What the F Presents: Blunt History

In this final episode, we summarize the recurring narratives evident through this history. We also expand our feminism to show that an analysis of race and class are inherently feminist issues. Lastly, we leave our listeners off with next steps: hopefully this podcast exposed you to America's unjust carceral state. What are you going to do to help end it? We've got a few next steps for you.

Crack cocaine becomes the target of Reagan and Clinton's tough on crime politics. The 1986 Anti Drug Abuse Act is a quintessential example of how drug laws are ridden with racial coding and discriminatory targeting. Drug laws only get more serious after a wave of repeat offender cases are sensationalized by the media. This paves way for the notorious 1994 Three Strikes Law: a law that led to the life sentencing of nonviolent drug users and contributed greatly to the overcrowded prison problem. Visit whatthefmagazine.wixsite.com/umich/podcast to check out any of the documents we referenced in this episode.

People love to target the 1970s as the period in time in which the war on crime and drugs in modern America really heats up. There is some validity to this claim; "The War on Drugs" is formally declared by Richard Nixon in 1971. New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller passes some of the strictest drug laws the country has ever seen in 1973. For both Nixon and Reagan, their tough on crime policies are essential to their presidential victories. In this episode, we analyze how the 1970s and early 1980s shaped today's carceral state, while reminding listeners that these tough on crime politics have been present throughout much of America's history. Visit whatthefmagazine.wixsite.com/umich/podcast to check out any of the documents we referenced in this episode.

S.T.R.E.S.S.(Stop The Robberies Enjoy Safe Streets)was a 1971 police task force created in Detroit to decrease crime rates following the riots. The task force was responsible for the killing of 24 men in two years. Though this is the highest number of killings by any police task force per capita, most Americans have never heard of the program. In this important, yet tragic episode, we discuss the way in which federally funded programs advanced the criminalization of black men in urban cities. Visit whatthefmagazine.wixsite.com/umich/podcast to check out any of the documents we referenced in this episode.

On this extended episode of Blunt History we sit down with University of Michigan Professor Matthew Lassiter. Lassiter is a distinguished scholar on Detroit's infamous summer of 67 unrest. Here, we question the term "riots" and the unjust way rights are suspended in the name of restoring law and order.

In episode 4, we examine two competing narratives in the war on crime and drugs during the 1950s. As suburbia sees an alleged increase in drug use and rebellion, the administration calls for rehabilitative programs. As the same time, we see punitive efforts put in place to target drug sellers. This episode attempts to analyze the racially coded discrepancies between these different punitive models. Visit http://whatthefmagazine.wixsite.com/umich/podcast to check out any of the documents we referenced in this episode.

In episode 3, we look at the expansion of the FBI under FDR's New Deal politics. We examine the killing of the next Public Enemy Number 1 and the beginnings of a federal crackdown on marijuana. More closely, we analyze the alleged "shoot to kill" policy of the FBI and the impact it had on policing policy today. Visit http://whatthefmagazine.wixsite.com/umich/podcast to check out any of the documents we referenced in this episode.

In episode 2, we examine prohibition: who called for it, why it was implemented, and who it targeted. Prohibition outlawed the sale and consumption of alcohol, but what else did this period of American politics aim to criminalize? Visit http://whatthefmagazine.wixsite.com/umich/podcast to check out any of the documents we referenced in this episode.

In our first episode, What the F Editor in Chief Natalie Brennan and Assistant Editor Stina Perkins examine the current state of mass incarceration in America. In order to make more sense of these statistics, we look back to one of the first drug laws in the United States: the San Francisco Opium Den Ordinance. As always, we tell this history, well, bluntly! We hope it will have you saying, What the F? Visit http://whatthefmagazine.wixsite.com/umich/podcast to check out any of the documents we referenced in this episode.