Racism, Class, and the Opioid Crisis
The Dig
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The Racially Coded Language of Addiction
In the debates around the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000, language that was being used by people lobbying for the bill included things like a new kind of addict. One of the racially coded languages is that things that go wrong for white people are a social problem that can and should be addressed. But there's a naturalization of the kinds of problems when they appear in black and brown communities that requires less explanation.
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