#34 [2024/CBR16] When Crack Was King by Donovan X. Ramsey

I found When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era (2023) by Donovan X. Ramsey on NPR's Favorite Books last year. I needed another audiobook for my commute and decided to give it a try. 

Ramsey grew up in the 80's and 90's during the worst of the crack cocaine epidemic. In this book, he delves into how it affected people's lives, how it became such a problem, people's perception of the crack epidemic, and the government's response to it.

Ramsey follows four people who suffered from crack addiction or grew up with parents who were crack addicts. Telling their stories in such detail really personalizes the damage the drug did to them, their family, and the neighborhood. These personal stories may have been my favorite part of the book. In addition, I felt that Ramsey gave another recent book I read, Lucky Me by Rich Paul, some more context. Rich Paul's mother was addicted to crack, and it had a huge impact on Paul as he grew up.

Another very important aspect of this book is that Ramsey challenges some long-held assumptions about the crack era. He points out the fearmongering and blame that was focused on the black community. Specifically, he discusses the studies on "crack" babies, that suggested an entire generation of kids were going to be born with severe physical and mental defects. This would put a severe strain on the country's social net and this was trumpeted in the U.S. media. In hindsight, it turns out those studies were not accurate. They used small sample sizes and could not separate co-factors. 

In addition, the government was at best negligent, and at worst complicit, when it came to addressing the crack cocaine epidemic. Some government employees wanted the Black communities to ruin themselves with the drug while others simply didn't care. Ramsey compares this to the current opioid epidemic, which has much more government support and focuses on rehabilitation. (Although, I have to say that even though Ramsey is correct, it is hard to drum up significant community compassion when it comes to drug addicts of any type).

I did listen to this book instead of reading it, which sometimes makes it more difficult for me to remember the details. But this book certainly educated me about an era I knew little about. It also changed my perspective on how it was handled by the media and the government. Recommended.