Journalist Donovan X. Ramsey joins us to talk about his illuminating narrative nonfiction book When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era. Donovan explains exactly what crack is, talks about the disparities in crack sentencing, and the ways the media and rap music influenced the era.
The Stacks Book Club selection for July is Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.We will discuss the book on July 26th with Joel Christian Gill.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.
- When Crack Was King by Donovan X. Ramsey
- The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
- Kurt Schmoke
- The Pleasures of Cocaine by Adam Gottlieb
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- Len Bias
- The University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
- Boston Celtics
- Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA)
- Baltimore City College (Baltimore, MD)
- Yale University (New Haven, CT)
- Rhodes Scholarship
- University of Oxford (Oxford, England)
- Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
- Marion Berry
- “How ‘I’m So Excited’ Became the Most Ridiculous—and Iconic—‘Saved by the Bell’ Moment” (Mara Reinstein, The Ringer)
- “Nancy Reagan’s cameo on ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ for her ‘Just Say No’ movement” (Tre’vell Anderson, LA Times)
- Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: “Just Say Yo”
- Partnership to End Addiction (FKA Partnership for a Drug-Free America)
- “This is your brain on drugs” commercial
- “Jimmy’s World” (Janet Cooke, Washington Post)
- Janet Cooke
- The Washington Post
- The Pulitzer Prize
- Toledo, Ohio
- Bob Woodward
- Watergate scandal
- Vassar College
- 48 Hours (CBS)
- “48 Hours on Crack Street” (48 Hours)
- “Return to Crack Street” (48 Hours)
- Crack House (Michael Fischa, 1989)
- Jim Brown
- Jay-Z
- “Dope Man” (NWA, 1988)
- “Jane, Stop This Crazy Thing” (Down by Law, 1987)
- “Night of the Living Baseheads” (Public Enemy, 1988)
- Jungle Fever (Spike Lee, 1991)
- Menace II Society (Allen and Albert Hughes, 1993)
- The Chronic by Dr. Dre
- “Ep. 193 Betting on the Kids with Angelina Jolie and Tokata Iron Eyes” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. 172 The Art vs. The Artist with Quentin Tarantino” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. 89 Staying True to Yourself with Jason Reynolds” (The Stacks)
- Diet Coke
- “Ep. 106 Samantha Irby//Wow, No Thank You” (The Stacks)
- 7-Eleven
- The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
- S Street Rising by Ruben Castaneda
- Alta Adams (Los Angeles, CA)
- Grape Street Watts Crips
- California Soul by Kevin Alexander and Keith Corbin
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