Analyzing the Drug War

The information we get from "Drug War Facts" provides us with an insight into how the Drug War can be considered a racial project against persons of color. We are able to see that alcohol can also be a factor in crime (as opposed to drugs being the only factor), how illicit drug use has affected America, and how the overall majority of drug users are white. These facts communicate to us that the Drug War is not what it seems and it proves to us major false points that we are informed of when it comes to identifying the War on Drugs.

These facts not only tell us the truth, but they also provide us with a view on how the war on drugs is based on a false premise of race and it further vindicates the notion that the Drug War is racially and politically driven. This data affects our cluster because we are subject to be racially profiled when it comes to drugs and we are the ones who are accused of being the drug users. The war on drugs has been forming into more stricter policies than in the past and cops are cracking down on "drug users" more than before.

The significance of this information is that it represents the other facts of the drug war. The drug war is treated as an isolated event and it only focuses on racially-driven drug use, but the politicians and corporations who manage it are ignorant of the fact that other factors come into play. Alcohol influences 40% of murders, as stated in the facts. 40%. Why aren't the politicians and cops trying to fix that as well? Most  of the illicit drug users are white, 72% as a matter of fact. What does that say about applying the war on drugs to neighborhoods in which 72% percent of white people use drugs? Why can't they do that as well? With these facts, we are able to see how the Drug War affects our country on a racial basis.

Maybe the War on Drugs isn't about drugs. Maybe its about money, corporations, people, or race, or even all of them. Maybe it should be named the War on Race.

Source:

Drug War Facts
www.drugwarfacts.org
-"Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000," Journal of the American Medical Association.
-Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
-Prevalence of Imprisonment in the US Population, 1974-2001

Managing Life as a LaGuardia Student

 How does a LaGuardia student have to be responsible, and what are the stresses of college for you as a LaGuardia student?

In many ways, LaGuardia students have to be responsible. Some students work, some students have other obligations, and some students only have to worry about school. But in all, students have the same expectations placed upon them. We are all expected to perform at a high level and much is expected of us, and in order to be successful, we must have to be responsible, even if many types of stress get in the way. We have to be able to come into class on time and to participate and to share ideas and to do essays and that's just a part of  it, but every single one of us is capable of doing it. I know that it gets for some people because life gets in the way, but you can do it. For me, it has been a tough year because I have been out of school for 7 months, and it's been a hard adjustment period overall. I have had to deal with motivational issues and managing to do my work on time and trying to figure out what I want to major or or what career path I want to take. But once you realize why you are at LaGuardia, you can focus on trying to manage your stress better.  It took me a while to adjust into school mode again, but after sticking it out for the whole semester, I have learned that if I want success, I have to work for it. We can all get into 4 year schools and we can all get our bachelor degree and we can all improve our lives if we work for it. There will always be people willing to help guide you and to understand everything that goes on, but you just gotta try.

Racial Formation (Notes on 114-116)

This is what I understood from pages 114-116 on racial formation:

-large setbacks in the Americas in the 70's due to the economy had racial contexts
-deindustrialization caused a lot of job losses and caused jobs to move from the frostbelt to the sunbelt, moving from the north into the south
-inflation increased as salaries became stagnant and as prices went up, things became more expensive
-America's position as a national and international and economic power was dwindling
-America blamed japan for unfair foreign competition and was racist towards them for doing what they had to do, antagonistic racism towards them also based on World War II
-people depended on welfare, but so many people were on welfare that the taxpayers who payed for it did not want to pay for it anymore
-immigrants receive an unfair amount of criticism for taking the jobs of the whites; now the whites are the victims of so called discrimination

So the main basis of reaction towards political and economic issues was race and it always seemed to be tied into it. In order to justify what was going on, they had to bemoan and put race in as a factor when it wasn't true.

Annotated Bib: Untouchable

Mukherjee, Ramkrishna. "Caste in Itself, Caste and Class, or Caste in Class." Economic and Political Weekly 34.27 (1999) : 1759-61. Print.


A source I found for my essay on Untouchable is Caste in Itself, Caste and Class, or Caste in Class by Ramkrishna Mukherjee. In this scholarly article, he discusses the relationship between caste and class in India and how they were both tied to the Indian's identification with his own land. Communalization was a major factor in Indian identity and villages and everybody was tied to their role in the community and with what they had to do in order to support it. Also, Mukherjee talks about how capitalization (established by India itself, and also by Britain) affected caste and how India changed over time.

Mukherjee's article is useful because it gives me an alternate perspective on how the caste system worked and it provides an economic and a sociological perspective on caste and class. Even so, it gives me a limited view of how caste and class affected identity their social impact on it. His source is a solid source that is very educated and informative on one part of my essay.

Mukherjee's article is a solid article because it covers all the bases on caste and class in India. It helps me shape my argument because it provides me with valid points of view on caste and class and it further reinforces my notion that caste and class are intertwined and inseparable in India. I can use this source to help me further my argument on false consciousness and it could help me expand on how caste and class affected Bahka in 1930's India and how it could tie into race as well.