Alyssa Lee

Professor Hensley

English 2089

20 April 2018

1. Portfolio Introduction

Over the course of the semester, I have witnessed first-hand just how much my writing

has grown throughout my academic career. I was recently cleaning files off an old computer and

found word documents from middle school that were severely embarrassing and such bad quality

that I wanted to print them out solely so I could burn them. They were so bad that I almost

couldn’t believe it was my work. I had a good grasp of grammar, but run-on sentences were

apparently a huge issue for me. I wish I could take all the credit for how much my writing has

improved since then, but I can’t. I owe a lot to my mom, who would help me revise, revise, and

revise, until I was beyond tired of reading her purple pen comments. Younger me viewed it as a

form of cruel and unusual punishment where nothing was ever good enough, but older me is

grateful because it slowly and surely improved my writing. I remember having a sense of dread

when I printed out a paper and handed it to her, waiting for its inevitable return covered in purple

ink. Hell, I still felt that when I had her look over what I wrote in English 1001! I would say the

biggest way my writing has changed is my confidence level. Now I’m positive that what I write

will be good, and I think it reflects in my writing. I used to think the saying “confidence is key”

was a load of crap, but I can tell that it is a big part of why my writing is so much better now.

Going in, I expected English 2089 to be another fifteen weeks of stress and a ridiculous

amount of assignments. I have never before been so happy to be wrong. I think this course was

the only time in my life where I’ve actually had fun writing. I used to always view it as a chore
and kind of a necessary evil, but I was actually excited for the assignments this semester. Even

when I was writing about a topic I liked, I could never get past feeling like it was just another

terrible homework assignment. In this course, I would go off on a rant about something I liked

first, and worry about making it fit the assignment second. I also really liked how this course

changed the way I thought about things like revision and constructing a thesis. I used to see them

as boring elements that were required for some unknown reason. Now I know that they’re

actually one of the most important elements in a piece of writing.

I can’t wait to apply my writing knowledge in my career. I want to be a police officer,

and it’s a job that requires a lot of paperwork. Most of the officers I’ve done ride alongs with

absolutely hate it, but I don’t see what’s so bad. All you’re doing is writing down summaries of

what you did on your shift. I usually end up helping them when they fill out their paperwork at

the end of shift, reading over their drafts and pointing out grammar errors (much the way my

mom did to me, I know) before they turn it in. Strange as it sounds, I’m actually excited to have

paperwork of my own one day so that I can show off my writing skills.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: this course taught me to love writing.

2. Summaries of Revisions

The only revisions I made were to the thesis of my rhetorical analysis and the timing in

my multimedia project. I received feedback on my rhetorical analysis that recommended I refine

my thesis and put forward a claim or argument instead of simply summarizing what I was

discussing. To fix this, I added a sentence where I state that I’m discussing these aspects of the

show because when combined they produce something amazing. They are as unique and

impressive as the show itself.

 For my multimedia project, I received feedback that said a few of my opening slides were

too fast. I was worried that this might be the case. I have always been a fast reader, so it’s hard

for me to time something that other people are reading. I tried to fix this by reading the slides in

question out loud and using that as a guide for how long they should be on the screen.

3. Rhetorical Analysis

If you have somehow managed to make it this far without ever listening to Hamilton: An

American Musical, you deserve some serious credit. Since it opened in 2015, Hamilton has gone

on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, eleven (yes, eleven) Tonys, and a Grammy for Best

Musical Theater Album. You might be asking yourself “so what?” or “why?” Well, that’s what

we’re here to discuss. To start off, you’ll be brought up to speed on everything you missed with a

synopsis of Hamilton. Then we’ll get into the really good stuff: what makes the show so popular,

and how truthful it is to Hamilton’s life. By the time you finish reading this, you’ll know

everything there is to know about the show, its popularity (including its emotional, logical and

ethical appeals), and its historical liberties. These elements work together to produce a show that

is simply astounding, catchy, and educational to boot.

Assuming that like most of us, you can’t afford Broadway’s hottest ticket, the soundtrack

is the next best thing. Listening to the Hamilton soundtrack is probably the most fun 2 ½ hours

you’ll have today. It is a fast-paced, emotional rollercoaster ride through the life of our first

Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.“Few figures in American history have aroused such

visceral love or loathing as Alexander Hamilton,” says Ron Chernow, the man behind the

Hamilton biography that inspired the show (3). Hamilton provides examples of both. The show’s

opening number, aptly named “Alexander Hamilton”, begins with Aaron Burr stepping from the

shadows and asking the question: “how does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman,
dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished in

squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?” (Hamilton) The other forty-five songs in the show

answer this query, with appearances from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, King George

III, and everyone in-between. Told mostly from Burr’s perspective, we follow Hamilton

throughout the course of his life. He grows up on Nevis, a British island in the Caribbean, the

illegitimate son of a wealthy Scot. After his mother dies when he is just fourteen, young

Hamilton gets a job doing inventory for a shipping company and collects books in his spare time.

In the aftermath of a nasty hurricane, Hamilton writes a letter about the devastation that is so

incredibly moving and powerful that his neighbors decide he needs schooling in America to hone

his obvious talent with words. They raise enough money to buy him passage to New York, where

he dreams of becoming successful enough that no one will care about his illegitimacy. When

Hamilton meets Burr for the first time in “Aaron Burr, Sir” show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda

likens it to “Harry Potter meeting Draco Malfoy” (Miranda 22). The two butt heads from the

start, and it provides an excellent source of tension. After Hamilton meets Burr, the rest of Act

One consists of him meeting close friends (Hercules Mulligan, John Laurens and the Marquis de

Lafayette), his soon-to-be wife Eliza, her sister Angelica, and the infamous General Washington.

Hamilton’s military ambitions are probably best summed up with the line: “God I wish there was

a war, then we could prove that we’re worth more than anyone bargained for” (Hamilton). He

runs headfirst into danger, more than willing to lay down his life if it means he is remembered

for more than just his illegitimate heritage. After fighting, Hamilton becomes Washington’s

secretary, welcomes a son with Eliza, and starts to consider the “young, scrappy, and hungry”

country’s future (Hamilton). And that’s just Act One! Act Two introduces iconic figures from

American history, like Jefferson, Adams, and Madison. It focuses more on the tension between
Jefferson and Hamilton, leading to some literal epic rap battles of history. It’s very difficult to

choose but I would say my favorite of Hamilton’s digs at Jefferson is: “a civics lesson from a

slaver? Hey neighbor, your debts are paid ‘cause you don’t pay for labor… keep ranting, we

know who’s really doing the planting” (Hamilton). Act Two mostly centers around these two

legends and their competing ideologies. There is also the first political sex scandal,

Washington’s resignation, and the re-emergence of the self-destructive tendencies that will

ultimately lead Hamilton to that New Jersey beach where he famously faces off against Burr.

Hamilton is undeniably popular. The cast have performed at the White House twice, sold

out shows in the theater where Hamilton is housed for nearly three years running, and can call

everyone from Bill Clinton to Jay-Z a fan. So what is the secret behind their incredible success?

For starters, Hamilton is unique. No other show, past or present, sounds the way Hamilton does.

Yes, it has the traditional Broadway songs where you can feel the influence of Sondheim, but it

also has songs reminiscent of The Notorious B.I.G.’s lyrical complexity. It is these linguistic

acrobatics that establish Hamilton’s ethos, or credibility. We are shown again and again that his

mind works impossibly fast and comes up with incredible sentences. In one song, Hamilton and

his friends encounter a pro-monarchy protester whom Hamilton proceeds to humiliate by literally

talking circles around him. Says Lin-Manuel Miranda: “If they dropped mics in 1776, Hamilton

would drop one here” (47) Of course, hip-hop is not used solely for Hamilton to show off.

According to Miranda, the show’s forty-six songs and twenty-thousand-ish words just wouldn’t

work any other way. “You could do a Les Mis–type musical about Hamilton, but it would have

to be 12 hours long,” (Browne). This quote is also a good example of Hamilton’s logos, or logic.

I suspect the idea of using hip hop to tell Hamilton’s story was also supported by this line from

the Chernow biography: “Hamilton was an exuberant genius who performed at a fiendish pace
and must have produced the maximum number of words that a human being can scratch out in

forty-nine years” (5). Then there is the story itself. In a time when immigrants are being

demonized and demeaned in the press, it’s refreshing to see a story about one of our most famous

immigrants. A celebrated line in the show that now pops up on t-shirts, tote bags, and coffee

mugs is: “Immigrants, we get the job done!” (Hamilton) Finally, the show is also filled with

emotion, or pathos. If by some miracle, I ever manage to get my hands on a ticket, I’ll happily sit

in a room with hundreds of strangers to cry over the life of someone who died two-hundred years

before most of us were even born. There’s just something about listening to Eliza lose her

husband that never fails to open up the floodgates.

Though creator Lin-Manuel Miranda wanted the show to be as truthful and accurate as

possible, he does take some historical liberties. The first is in “Aaron Burr, Sir” when Hamilton

and Burr initially meet and Hamilton talks about a disagreement he has with the folks over at

Princeton. “Chernow blanched a bit at this historical leap [Hamilton punching a Princeton

bursar] - Hamilton wasn’t needlessly violent - but the rhyme was too good to pass up” (Miranda

23). Then, there is the matter of the casting. We all know the Founders as the old white dudes on

our money with the weird wigs. Miranda caused a stir by deciding that the only white actor in the

show would be the one playing King George III. Yes, you read that correctly, folks. Washington,

Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton himself are all played by actors of color. “By casting our

Founders the same way our country looks now, I think it helps... you to hear them in a new way.

Because you’re not hearing them from the mouths of guys who look like the guys on our money”

says Miranda in an interview with Harvard University (Lipinski). Also, because Hamilton lived

so long ago, there just isn’t a lot of information regarding the details of life in colonial America.

Miranda wanted historians to take the show seriously, but early into the drafting process
Chernow had to level with him and essentially tell him that he would have to create all the little

habits and gestures that give a character dimension (Miranda 32). I also think it’s important to

consider the reality of Broadway. Sure, he could have made a one-hundred-percent accurate

account of Hamilton’s life, but it would be pretty boring and about twelve hours long.

To review, Hamilton: An American Musical is an exciting, emotional, endlessly-quotable

journey through the life of our first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. With forty-six

songs, Lin-Manuel Miranda briefs us on Hamilton’s life, from his childhood in the Caribbean to

his duel on that famous New Jersey beach. The show provides ethos (credibility) by establishing

early-on Hamilton’s lyrical genius, logos (logic) by using hip-hop to tell his story, and pathos

(emotion) by recounting all the tragedy in Hamilton’s life. In doing so, there are some historical

inaccuracies, but they only work to the show’s benefit, not it’s detriment. There is no way to fit

everything without having the show run for an entire day. Despite this, Hamilton is still arguably

the best show on Broadway. To conclude, I’d like to leave you with this quote from Ron

Chernow: “Today, we are indisputably the heirs to Hamilton’s America, and to repudiate his

legacy is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world” (6).

Good luck trying to get Hamilton tickets!

Works Cited

Browne, Rembert. “Genius: A Conversation With 'Hamilton' Maestro Lin-Manuel

Miranda.” Grantland, 29 Sept. 2015, www.grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/genius-

a-conversation-with-hamilton-maestro-lin-manuel-miranda. Accessed 20 Jan. 2018.

 Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. Penguin Books, 2004.

Hamilton: An American Musical. Performances by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom

Jr., Phillipa Soo, and Jonathan Groff. Atlantic Records, 2015.

Lipinski, Ann Marie. “Lin-Manuel Miranda talks "Hamilton" and Hip-Hop, Power and

Playwriting.” YouTube, 16 Sept. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TiHINIYGLA.

Accessed 17 Jan. 2018.

Miranda, Lin-Manuel, and Jeremy McCarter. Hamilton: The Revolution. Grand Central

Publishing, 2016.

4. Annotated Bibliography

Introduction

As a criminal justice major, I’m so used to the injustices of our system, both inherent and
accidental, that I sometimes forget not everyone is as aware of them as I am. One of my big
challenges for this paper will be to remember that my audience hasn’t spent three semesters in
criminal justice classes writing papers about criminal justice issues for criminal justice
professors. My goal with this paper is to try and educate people, making them more aware of the
issues with our criminal justice system. I will be researching the true purpose of the War on
Drugs. Is it to get the drugs off the streets and keep our kids safe, as advertised? Or is it a
modern, subtle version of Jim Crow, aiming to incarcerate as many minorities as possible? I
haven’t been able to find any sources that specifically address this question, so I will be drawing
on elements from the sources I have found to try and piece together an answer. The only
knowledge I have on this topic going in is what I know from 13th and my other criminal justice
classes - both our system and the War on Drugs itself disproportionately affect minorities.
Minorities are more likely to be stopped by police, more likely to be arrested, more likely to
receive an overworked public defender, and more likely to receive the maximum sentence than
their white counterparts. The War on Drugs targets mostly minority neighborhoods and assigns
harsher penalties to crack cocaine (a drug primarily used by minorities) than to powder cocaine
(a drug primarily used by white people). I will be using the sources below to supplement this
knowledge.

Annotations
Bobo, Lawrence D., and Victor Thompson. "Unfair by Design: The War on Drugs, Race, and the
Legitimacy of the Criminal Justice System." Social Research, vol. 73, no. 2, 2006, pp. 445-
472,736,0_3, ABI/INFORM Collection; Research Library,
https://search.proquest.com/docview/209669497?accountid=2909.
Lawrence Bobo and Victor Thompson argue that the “American Dream” - where citizens
are equal before the law - is in jeopardy due to the unequally harsh treatment of black
citizens by the criminal justice system. They draw comparisons to the United States’
history of racial injustice, though they make the point that the current issues of racial
injustice are much more subtle and covert than the blatant racism of Jim Crow laws and
segregation. Their research shows that black citizens are well aware of the bias in the
criminal justice system, and that this awareness impacts their interaction with the system.
Bobo and Thompson note that this awareness tends to result in black citizens expecting
negative interactions with the system.

Bobo and Thompson’s research and conclusions are relevant to my research question
because they critically investigate the policies of our criminal justice system and their
effects on minorities. They discuss black citizens’ views on the criminal justice system
and their interactions with it. Overall, I think it’s a good article, but because it was
published in 2006 there are some limitations. I would have liked to see a more modern
version of this article that looked at all the police-involved shootings that have occured
over the past few years, and social media’s prevalence and the effects those elements
have had on black citizens as well as the general public.

DuVernay, Ava, director. 13th. Netflix, 7 Oct. 2016.

Probably best known for Selma, her 2014 movie chronicling Dr. King’s historic march to
Selma, Alabama that resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Ava DuVernay dives
back into the civil rights genre with 13th. The title comes from the Thirteenth
Amendment, which abolished slavery “except as punishment for a crime.” With the
assistance of important black figures like civil rights leader Angela Davis and Senator
Cory Booker, DuVernay explains how this loophole has been exploited since
Reconstruction and how it contributed to our country’s current mass incarceration issue.
13th is a rare example of black history told by black people.

13th is relevant to my research question because it directly addresses the racist

undertones of the War on Drugs (and most U.S. government policies). DuVernay’s
discussion of America’s institutional racism goes as far back as the slave ships that came
over from Africa. This history lesson also provides an in-depth look at the War on Drugs
that we never got in school. She plays audio from a Nixon campaign strategist admitting
that his “southern strategy” was really just sophisticated, coded racism. The only
criticism I have of 13th is that I wish Ava DuVernay had included black members of the
 criminal justice system, like lawyers, police, and judges, as it would have been interesting
to hear their perspectives on the system.

“It Is Time To End The War On Drugs.” American Judicature Society, vol. 93, no. 2, 2009,
https://jpo.wrlc.org/handle/11204/2749.
In this article from the American Judicature Society, the author(s) discuss the effects that
the War on Drugs has had on the criminal justice system. Families are torn apart by
mandatory sentencing laws, governors are inundated with pleas for clemency, and
everyone from police to judges have more drug cases than they can completely handle.
Not to mention the prisons that are nearly overflowing. The authors also discuss the
policy history of the War on Drugs, and mention some modern strategies to start digging
ourselves out of this hole. They also make suggestions for improving and reforming the
current criminal justice system, like releasing people from prison who only have low-
level drug convictions.

“It Is Time To End The War On Drugs” is relevant to my research question because it
addresses the toll that the War on Drugs has taken on our nation as a whole, and on
individuals. This was probably the best scholarly article I have read in my college career,
because it was simple language, straightforward, and easy to follow. I liked that they
realize the War on drugs isn’t as easy to end as some people think, and offered
suggestions to make reforming the system a little easier. The one thing that bothered me
about this article was that I couldn’t find any information on the authors, other than the
fact that it was published through the American Judicature Society.

McCord, David. "Lethal Connection: The "War on Drugs" and Death Sentencing." The Journal
of Gender, Race, and Justice, vol. 15, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1-26, Criminal Justice Database;
GenderWatch, https://search.proquest.com/docview/1508066145?accountid=2909.
In this journal article, David McCord investigates the link between death row murder
cases and drugs. He also discusses some unintended side-effects of the War on Drugs:
driving up prices of the drugs, gangs controlling the supply, the need for people to resort
to violence to protect themselves, and creating a pool of potential crime victims who
won’t seek help from the criminal justice system. He argues that these factors are what
really lead to an increase in murder cases, not leniency in sentencing or being “soft on
crime”. McCord proposes the theory that without the War on Drugs, there would be far
fewer death row murder cases, and fewer murders in general.

McCord’s article is relevant to my research question because it addresses a lot of the

existing problems with the War on Drugs. I liked the points he made about the
unintended side effects and how the government essentially created an environment for
gangs to flourish. I also liked how he investigated the link between death row cases and
 drugs, something I never would have considered on my own. McCord was very thorough,
even looking at connections between death row cases, drugs, and gender, race, or
ethnicity. The article was relatively straightforward and easy to understand. My only
critique is that I wish he had used less legalese, but I realize I’m most likely not his
intended audience.

Rolles, Stephen. “An Alternative to the War on Drugs.” BMJ, no. 341, 3 June 2010,
www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c3360.
Stephen Rolles is arguing in this article that not only has the War on Drugs been a
massive failure when it comes to reducing the amount of illegal drugs on the streets, but
is also contributing to higher demand for them and causes a chain reaction of more and
more people ending up in prison. He also brings up the important point that we nearly
have an HIV epidemic because of all the people using dirty needles to shoot up. Another
vital point made was that because there was such a panic about drugs and schools, it has
allowed the harsh, punitive nature of the criminal justice system when it comes to drug
cases to go unscrutinized.

This article is relevant to my research question because it examines the mounting

evidence that the War on Drugs has been a counterproductive failure when it comes to its
stated purpose. I like that this article was written by a citizen of the United Kingdom,
although it probably isn’t a good thing that our War on Drugs has attracted Europe’s
attention. This is the first article I’ve found that mentions an HIV epidemic - due to the
prevalence of contaminated needles - among the unintended side effects of the War on
Drugs. The author briefly discusses policies that are working to combat drugs in Latin
America and Europe, but I would have liked to see more of a comparison between the US
and other countries.

Stone, Elizabeth. “Is There ‘Hope for Every Addicted American’? The New U.S. War on
Drugs.” Social Sciences 7.2 (2017): 3. Crossref. Web. http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/1/3
In this article, Elizabeth Stone discusses the failure of the War on Drugs, but also the
government’s attempts to start trying to right this egregious wrong. She provides an in-
depth analysis of the current policies and argues that the only reason the policies were
implemented now is because we no longer live in 1971’s society. Crime dropped in the
1990s, and the public is becoming more aware of and protesting against mass
incarceration. Stone also argues that our recovery-driven society is simply supporting the
existing punitive drug policies. She concludes by suggesting that the primary reason drug
reforms were passed is to provide a “convenient explanation” for the massive failure of
the War on Drugs.
 This article is relevant to my research question because it brings up a lot of recent policy
attempts made by the government to lessen the War on Drugs. I like that she provided the
factors contributing to reforms finally being able to be passed, like a dropping crime rate
and public awareness. It was interesting to see an article mention the current opioid
epidemic, especially with it being such a big issue in Ohio. The other element that stuck
out to me was when she essentially said that the reform was only passed as a way to
cover their butts politically while continuing to let War on Drugs injustices happen
behind the scenes.

5. Magazine Feature Essay

Criminal Injustice
System
How the War on Drugs has led to the corruption and inequality of the United
States’ criminal justice system

By Alyssa Lee

Entire communities regularly invaded and abused. Families torn apart. Civil rights
infringed forever. Opportunities denied before they were offered. Chances are, those sentences
sound to you like something out of a dystopian, nightmarish future from The Hunger Games or
The Handmaid’s Tale. Unfortunately, scenarios like these are all too real, playing out in minority
neighborhoods all across the country. I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but our criminal
justice system is unfortunately not as perfect as we like to think. Police discriminately target
minority communities, leading to more harassment, arrests, and prison time for those citizens
than their white counterparts. Researchers Lawrence Bobo and Victor Thompson argue that this
practice threatens not just the possibility of police building good relationships with these
communities, but also the American Dream itself. Taken from an article published by Johns
Hopkins: “the United States has enacted policy changes that have created an extraordinary
indeed, truly world historic rise in the use of incarceration for purposes of social control. These
actions have had sharply disproportionate effects on African Americans, though we hasten to add
that the mechanisms of such systematic racial disproportion are more indirect, covert, and
implicit than the mechanisms of racial bias evident in the past.” 1
Think about it. For most of us, we grew up being taught to “find a nice policeman” if we
were ever out somewhere and got separated from our parents. I’m a sophomore in college now,
but I still remember the day that a police car came to my kindergarten and each of us got to take
turns climbing inside to turn on the lights and sirens. The kids who grow up in the neighborhoods
that the cops are frequently raiding have very different memories of them. Instead of being
taught to depend on the police when they need help, they’re taught to avoid them as much as
possible.
Black families give their kids two “talks” growing up. One is the usual birds and bees
stuff, but the other is about how to survive encounters with the police. Though I’m biracial, my
parents never had to give me that second “talk” because I look white. In a lot of ways that’s an
unfortunate blessing. I never have to fear for my life if I’m stopped by a police officer, or even
stuck in traffic next to one. God forbid I’m ever killed by a police officer, but if by some off
chance that happens, people will never try to justify my death by labeling me a “thug”, “drug
dealer”, or “threat to their safety”. Ours is one of maybe seven black families in my
neighborhood. But of course that has nothing to do with how infrequently we see cop cars
driving through. Only three blocks away, in a “bad neighborhood” (aka mostly black) you can
never drive by without seeing a cop car parked on one of the side streets. Overall, interactions
with the police are also hugely impacted by whether you’re black or white.

Two men, one white, one black, smoke on the steps of a building. The cops ignore the white guy and start harassing
the black guy while saying “the message of the war on drugs is black and white!”

When I was nine years old, I saw a cop pull his gun on my dad. It was the middle of the
night and we were driving to St. Louis to visit family. He was tired, and speeding a little. When
my dad explained to the officer that his wallet with all his insurance stuff was in his suitcase,
which was in the backseat, and started to reach for it, he pulled his gun on him. Nine year old me

1
Bobo, Lawrence D., and Victor Thompson. https://search.proquest.com/docview/209669497?accountid=2909.
wasn’t even supposed to be awake, nevermind seeing her father held at gunpoint for doing
nothing more than trying to comply with the usual “license and registration” request. I can’t even
tell you what happened after that because all I can remember was suddenly coming to the
realization that that was not what was supposed to be happening and being terrified for my dad.
I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say that most, if not all of you reading this have never
had an experience like that. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but it is the unfortunate reality for a lot
of minority children in this country. They see their parents get harassed, beaten, arrested, and
dragged away in handcuffs, yet we still ask why they don’t show the police more respect. Of
course, you can only blame the police to an extent. Their policies and practices usually come
from much higher up the food chain.
In June of 1971, then-President Richard Nixon announced the start of the War on Drugs.
Depending on who you talk to, you can get very different explanations for why Nixon felt this
move was necessary. Some articles have said it was because he was concerned about the
“youths” and their penchant for marijuana. Others have claimed he wanted time to establish
federal regulations on narcotics. However, Ava DuVernay’s brilliant injustice documentary 13th
unearths a much more nefarious reason for the policy. One of Nixon’s aides was caught on
recording years later explaining it.

“You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968,
and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people.
You understand what I’m saying. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against
the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and
blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those
communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings,
and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about
the drugs? Of course we did.”2

This was a monumental admission. An aide to the President says that the Nixon
administration essentially fabricated a reason to attack black and young people. I am well aware
that the late 60’s and early 70’s were very different times when it came to civil rights and the
way black citizens were treated, but this still seems so… villainous. They were manipulating the
public into hating certain groups of people because they knew if they went about it in an obvious
way that the public wouldn’t allow it. If I were a member of one of those communities and heard
this, my trust in the government would be at an all time low. That kind of branding also made it
difficult for the general public to empathize with the situation. This editorial cartoon showcases
the hypocrisy. A white man in the 80’s is indifferent to the plight of young black people, but the
same man in modern context is extremely concerned with the opioid crisis.

2
DuVernay, Ava, director. 13th. Netflix, 7 Oct. 2016.
A white man responds to an 80’s headline about the crack epidemic by saying “lock ‘em up and throw away the
key!” An older version of the man responds to a modern opioid epidemic headline with “wait… white people are
dying? build more treatment centers! fire the doctors! sue big pharma!”

One of the many reasons that scholars say the war on drugs was painfully unsuccessful is
because of all of the side-effects. “Few public policies have compromised public health and
undermined the fair and effective functioning of the justice system for so long.”3 Though
originally meant to target black and young people, the victims of the war on drugs are everyone
from justice system employees to low income families. Cops spend most of their shifts fighting
what feels like a “losing battle” against drugs. Lawyers and judges are drowning in drug cases.
You could be the greatest, most loving parent in the world but if you get caught with a joint
you’ll end up locked away for most of your babies’ childhoods. The mandatory minimum
sentences established as part of the war on drugs practically eliminate the court’s ability to take
your history and character into consideration at sentencing.

An officer in riot gear is meant to represent the war on drugs. He is throwing men into an overcrowded prison yard
labeled “nonviolent offenders” and these men represent the war on drugs’ prisoners of war.

The other unfortunate side-effect of the war on drugs are the unintended consequences.
According to a Drake law professor, the war on drugs one, creates artificial scarcity and drives

3
“It Is Time To End The War On Drugs.” https://jpo.wrlc.org/handle/11204/2749.
up prices. Two, it enables gangs to easily become the main suppliers. Three, it causes people
involved to resort to violence by “taking things into their own hands.” Four, it creates an easy
pool of victims who won’t go to the police.4 One study in the British Medical Journal or BMJ
says that America is nearly in an HIV epidemic due to the amount of people shooting up with
dirty needles.5 When an issue in your country attracts the attention of other countries, it usually
isn’t a good thing. In this case, our war on drugs has caused so much damage to us that even
Great Britain is studying it.
So how do we begin to stitch the gaping wound the war on drugs has made in our
country? Legislation. Unfortunately, most of the related legislation Congress has passed recently
is not as helpful as it seems. “[recovery-oriented policies] break through legislative gridlock
because it provides a politically convenient explanation for the failure of the War on Drugs,
while perpetuating Drug War injustices under the sign of progressive reform.”6 We need real
reform and recovery policies, not just clever phrases that will sound good in a re-election
campaign. Some of the suggestions include: legalizing and regulating drugs, getting rid of
mandatory minimum sentences, no longer sending people to prison for non-violent drug
offenses, and abolishing this country’s for-profit prison system. While some of those might
sound completely crazy and unhelpful at first glance, we need to do something. We can’t live
with this unjust policy for another forty years.
To quote Dr. King as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of his assassination, “injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

6. Multimedia Project

My purpose for this project was to essentially create a trailer for my magazine feature

essay. While my magazine feature essay was more on the general injustice of our justice system,

my multimedia project focused more specifically on the War on Drugs. Like my magazine

feature essay, my intended audience was people who aren’t criminal justice majors and don’t

know much about the system. I want to educate the people and try to ignite in them the same

passion for reform my criminal justice classes lit in me. I know education is the only way to get

that reform. I did my best to try and explain why the War on Drugs is a problem as if I was

telling someone who had no idea what it is. I wanted to open with the quote from the Nixon

4
McCord, David. https://search.proquest.com/docview/1508066145?accountid=2909.
5
Rolles, Stephen. www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c3360.
6
Stone, Elizabeth. http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/1/3
advisor because I felt that it really encapsulated everything that’s wrong with the War on Drugs

and sets the tone well. I included the graphics from 13th for two reasons. One, I love the way

they look and feel like they’re one of the most important parts of the documentary. And two, I

had no idea how to make my own. Sharing my video in class was definitely a nerve-wracking

experience. I don’t know what it is about presenting that is so universally detested by students,

but I completely agree. It’s stressful and awkward and you’re worried about what people will

think and if you forgot any editing issues and if it will even play. Thankfully, I received a lot of

positive feedback, and my only issue was the pacing in the beginning being a little too fast. That

was what I struggled with the most when putting together the video. I’ve always been a fast

reader, so it’s hard for me to gauge whether my pacing is too fast or slow for an audience. I tried

to fix this by reading out loud the text of the slides and using that as my pacing time. This was a

pretty challenging project because I’m not skilled in graphic design at all. Before this assignment

I didn’t even know you could make a video in PowerPoint. I’ll admit, it was extremely

frustrating trying to get the pacing of the slides just right. I think I watched my video at least ten

times because I kept messing it up. My only other experience like this was my junior year of

high school. We had just finished Hamlet and had to make a video explaining what we thought

the tone of the play was. I made mine around the theme of melancholy and themed it around my

favorite show, Sons of Anarchy, because it’s a subtle remake. My absolute favorite part was

selecting the music. (It’s also a great excuse to make people listen to one of my favorite songs.)

For that video I chose “Renegade” by the band Styx because it’s about an outlaw reflecting on

what he’s done to his mother. Just like with this project, a song that turned out to be perfect came

to mind right away. Once I knew I wanted to do this video on the injustice of the War on Drugs,

Tupac’s “Changes” was the perfect fit. The line “they got a war on drugs so the police can bother
me” was stuck in my head for most of the editing process. I think finding the song was the

catalyst, because everything started to come together after that. When I first saw the information

about this project, I tried to find that website and use it again, but unfortunately it no longer

exists. That was a pretty disheartening setback because the site was so easy to use and everything

else just seemed so unnecessarily complex. I must have started this project on five different sites

before I gave up and turned to PowerPoint. Although, for someone with admittedly no technical

skill, I’m surprised how well it turned out.