A Study Of Drug Problems And Black Stigma In Suburban New York State (1970-2000

Drug problem has always been one of the most serious social issues in the United States.And the source of drugs mainly relied on smuggling.On the one hand,owing to unique geographic location,New York State was one of the international gateways of drug smuggling.On the other hand,it was possible for drug to circulate in New York State because of prosperously Mafia gangs and illicit drug market.As black people migrated to urban cities and development of suburbanization after World War Two,population structure between urban areas and suburbs was sharply different,and drug problem has been seen as something that only happened in urban areas.But by the 1970 s,heroin,cocaine,crack and other drugs were being used by an increasing number of middle-class suburban white New Yorkers.Paradoxically,as drug use among white suburbanites has grown,the majority of those incarcerated for drug offenses have been urban blacks,which was a curious phenomenon that related to New York State’s perception for suburban drug problems.It was widely believed that the suburban drug problem occurred because urban blacks used drugs and sold them to suburbanites,thus making suburban whites blameless victims of drug use.However,this phenomenon and conception deserve further discussing.Judging by the scale of suburban drug use and the ethnic proportion of people who got into prison for drug crime,urban black drug users were convicted,while suburban whites were exonerated.There is no doubt that this process has contributed to the stigmatization for black people.Thus,this paper points out that when dealing with suburban drug problems,New York State constructed a picture of that urban blacks were drug users and sellers while suburban whites were victims.The aim of this paper is trying to explain how New York State shaped and constructed the stigmatization of blacks on the suburban drug problem from three parts: the special investigation and research on the black family structure in the 1960 s,the media report on the role of urban blacks in the suburban drug problem,and the legal punishment against urban blacks who convicted of drug crime in the 1970 s and 1980 s.Inevitably,stigmatization for black people on the issue of suburban drug problem,led to different influence for suburban whites and urban blacks.For suburban whites,society’s tolerance and blindness for drug use has caused opioid abuse.Suburban whites were using opioids in combination with traditional drugs,which made the number of deaths rise year by year.As for urban blacks,the situation was even worse.Mass incarceration has led to legal and hidden racial discrimination against blacks convicted of drug crime,which was likely to push them back into drug crime.In addition,stigmatization can last the whole lifetime.That was to say,whether drug criminal or not,public’s stigmatization for blacks can be internalized as self-stigmatization over time by blacks,who implicitly believed that the public’s evaluation of their group was an accurate reflection of themselves.And this negative self-stigma was likely to cause negative self-actualization of their own behaviors.