The Rise and Fall of the African American Part 2

Issues Under Fire: The Rise and Fall of the African American Part 2 

The Fall: 

Seemingly with the wind at their backs, African Americans entered the decade of the eighties with cautious optimism, while Black people were just cautious. None however, could have expected what was coming their way when Ronald Reagan took the oath of office on January 20 1981. In what took twenty years to accomplish through street protest, peaceful marches, violent clashes with local state and federal authorities, as well as hard work and determination, was all about to end and end abruptly. 

During the seventies, a lot of African Americans graduating from universities wanted to something to help others follow in their foot steps. Many went into the field of social work. Social workers generally worked with the most vulnerable people. When you are talking about the most vulnerable people, you're talking about the poor, the mentally ill, the unemployed, seniors, at risk children, substance abusers, ex-offenders and of course, minorities.  

Unfortunately, social work is generally funded by the federal government. So, despite the progress African Americans had made in the sixties and seventies, when Ronald Reagan introduced "Reaganomics" aka "Trickle-down theory" to the U.S. economy in the eighties, it hit the African America community like a bomb going off.  

The concept of "Trickle-down economics was to cut government spending to the bone to give upper income level earners, aka "the Rich" tax-breaks, to create new jobs. Supposedly, with a lighter tax burden, "The Rich" would get richer and as they spent their extra wealth, eventually some of it would make its way down to the masses. What actually happened, was "The Rich" took those tax-breaks and kept all the money.  

With the social funding drying up, many freshly minted middle class African Americans found themselves on the outside looking in again. Not only were good paying government funded jobs disappearing by the tens of thousands, but these were the only jobs that were helping the most vulnerable.  

If you were poor, you got poorer, if you were hungry, you starved, if you were sick, its a good chance you died, if you were mentally ill, you just went crazy, if you were addicted to drugs, you went to jail, if you went to jail, you stayed there a long time and you did not get rehabilitated. And if you were an African American looking to move into the private sector, you had a big problem. 

With concepts like racial quotas and Affirmative Action being challenged, African Americans who'd bought homes in better communities, put their kids in better schools and saved a few dollars for a rainy day was in trouble, for when that rainy day came, the African American community was flooded with Crack Cocaine. And the timing could not have been worse.  

Like pouring salt on an open wound, Crack Cocaine hit the streets of African American communities just as the government and private sector employers were discovering a social conscious and social responsibility were no longer en vogue and began to look the other way. Slowly, many African Americans slipped, stumbled and fell into the drug trap and most never recovered. 

Tomorrow, Issues Under Fire address the Crack Cocaine drug trap and try to explain who laid and sprung that trap.