African Americans and the Police - A Negative Relationship with Psychological Effects

This Omeka is looking to explore the relationship that exists, albeit negatively, between the African American community in the United States and the local police force. This exploration will be spanning from the war on drugs to the rise of BLM movement in 2018. The war on drugs was a campaign, led by the U.S. federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the stated aim being to reduce the illegal drug trade in the United States. However, it was used as an excuse to target and lock up racial minority groups. This is seen in the harsh sentence time for marijuana use, a drug used mostly by African Americans at the time, compared to a lesser sentence for cocaine abuse. The Black Lives Matter movement is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people. It was founded in 2013 and is a large movement in the United States.