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Crack babies?

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
Charles Krauthammer, a columnist for the The Washington Post, wrote that crack babies were doomed to "a life of certain suffering, of probable deviance, of permanent inferiority."

I'm shocked to find out that a right wing douche would be arguing for an implicit eugenics based on race...shocked I am!
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
BTW, my best friends, Amy and Mr. Amy, had their first baby, a healthy boy, last week.

This is an idiotic article. A journalism major took a few statistics about crack babies and offered a medical opinion that it ain't no thing.

Yes, not every crack baby became a drooling retard. However, there was a toll on our medical and human services when women smoked crack, just like when they drink or smoke meth.
 

ohio

The Fresno Kid
Nov 26, 2001
6,649
23
SF, CA
However, there was a toll on our medical and human services when women smoked crack, just like when they drink or smoke meth.
And the argument in the article is that there was a bigger toll from writing these kids off from Day 1 as lost causes and attaching a social stigma to them. You know why there isn't a catchy term for babies suffering from fetal alcohol syndrom? Because FAS isn't a useful political tool.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,558
24,181
media blackout
The thing about crack babies, the real ones, is that most of them don't live more than a few weeks, providing they're not stillborn. I grew up in an area where this was a prevalent problem. Same with FAS.

A friend of mine in high school worked EMT dispatch. They got a pretty good number of calls in regards to people on crack, but this one takes the cake. He got a call one day from a lady, asking where there was a head sticking out of her vagina. She was so badly addicted to crack that she had no idea she was pregnant until she started giving birth (it was stillborn, btw).
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
And the argument in the article is that there was a bigger toll from writing these kids off from Day 1 as lost causes and attaching a social stigma to them. You know why there isn't a catchy term for babies suffering from fetal alcohol syndrom? Because FAS isn't a useful political tool.
I'm sure the AMA was remiss by using the phrase crack baby. Or was it FDA that popularized the phrase.

I am somewhat closedminded about the use of crack, because where I grew up, the heart of the epidemic, the Bronx. I realized something recently when discussing crime around NYC, most New Yorkers are not from New York. They are from suburbs.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,225
20,003
Sleazattle
Calling them crack babies is just a good way of turning them mean. Not every babies is born with murderous instinct, if you want a winning fighting baby sometimes you have to turn them mean.


 

ohio

The Fresno Kid
Nov 26, 2001
6,649
23
SF, CA
I am somewhat closedminded about the use of crack, because where I grew up, the heart of the epidemic, the Bronx.
I'm not saying crack doesn't seriously **** people up. I'm sure thousands of lives were ruined (and continue to be), and in the worst cases the pregnancy stories are horrifying.

I'm saying the reason it became a nationwide scare and "crack babies" entered the vernacular in wealthy suburbs is because "think of the children" played well in the media for people who wanted to write off urban populations as drug addicts and criminals, reinforce stereotypes, and segregate classes. You think those articles led to more rehab centers and social services for these moms and kids?
 

ohio

The Fresno Kid
Nov 26, 2001
6,649
23
SF, CA
Side story is at a UCB show in NYC, a performer asked if anyone in the crowd had ever tried crack, and one guy raises his hand. Performer asks him to tell the story:

A crackhead asks him for money for crack, and the guy says "okay, but you gotta come back and smoke it with me." Lo and behold, the crackhead actually comes back, they hang out at dude's apartment and smoke. Crackhead leaves. End of story.

I'm sure all crackheads are that polite.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
I'm not saying crack doesn't seriously **** people up. I'm sure thousands of lives were ruined (and continue to be), and in the worst cases the pregnancy stories are horrifying.

I'm saying the reason it became a nationwide scare and "crack babies" entered the vernacular in wealthy suburbs is because "think of the children" played well in the media for people who wanted to write off urban populations as drug addicts and criminals, reinforce stereotypes, and segregate classes. You think those articles led to more rehab centers and social services for these moms and kids?
It is more of a personal complaint at this point.

I'm college educated, decent job, like about 80% of Stuff that White People Like.

But my experience about crack is from ground level.

I just realized the reason why I was never taken off my bicycle in the Bronx is that I rarely rode Broadway or the Grand Concourse. I usually went via Bruckner Blvd, which is all industrial and very few crackheads roaming this 50mph+ road. I was more likely to get run over by a truck than robbed.