The War on Drugs Has its Roots in White Christian Nationalism

September 10, 2023 2:35 PM

Millions of American schoolchildren grew up in the 1920s and 1930s with “Narcotic Education Week,” using textbooks that emphasized how bad drugs could be for destroying morals, health, and respectability... Although it’s been forgotten about today, Narcotic Education Week was wildly successful by the early 1930s, earning praise from sources as diverse as Franklin Roosevelt, Benito Mussolini, the Vatican, and literary icon Rabindranath Tagore.

Excerpt from the recently published book Christian Nationalism and the Birth of the War on Drugs . Via Slacktivist post on Myrtle Cook, alcohol prohibition advocate and head of the Benton County women’s organization of the Ku Klux Klan.

posted by spamandkimchi (8 comments total)

One paragraph from the excerpt that had me goggling:

While degeneracy theory was considered valid science in the early twentieth century, Hobson’s narration of this was often sensational. For instance, during the 1912 “Men and Religion Forward” movement—a national revival aimed at promoting the kingdom—Hobson shared the stage of the Brooklyn Tabernacle with Booker T. Washington and claimed that African Americans would degenerate into cannibals if they were permitted to drink alcohol. Christians, he felt, needed to lead the world toward sobriety through law, through example, and through education. 

posted by spamandkimchi at 2:37 PM on September 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

Black temperance movement from Politico.
“… nearly every major Black abolitionist and civil rights leader before World War I—from Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany and Sojourner Truth to F.E.W. Harper, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington—endorsed temperance and prohibition.”
posted by Ideefixe at 4:15 PM on September 10, 2023 [9 favorites]

I'm shocked
posted by kensington314 at 4:44 PM on September 10, 2023

"Cocaine Monster Throws His Tentacles Around the Nation," reports the Los Angeles Herald of December 11, 1898. Found in common medicines and popular soft drinks, cocaine addiction sweeps across the country during the early 1900s creating a nation of “drug fiends,” and prompting government legislation. Read more about it!"

reminiscent of the anti-chinese laws in California, "American drug fiends out number Chinese"
posted by clavdivs at 4:55 PM on September 10, 2023 [7 favorites]

The origins of the Christian Identity movrment in British Millennial mythology.
Looking Inside Barkhams book index.
posted by hortense at 7:49 PM on September 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

"Cocaine Monster Throws His Tentacles Around the Nation," reports the Los Angeles Herald

Cokie Monster!
om nom nom nom
posted by saturday_morning at 5:33 AM on September 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

sometimes taking shots at caffeine and spices too.. [Emphasis added]

There are many non-white comedians from Commonwealth countries around the world who have commented on this more adroitly than any of the snarky comments that are coming to mind for me, so I’ll just leave this without further comment.
posted by eviemath at 5:37 AM on September 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Cokie monster would make gigantic "Snork" noises.
posted by jonnay at 6:44 AM on September 11, 2023