howell Raines, “Reagan Aims to Cut 37,000 Federal Jobs, Saving $1.3 Billion,” New York Times, March 7, 1981.

  94. Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), 116.

  95. William Raspberry, “A Double Disaster for EEOC,” Washington Post, November 18, 1981; Hanes Walton, African American Power and Politics: The Political Context Variable (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 25; Vernon E. Jordan Jr. and John E. Jacob, “Introduction,” The State of Black America, 1982 (New York: National Urban League, 1982), vii; John Hope Franklin, The Color Line: Legacy for the Twenty-first Century (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993), 14.

  96. Douglas Frantz, “Thomas Seems Sure to Face Criticism on EEOC Policies,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1991; O’Reilly, Nixon’s Piano, 366; Mayer and Abramson, Strange Justice, 129–30, 143.

  97. Jordan and Jacob, “Introduction,” The State of Black America, 1982 (New York: National Urban League, 1982), vii.

  98. U.S. Census Bureau, Indicator 16, Median Family Income, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/yi/yi16.pdf; David H. Swinton, “Economic Status of Blacks, 1987,” The State of Black America, 1988, 130, 132; Carter, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich, 63.

  99. Walton, African American Power and Politics, 26.

  100. Raines, “Reagan Aims to Cut 37,000 Federal Jobs.”

  101. Ronald Reagan, “Radio Address to the Nation on Federal Drug Policy,” October 2, 1982, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29506, accessed July 6, 2015.

  102. Andrew B. Whitford and Jeff Yates, Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda: Constructing the War on Drugs (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 75.

  103. “Backyard 1954–1990,” The Cold War 6, Jeremy Isaacs Production for Turner Original Productions, series producer Martin Smith (Warner Home Video, 1998), VHS.

  104. Schaller, Ronald Reagan, 39; Richard H. Ullman, “At War with Nicaragua,” Foreign Affairs 62, no. 1 (Fall 1983): 39–40.

  105. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press (London and New York: Verso, 1998), 5; Ullman, “At War with Nicaragua,” 41.

  106. Schaller, Ronald Reagan, 75.

  107. Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, 8.

  108. Schaller, Ronald Reagan, 40; Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, 23, 297.

  109. Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, 2, 5–6, 24; “Key Figures in CIA-Crack Cocaine Scandal Begin to Come Forward,” Huffington Post, October 10, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/10/gary-webb-dark-alliance_n_5961748.html, accessed August 13, 2015.

  110. “The Drug Gangs,” Newsweek, March 28, 1988, found in “The FBI File on Crips and Bloods: Drug Gangs”; Matt Lait, “The Battle to Control 50,000 Gang Members on the Streets of Los Angeles,” Washington Post, April 26, 1983, found in “The FBI File on Crips and Bloods: Drug Gangs.”

  111. Daniel Ryan Davis, “The Charisma of Crack Cocaine: The Impact of Crack on Black America, 1984–2010” (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 2012), 56, 80.

  112. Howard Kohn and Vicki Monks, “The Dirty Secrets of George Bush: The Vice President’s Illegal Operations,” Rolling Stone, November 3, 1988, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-dirty-secrets-of-george-bush-19881103, accessed August 29, 2015.

  113. Kohn and Monks, “The Dirty Secrets of George Bush”; U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, “Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,” 100th Cong., 2d. Sess., December 1988, 96–97; Ronald Reagan, “Radio Address to the Nation on Federal Drug Policy,” October 2, 1982, The American Presidency Project, www.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=43085, accessed July 6, 2015.

  114. Reagan, “Radio Address to the Nation on Federal Drug Policy”; Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, 308–9.

  115. CIA, “The Contra Story: Introduction,” https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/cocaine/contra-story/intro.html, accessed August 29, 2015; Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, 49.

  116. Schaller, Ronald Reagan, 75–76.

  117. Another stream of revenue was illegal arms sales to Iran, see Malcolm Byrne, Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2014).

  118. David Brock, Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative (New York: Crown, 2002), 43.

  119. “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Iran-Contra Scandal,” Frontline, November 27, 1990, http://billmoyers.com/content/high-crimes-misdemeanors-reagan-iran-contra-scandal, accessed August, 29, 2015.

  120. Kerry Committee, 146, “The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 2, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB113/north06.pdf, accessed January 25, 2016; Michael Palmer to Phil Buechler, invoice, February 25, 1986, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc05.pdf, accessed February 11, 2016; Oliver North Meeting with Rob Owen, minutes, August 9, 1985, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 2, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc01.pdf, accessed November 28, 2014; T.C. [Robert Owen] to The Hammer [Oliver North], memo, April 1, 1985, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc03.pdf, accessed November 28, 2014; T.C. [Robert Owen] to BG [Oliver North] February 10, 1986, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc04.pdf, accessed November 28, 2014; Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, 35.

  121. Oliver North, notepad, July 12, 1985, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc02.pdf, accessed November 28, 2014; Union Nicaraguense Opositora (UNO), September 26, 1986, Luis Posada Carriles, “The Declassified Record: CIA and FBI Documents Detail Career in International Terrorism; Connection to U.S.,” National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/19860902.pdf, accessed August 29, 2015.

  122. FBI interview with Dennis Ainsworth, January 21, 1987, SF 211-11, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc15.pdf, accessed November 28, 2014; Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, 9, 40.

  123. Alan D. Fiers, Government Witness, United States of America vs Clair Elroy George, July 29, 1992, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc10.pdf, accessed February 11, 2016; Seymour Hersh, “Panama Strongman Said to Trade in Drugs, Arms and Illicit Money,” New York Times, June 12, 1986; John Herbers, “Panama General Accus
ed by Helms,” New York Times, June 22, 1986; “Alarm About Panama,” New York Times, June 24, 1986; James LeMoyne, “Panama’s Strongman Tries to Ride out the Storm,” New York Times, June 25, 1986; Oliver North to NSJMP [John Poindexter], memo, August 23, 1986, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc07.pdf, accessed February 11, 2016; NSJMP [John Poindexter] to NSOLN [Oliver North], August 23, 1986, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc08.pdf, accessed February 11, 2016; NSOLN [Oliver North] to NSJMP [John Poindexter], September 20, 1986, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc11.pdf, accessed February 12, 2016; Oliver North notebook, meeting with Noriega, September 22, 1986, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc12.pdf, accessed February 12, 2016; Kerry Committee excerpt, p. 76, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc14.pdf, accessed November 28, 2014; Oliver North to John Poindexter, September 17, 1986, memo, National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/docs/doc13.pdf, accessed November 28, 2014; Note From: Oliver North, memo, September 18, 1986, ibid; Peter Kornbluh, testimony, “Congressional Inquiry into Alleged Central Intelligence Agency Involvement in the South Central Los Angeles Crack Cocaine Drug Trade,” National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/pktstmny.htm, accessed November 28, 2014.

  124. Todd R. Clear, Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

  125. Whitford and Yates, Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda, 63.

  126. Ibid., 97.

  127. J. J. Mahoney, T. F. Newton, Y. Omar, E. L. Ross, and R. De La Garza, “The Relationship Between Lifetime Stress and Addiction Severity in Cocaine-Dependent Participants,” European Neuropsychopharmacology 23, no. 5 (May 2013): 351–57, doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2012.05.016, Epub June 28, 2012.

  128. Ronald Reagan, “Speech to the Nation on the Campaign Against Drug Abuse,” September 14, 1986, http://millercenter.org/president/reagan/speeches/speech-5465, accessed November 16, 2015.

  129. Whitford and Yates, Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda, 89–90.

  130. Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine, “Crack in the Rearview Mirror: Deconstructing Drug War Mythology,” Social Justice 31, no. 1–2 (95–96), Resisting Militarism and Globalized Punishment (2004): 187.

  131. Jennifer E. Cobbina, “Race and Class Differences in Print Media Portrayals of Crack Cocaine and Methamphetamine,” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture 15, no. 2 (2008): 152.

  132. Reinarman and Levine, “Crack in the Rearview Mirror,”187.

  133. Albert Samaha, “Cheaper, More Addictive, and Highly Profitable: How Crack Cocaine Took Over NYC in the 1980s,” Village Voice, August 12, 2014, http://www.villagevoice.com/news/cheaper-more-addictive-and-highly-profitable-how-crack-took-over-nyc-in-the-80s-6664480, accessed November 16, 2015.

  134. Gary Webb and Pamela Kramer, “Waters Calls on Reno, CIA and Congress for Investigation,” San Jose Mercury News, September 4, 1996, http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/drugs/scrip905.htm, accessed August 17, 2015; Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, 65.

  135. Lee P. Brown, “Crime in the Black Community,” The State of Black America, 1988 (New York: National Urban League, 1988), 102.

  136. Roland G. Fryer Jr., Paul S. Heaton, Steven D. Levitt, and Kevin M. Murphy, “Measuring Crack Cocaine and Its Impact,” Economic Inquiry 51, no. 3 (July 2013): 1651–52.

  137. George Davey Smith, Sam Harper, John Lynch, and Scott Burris, “Trends in the Black-White Life Expectancy Gap in the United States, 1983–2003,” JAMA 297, no. 11 (March 21, 2007): 1224–32, doi:10.1001/jama.297.11.1224.

  138. Fryer Jr., “Measuring Crack Cocaine and Its Impact,” 1651–52.

  139. NAACP, “Bill to End 100:1 Crack/Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity Will Soon Go Before the Full House of Representatives,” http://www.naacp.org/action-alerts/entry/bill-to-end-100-1-crack---powder-cocaine-sentencing-disparity-will-soon-go-, accessed November 16, 2015.

  140. Brown, “Crime in the Black Community,” 102.

  141. Clear, Imprisoning Communities, 55; H.R. 5484—Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/house-bill/5484, accessed August 16, 2015; H.R.5210—Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, https://www.congress.gov/bill/100th-congress/house-bill/5210, accessed August 16, 2015; Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker, 535 U.S. 125 (2002); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 145–47.

  142. Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 61.

  143. Ibid., 63; Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968); Joshua Correll, Bernadette Park, Charles M. Judd, Bernd Wittenbrink, Melody S. Sadler, and Tracie Keesee, “Across the Thin Blue Line: Police Officers and Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92, no. 6 (June 2007): 1006–23, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1006; Larry K. Gaines, An Analysis of Traffic Stop Data in the City of Riverside (Riverside, CA: City of Riverside, 2002).

  144. United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873 (1975); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 131.

  145. Hutto v. Davis, 454 U.S. 370 (1982); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 90.

  146. McClesky v. Kemp 481 U.S. 279 (1987); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 109–11.

  147. Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765 (1995); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 119, 122–23.

  148. Armstrong v. United States, 517 U.S. 456 (1996); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 115–17.

  149. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 108–9.

  150. Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275 (2001); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 137, 139.

  151. Atwater v. City of Lago Vista, 532 U.S. 318 (2001); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 67, 69.

  152. Andrew Gumbel, “American Travesty,” Independent, August 20, 2002.

  153. Thom Marshall, “Tulia Farmer Dug in Heels for Justice,” Houston Chronicle, April 23, 2003; Gumbel, “American Travesty.”

  154. Bob Herbert, “Kafka in Tulia,” New York Times, July 29, 2002.

  155. NAACP-LDF, “Bad Times in Tulia, Texas,” September 29, 2000, http://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/bad-times-tulia-texas, accessed November 17, 2015.

  156. Jim Henderson, “Tulia Lawyer’s Long Struggle to be Rewarded Today,” Houston Chronicle, June 16, 2003; Gumbel, “American Travesty”; NAACP-LDF, “Bad Times in Tulia, Texas.”

  157. Herbert, “Kafka in Tulia.”

  158. Gumbel, “American Travesty.”

  159. Jim Henderson, “Tulia Residents Uncertain About Return to Normalcy,” Houston Chronicle, June 18, 2003.

  160. Gumbel, “American Travesty.”

  161. Morgan Whittaker, “Criminal Injustice: The Percentage of African-Americans in Prison,” MSNBC, September 23, 2013.

  162. Clear, Imprisoning Communities, 4, 49.

  163. Human Rights Watch, “Incarcerated America,” http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/usa/incarceration/us042903.pdf, accessed August 17, 2015.

  164. Duke Medicine and News Communication, “White and Hispanic Teens More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than African Americans,” November 7, 2011, http://corporate.dukemedicine.org/news_and_publications/news_office/news/white-and-hispanic-teens-more-likely-to-abuse-drugs-than-african-americans, accessed November 17, 2015; Maia Szalavitz, “Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than Blacks,” Time, November 7, 2011, http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/07/study-whites-more-likely-to-abuse-drugs-than-blacks, accessed August 17, 2015.

  165. Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 126–27.

  166. Murakawa, The First Civil Right, 3.

  Five How to Unelect a Black President

  1. “Reactions from Around the World,” New York Times, November 5, 2008, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/reactions-from-around-the-world/?_r=0, accessed September 1, 2015.

  2. “Reaction to Obama Elected 1st Black US President,” USA Today, November 5, 2008, posted November 5, 2008
, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-11-05-1271317715_x.htm, accessed September 1, 2015.

  3. “Obama’s Victory on Newspaper Front Pages” slideshows, Huffington Post, December 6, 2008, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/obamas-victory-on-newspap_n_141311.html, accessed September 1, 2015.

  4. Claire Cohen, “Breakdown of Demographics Reveals How Black Voters Swept Obama into White House,” Daily Mail, November 5, 2008; “How Groups Voted in 2008,” Roper Center.

  5. Sam Roberts, “2008 Surge in Black Voters Nearly Erased Racial Gap,” New York Times, July 20, 2009.

  6. “How Groups Voted in 2008,” Roper Center; Fred Lucas, “Romney Polls Better Among White Evangelicals Than Bush, McCain,” CNS News, October 23, 2012, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/romney-polls-better-among-white-evangelicals-bush-mccain, accessed September 7, 2015.

  7. Rosalind S. Helderman and Jon Cohen, “As Republican Convention Emphasizes Diversity, Racial Incidents Intrude,” Washington Post, August 29, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2012/08/29/b9023a52-f1ec-11e1-892d-bc92fee603a7_story.html, accessed September 4, 2015.

  8. “2008 Voter Turnout,” Factcheck.org, January 8, 2009, http://www.factcheck.org/2009/01/2008-voter-turnout/, accessed September 4, 2015.

  9. Andrew O’Hehir, “I Watched Fox News for Five Hours Last Night,” Salon, November 6, 2008, www.salon.com/2008/11/06/watching_fox, accessed September 3, 2015.

  10. Frank Newport, “Democrats Racially Diverse; Republicans Mostly White: Democrats and Independents Grow More Diverse Since 2008,” Gallup, February 8, 2013, http://www.gallup.com/poll/160373/democrats-racially-diverse-republicans-mostly-white.aspx, accessed September 4, 2015.

  11. Roberts, “2008 Surge in Black Voters Nearly Erased Racial Gap.”

  12. Lorraine C. Minnite, “Research Memo: First-Time Voters in the 2008 Election,” Project Vote, April 2011, http://www.projectvote.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/FINAL-First-Time-Voters-in-2008-Election.pdf, accessed September 4, 2015.