Describe the criminalization of drugs in the history of the U.S., how this criminalization is connected to practices of racialization, and why this has resulted in mass incarceration.

1. Mass incarceration has been described as “the New Jim Crow” and is, in part, the result of the war on drugs. Describe the criminalization of drugs in the history of the U.S., how this criminalization is connected to practices of racialization, and why this has resulted in mass incarceration.
2. What is the Southern strategy and how did it begin the criminalization of race associated with mass incarceration?
3. What role did political repression play in the militarization of the police?
4. What were the common racial narratives used to criminalize opium, cocaine and marijuana historically?
5. What role does the protection of white womanhood play in racial panics?
6. What is postwar racial liberalism and how did it contribute to the beginning of mass incarceration?
7. What is the law and order discourse and what are its main tenets?
8. How did drugs remake the criminal justice system?
9. How does SWAT demonstrate the militarization of U.S. policing?
10. How did the crack moral panic facilitate the criminalization of race in U.S. cities?

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