Marijuana, sex, and racialized state domination

Alondo C Campbell, Purdue University

Abstract

The understanding of African American families is limited, mostly because within-group differences are often misunderstood by the dominant worldview. The typical tendency is to view African Americans in general and African American families in particular with stereotypical inaccuracies. How do norms and values emerge to help construct family formations? Marginalized groups face an organization of oppression from the dominant culture thus they develop sub-cultural norms in response to their marginalization. Blacks are marginalized and their historical experience in America has help the development of particular coping strategies. One such coping strategy includes self-medication in response to limited or no access to mainstream health-care. It is likely the experience marginalization and marijuana use effect the family formation. Marijuana is part of an oppositional culture that is found among resistance. How does oppositional culture affect family formations? The war on drugs and particularly marijuana has a disproportionate negative affect on marginalized communities. African Americans are overrepresented among those who are imprisoned for non-violent drug related offenses. Black youth are jailed; the community loses political power, sons, brothers, and fathers thus disrupting the development of intimate relationships that are essential for family formation. The response to oppression is resistance and marijuana is part of an oppositional culture that the dominant world view often misinterprets. State power use illicit drugs and sexual behavior as demonizing and justifying proxies to wage war on inner-city communities of color. Data taken from the NLSY79 are used in a series of hierarchal regression models to analyze respondents marijuana use, egalitarian values, sexual attitudes and sexual behavior from 1979 to 1998. The problem is the response to the organization of oppression seen as pathology. Therefore the use of theoretical approaches that view resistance to the organization of oppression as legitimate response found in the behavior of Black youth. Results suggest that marijuana use is related to sexual behavior and attitudes and this affects family formation process directly and indirectly. Directly marijuana users were found to have more egalitarian values towards attitudes about the role of women. People who have sex at a young age are more likely to use marijuana. Marijuana is a popular among youth and sub-cultures and is measured as a form of resistance to the status quo and it may be an essential part of some segments of the population to build family formations. Policy for drug use and enforcement should be reconsidered to best fit the needs of the community it is claims to serve.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Stahura, Purdue University.

Subject Area

African Americans|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Minority & ethnic groups|Sociology

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