The sympathy given to white opioid users is not extended to black and brown users, leading to a harsher approach to drug dealers who are often people of color. This reinforces racially coded belief that problems among white people are social issues but not natural occurrences. Dealers in black and brown communities are viewed in a more naturalized manner, with less explanations. Drug-induced homicide prosecution cases exist where people are charged with homicide even when only sharing drugs with someone who fatally overdoses.
Featuring Helena Hansen, Jules Netherland, and David Herzberg on how American capitalism and its illusions of whiteness both created the opioid crisis and shaped the response to it. We are discussing their book Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America.
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