SOCI 3810 Chapter : The War on Drugs
30 Jan 2012
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Document Summary
The war on drugs: tales of race, class and gender. Popular representations of today"s drug traffickers are men of colour, portrayed in violent, as hyper-masculine and a menace to society. For women, intersecting variables such as race and class also come into play. In a historical context, the root of drug regulation in canada was largely associated with aboriginal people. Since their prohibition of buying/possessing alcohol, thousands of aboriginals were jailed. Aboriginal women were arrested for public drunkenness and constructed as even more deviant and immoral than aboriginal males or white women. As well, the women"s christian temperance union in canada had regarded sobriety and morality as embedded in the female gender. However, women would be easily targeted for corruption due to their fragile character. The main culprits of disrupting the (white) women"s innocence were men of colour, which is why they were heavily targeted for contributing to race suicide and many were imprisoned.
