Policy severity tracked racial targets, not actual harm

Evidence

Since Reagan never ordered a War on Drunk Driving, it took a long and determined grassroots movement in the 1980s, forged by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and countless horrible incidents—such as the drunk driver who killed twenty-seven schoolbus passengers in 1988—to force reluctant politicians to institute stronger penalties. But these new penalties for DUIs and DWIs still paled in comparison with the automatic five-year felony prison sentence for being caught for the first time with five grams of crack. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1095

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader interest in drug-war racism; a direct factual illustration that penalty design followed racial anxiety rather than measured danger.