Kylah Newell

Dr. Craig Wynne

English 102

17 February 2017

Genre Analysis: War on Drugs

The war on drugs had a huge impact on the African-American community. The war on

drugs was a huge concern during Ronald Regan and Bill Clinton's presidency, which meant that

both presidents had to come up with policies to help overcome the concern of drugs. Once crack

cocaine entered the streets, it was known as the drug that initiated the cause for a war on drugs.

Crack cocaine served massive amounts in poor African American communities, leading the

government to believe that African Americans was the reason for the new drug academic.

African Americans were targeted in an attempt to fix the war on drugs, instead of targeting

African Americans communities was just another way to criminalize them. Criminalizing

massive groups of African Americans led to a higher arrest, which was the initiating of mass

incarceration. The documentary 13th, by Ava DuVernay, goes into depth about how drugs in the

African American community led to the criminalization of African Americans, which is also how

mass incarceration came about. Kenneth B Nunn published a journal, Race, Crime and the Pool

of Surplus Criminality: Or Why the "War On Drugs" Was a "War on Blacks". The journal

explains in depth how race played a major role in the war on drugs. Many people are unaware of

the deeper meaning behind the war on drugs, but when they become aware, many turns to

multiple genres to find answers. Genres like, journals, articles, movies, books and speeches, all

are important when one is searching for answers. The information in these genres is a major key

when one is communicating and formulating thoughts on a topic. While everyone's thoughts may
be similar or different, the structure, language, purpose, audience and delivery of a genre is how

one perceives the information. Although both authors convey similar messages, the components

of their genres differ, leaving room to analyze and prove which genre represents their purpose

more effectively.

DuVernay and Nunn both focus their genres towards the same audience and share similar

purposes. The authors realize that the connection between the war on drugs and mass

incarceration is a concern. The connection is evident because the journal starts by stating "As a

consequence of the war on drugs, large numbers of African American males have been virtually

erased from African American communities and incarcerated in prisons and jails." (Nunn 383)

and the documentary starts by providing the statistic that "The United States is home of 5 percent

of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prisoners" (DuVernay). The connection

between the war on drugs and mass incarceration is important to explain at the beginning so that

the audience will understand what the concern is. Stating that the war on drugs caused many

African Americans to lose their lives to prisons and jails is proving that both authors are using

their genres to be informative. The purpose of these two genres is to inform many African-

American in today's society that is unaware of the issue caused by the war on drugs. Due to the

fact that African Americans, mainly males, were being targeted the intended audience is African

Americans because the war on drugs affected their lives the most. The language used throughout

the documentary and the journal also helps connect the audience with the purpose. Words like

"racial oppression", "super-predator", and "mass incarceration" also help tie African Americans

to the war on drugs, because the government continuously targeted them making it harder for

them not be become a "super-predator". Knowing that the audience is African Americans, the
language is appropriate for connecting the war on drugs with mass incarceration, because the war

on drugs is a cause for mass incarceration.

In both 13th and Race, Crime and the Pool of Surplus Criminality: Or Why the "War On

Drugs" Was a "War on Blacks", rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos are used to

illustrate the impact of the war on drugs. DuVernay appeals to ethos by using evidence in 13th

that establishes credibility throughout the documentary. Using government officials like Lee

Atwater and Newt Gingrich to admit that the government directly targeted African American

communities for drugs and crimes makes a huge impact on the audience. Lee Atwater states in

the documentary "all of these things you're talking about are totally economics things and the by-

products of them are blacks get hurt worse than whites" (DuVernay). This evidence supports the

purpose of the documentary because this gives the audience reason to believe that the

information being presented to them is accurate. Hearing actual government officials admit that

African Americans were their targets, only leaves further room to believe that there really is a

connection between the war on drugs and mass incarceration. As opposed to the documentary,

the journal by Nunn does not use government officials to prove a point. DuVernay had to go

through experts to gain knowledge on the connection between the war on drugs and mass

incarceration, but Nunn did not have to do that. Nunn is actually someone who has studied

criminal law, race and the criminal process, and race relations and the law. The audience can

believe that his information is credible because he has studied this matter for many years. The

ways that both authors establish credibility differ, but they both are trying to evoke the same

emotions out of the audience: concerned and anger. "This mass incarceration of African

American males has created many endemic problems for African American communities,

including the loss of male role models and fathers for African American youths, the loss of
husbands and male companions for African American women, and the loss of earnings and

wealth for the African American community" (Nunn 383). Nunn sums up, in words, the emotion

of anger that DuVernay was trying to display through her visual. He puts empathizes on how

targeting the African American community destroyed the community in a way that the

government could never understand. Not only were the poor communities being targeted, but due

to the fact that mass amounts of African American men were being incarcerated, families and

communities were declining even more than they were before the war on drugs began. Also

because communities started declining, this caused a concern from the African American

community, because they were the main race being targeted. DuVernay uses people who have

been targeted like, Angela Davis and Pat Nulan, to give the audience a real life example of what

is happening in the black community. This supports the purpose of trying to be informative

because it is harder for an audience to believe that any information is true if they don't see any

proof to back up the author's claims. Nunn uses statistics instead of stories from people to prove

that the war on drugs leads to massive amounts of incarcerated African Americans. "This means,

on average, African American males were 7.7 times more likely to be incarcerated than white

males" (Nunn 392). This statistic specifically highlights how much more likely black males were

to be incarcerated, proving that African Americans were, in fact, a target for the war on drugs.

Nunn and DuVernay does a great job at connecting the audience to the purposes, because they

both bring out the same emotions, establish credibility and provide solid evidence that the drug

epidemic was put on African Americans.

DuVernay and Nunn both had different ways of delivering their message. The

Documentary is presented in a timeline which allows the audience to understand how the war on

drugs has connected the incarceration of African Americans. DuVernay used visuals to present
her information. The Documentary has a lot more freedom to express because it's a visual. By

adding the faces and personal stories of people who have been a part of the issue, allows the

audience to better connect. DuVernay also includes songs that are related to the time when the

war on drugs began, so this not only gives the audience a chance to see but also to listen and

form their own thoughts. The documentary leaves no space for limitations, but the journal by

Nunn does. The journal is a written piece, so the audience doesn't have the chance to visualize

what is happening. Instead, they can only read and interpret the information.

The documentary is more effective when conveying the message that the war on drugs

was the leading factor to mass incarceration of African-Americans. DeVernay allows the

audience to gain knowledge in many different ways by using a timeline from the beginning of

the war on drugs to the end. She also uses visual, government officials, and actual people who

have experienced being incarcerated for drugs and crimes. Even though Nunn uses strong

language and has studied the race relation of criminals, he doesn't create a visual for the audience

to connect emotionally to the issue. DeVernay purpose of informing the African American

community on the war on drug is effectively done in her documentary.

 Works Cited

13th Documentary. Dir. Ava DeVernay. Netflix. Reed Hastings, 2016. Web. 2017.

<https://www.netflix.com/watch/80091741?

trackId=12752289&tctx=0%2C0%2C33358a7d-ad5d-4ee3-b57d-ab6652de9efa-

93392189>.

Nunn, Kenneth B. "Race, Crime and the Pool of Surplus Criminality: Or Why the "War on

Drugs" Was a "War on Blacks"." Gender, Race, and Justice (2002): 382-445. 2002.

Web. Feb. 2017.

<http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=facultypub>.