Shoutout to @thestackspod for this rec. When they review nonfiction well, I almost always add it to my TBR. Plus, I was personally interested in this one because it hits that "sweet spot"of history for me, the weird space of years right before I was born/when I was too young to be aware of real life, as it were, but recent enough that history classes (which in my experience usually ended with the 1960s: Civil Rights happened and now everything is good now go enjoy summer break!) don't cover it. So, basically, I know very little about it without going to find out more on my own. This is honestly particularly frustrating because being more knowledgeable about this type of recent history and pattern of events is more/most useful to understanding our social-economic-political landscape now, the one we live in, giving it context and helping us know how to address current wrongs to make a better future. Anyhoo, stepping off my soapbox, the point is that I was very excited to read this. 

 

In When Crack Was King Ramsey provides a multi-perspective view of the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. As per the blurb: "Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality." Ramsey mixes a thoroughly researched overview of the events leading into and surrounding the epidemic, through history and policy and social trends and propaganda/hysteria and economic/legal realities and pop culture. 

 

Interspersed with this are the stories of four people whose lives were intertwined with and irrevocably changed by the epidemic. We hear from a community activist and forming member for the Zoo Crew (an infamous trafficking group out of Newark), someone who was formerly addicted to crack and worked as a sex worker, the child of some addicted who turned their home into a "crack house," and a big city mayor who was one of the first proponents of decriminalization. It was such a diverse set of voices and perspectives, that together painted a nuanced and in-depth portrait of the lived reality of the time. I appreciate, deeply, the bravery and vulnerability in these four in sharing openly about some really personal experiences, in order to help provide the public this level of insight into the epidemic. Reading their parts, in particular, was affecting and compelling. And the book closed with a gorgeous acknowledgement and celebration of the resilience of those most affected, the way they banded together and created community driven and grassroots responses to help themselves, when it was clear that help from larger factions/sources was unlikely to come, or was not enough. Heartbreaking that it was necessary and that they didn't (still haven't) received the support they deserve from public resources (or the society/government that was the source of much of the context that created the epidemic to begin with), but an inspiring and hopeful finish all the same.         

 

Finally, I want to shout out the writing. Ramsey's written voice is fantastic. It was easy to follow and balanced facts/information (which can tend to be dry) with great pacing and flow, along with the personal stories, in a way that was page-turningly fascinating. (He also narrated the audiobook version himself, and did so spectacularly.) His ability to draw connections amongst such a range of aspects surrounding ind intertwined with the crack epidemic - the political to the pop cultural to the international to the economic - was equally discerning and riveting. This was just fantastic narrative nonfiction. I learned so much and highly recommend it. 

 

 

“An extra price was paid by Americans living in neighborhoods hit hard by the crack epidemic, mostly Black and Latino Americans. They suffered not just the ravages of the crack epidemic but the damage inflicted by the government's war on drugs. They had to navigate both drug-related violence and police harassment. They saw loved ones lose their lives to both addiction and incarceration. All that remained after their communities were ransacked by the epidemic and the war was grief, trauma, and shame.” 

 

"He would have stopped time if he could and lived in that moment forever. It wasn't perfect, but he had everything he ever wanted: a girl, friends, his family, and the means to take care of himself. It was messy, Shawn’s version of the American Dream." 

 

“It’s one thing to be thought of as a bad person. It's another entirely to be thought of as so bad that you're no longer a person.” 

 

“We know that drug epidemics come and go. Like the flu or the common cold, they infect the body politic when our systems are compromised. We are presented with options when these epidemics occur. WE can shore up the weakened systems that allowed the epidemic to take hold. We can rally around vulnerable communities, providing them with resources and support to survive. Or we can turn our backs on those suffering. Worse yet, we can attack them as though they are affliction itself instead of the afflicted.”