Saturday, January 10, 2009
White kids and coke
There is an interesting op-ed in today's Aged Lady about the growing useage of cocaine among white teenagers. It is substantively interesting, and so is its author. First, his name -- I shit you not -- is Charles M. Blow. Seriously. Next up, Professor Blanche Horse on the problem of heroin addiction!
Second, judging by his photograph (not available in the dead-tree edition) Mr. Blow is African-American. In the age of Obama, apparently, black journalists furrow their brow and write soberly, seriously, and without too much condescension about the social problems of white teenagers. Well, a certain amount of turnabout is fair play, I suppose.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Jan 10, 05:17:00 PM:
I'm guessing that the point is that the white kids (rich snots) have the money to buy coke. I don't know.
Back in the stone ages when I was a teenager, my "drug" of choice was Gallo Tawny Port or "T-Bird." I'm not sure if we even knew what coke was, other than a beverage that came in a bottle that fit nicely in your hand.
By 
mdgiles, at
Sat Jan 10, 06:32:00 PM:
Uh, all I gleaned from the article was that the report, that was mentioned, ignored the steady, and in some cases increased use of various forms of Cocaine. This while attention was focused on abuse of prescription medicines.
By Mike Beversluis, at
Sat Jan 10, 06:59:00 PM:
Who do these kids think they are? Rich white kids are supposed to abuse prescription drugs they steal from their grandparents! Hell in a hand basket.
By , at
Sun Jan 11, 09:06:00 PM:
Obviously the point is not a racial one -- it is a statistical one. A 76% increase in treatment admissions from 2001 - 06 for any category (in this case, white teens) is significant. And it is not getting policy attention.
The point of the article is the policy makers' analysis of/response to the data, which sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland.
It's incredibly discouraging that we're not even to Obama's inauguration and already we're applying the race lens to completely irrelevant topics. Progress involves viewing us all as people first and foremost -- focusing on our gifts and not our incidental traits.
