Analysis Of The Cook Up, A Crack Memoir By Dee Watkins

Decent Essays
As an international college student who grew up in a society where cocaine, crack, and other similar drug are almost unattainable, I was impressed by Dee Watkins’ book, The Cook Up, A Crack Memoir, and had a glimpse of how underrepresented people lived in drug society. The society that I lived in give me a safe and non-violent environment that is so much different from Watkins’. Watkins was born in an society where drugs abuses, people dying on street were fairly common. In his memoir, he majorly narrated his life at the age around 20, and how he stepped into the illegal drug business, and then how he pulled himself out of the business. He cooked crack and sold them to his neighbor, and hired crews for selling the drug for him as well. The

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Katharine Q. Seelye takes on the Heroin crisis in America head on in her New York Times article “In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs”. She starts the article off by discussing how heroin use among white individuals is a growing issue. She then proceeds to share the stories of families directly affected by heroin use. The article comes to a close by providing how drug addiction should be treated as a disease and not a crime. The author use of narration of events and illustration and example to educate people and persuade them to think differently on the heroin crisis makes the purpose of this article both referential and persuasive.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dorm Room Dealing Summary

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The book challenges the dominant narrative that drug trafficking is conducted within only lower income neighborhoods. Rather, the book reveals that these dealings are conducted by predominantly white, wealthy college students who face minimal consequences in their criminal acts. Dorm dealers do not face the same severity of punishment their streets counterparts experience. The book flies in the face of conventional beliefs of how criminals are perceived.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary Of Drug Crazy

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The very mention of drugs summons demonic images: needles, babies addicted at birth, violence. No issue generates such a visceral reaction in people like the topic of drugs. In Mike Gray’s book “Drug Crazy: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out,” his analysis of the drug war in America explores the mass hysteria surrounding addiction that was nourished with misinformation. Based on the history Gray has compiled, coupled with modern studies, the drug war appears to be a lost cause, now and into the foreseeable future. In 1909, Dr. Hamilton Wright was appointed as the third U.S delegate to the International Opium Commission at Shanghai and became “personally responsible for shaping the international narcotics laws as we know them today.”…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cultural Deviance Theory

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages

    David Kennedy, professor in the anthropology department of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City, is the author of the book, Don’t Shoot, One Man, A Street Fellowship, and The End of Violence in Inner-City America. In his lecture to students at Millersville University Kennedy explains how he found what he saw on the streets of America to be “unconscionable” or very wrong. Over the course of many years, he observed the behavior of drug addicts and street gang members in Los Angeles, New York City, Rochester, Washington D.C. and other large cities around the country within the most dangerous neighborhoods. Kennedy has devoted his career to reducing gang violence and drug-related violence through his simple message of “this is wrong, this has to stop, and put your guns down.” He claims that his successful programs have resulted in greater than a 35 percent positive outcome of reduced crime rates.…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Righteous Dopefiend addresses the issue of homelessness among the community of drug addicts in San Francisco, California. Being homeless is one of the many issues that encompass the reality of these dopefiend’s daily lives. Anthropologists Bourgois and Schonberg articulate a better understanding for the readers to observe the lives of those who live on the streets and have an uncontrollable drug addiction. “Moral economy” as described in this book is a means of everyday survival—this gift exchange culture is central to the lives of these addicts. They share drugs with one another with the expectation that they will receive the same aid in the future.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the hottest topics that has been widely discussed lately is the “drug war”. A regular columnist and professor of economics at Samford University, Art Carden argues in his article Forbes, “Let’s Be Blunt: It’s Time to End the Drug War” for the end of the drug prohibition. The purpose of the article is to persuade the readers that the war on drugs has been a costly failure, causing unintended negative economic consequences. Overall, Carden’s argument is convincing because he offers a strong, clear thesis with persuasive logical evidences as supports.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Only 5000 people died in 1980 from drugs while at least 10,000 americans died from drug related violence(Schaller 1).Not only were there more people being prosecuted, the stress from all of the arrests caused drug related…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Cocaine Kids Analysis

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Cocaine Kids is the story of eight kids and their roles in the fast lane of the underground illegal drug ring. William states, “My intention is to throw light on a major and complex social problem, but without blaming the victims and without placing teenagers in stereotypical roles.” Williams argues the poverty and drug ring leads to a social problem for the young dealers, “grow to adulthood with little time to be young” For four years, Williams spent time with the “Kids”, earned their trust, and observed their weekly routines, some more in depth than others. Williams’ observations were recorded from 1982 to 1986 in Washington Heights (Spanish Harlem), in New York City, during the Reagan era. Williams, a well- known sociologist, with…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although Richard Nixon 's “war on drugs” legislation was destructive, Ronald Reagan use of executive power intensified the “war on drugs”. In Reagan’s second term as president, the media publicized the use of crack as a drug that promotes violence and “ the most addictive drug known to man.” (Newsweek.1986). As the public concern of the drug grew bigger, Reagan called for a “war on drugs” like Nixon did. This lead to the creation of the “ 1968 Drug Abuse Act”, which was harsh on African Americans.…

    • 1659 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The American Public Health Association(APHA) is responsible for the health and wellbeing of our country. As a prime source for “[protecting]...the health of people and communities where they live, learn work, and play” (APHA), we must trust them with the matter of the illegal drug abuse. The APHA promotes “healthy decisions” and should be able to aid victims, whom are unable to exist or grow for themselves. While each drug result in different side effects and hazards, how would we know or measure the knowledge of our justice system of illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin, or/and methamphetamine. Therefore, personal growth, autonomy, healthy relationships, and physical health are initial for the wellbeing of our communities and our citizens.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the declaration of the war on drugs in America during the 1970s, incredible growth has been seen in prison population, as stated above with 700 percent increase in prisoners in our country. Even during 1982 when President Reagan officially called for a war on drugs, drug crime was on the decline. Many people think that the decision was based upon the introduction of crack cocaine and its extensive popularity in inner cities, although in reality the crack epidemic came after Reagans announcement of the “war.” Early on in the ordeal, there was a minimum sentencing placed on people who possessed drugs, punishing not a crime but a disease: addiction. Even after the initial hysteria caused by the war on drugs, some cases can result in a drug sentence longer than that of murderers and rapists.…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dark Ghettos Essay

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages

    3. In Tommie Shelby’s book, “Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform,” he argues that residents of dark ghettos do not have the same civic obligation as citizens who reside outside of these ghettos do because civic obligations are rooted in reciprocity and the residents of dark ghettos are disenfranchised and discriminated against to the point that they are not receiving the benefits and protections that they should from society. I completely agree with Shelby’s position, I don’t think that those who are severely oppressed have to comply with civic duties because these duties often times are used to perpetuate their oppression and because by disregarding societal norms and laws the oppressed can force the society to change for the better and become more egalitarian.…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Stickup Kids Analysis

    • 1567 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In Randol Contreras’ book, “The Stickup Kids” he does an ethnographic study of what is known as the Crack Era in the South Bronx. Contreras studies how society shaped people growing up in the South Bronx that led them into the world of drugs and crime in order to fulfill the American Dream. He does so by providing detailed field notes, creating a sociological framework of how components such as culture, deviance, socialization, crime and race contribute to the society as a whole. In this book, Contreras specifically studies a small community of friends in his neighborhood and how their life changes along with the loss of jobs and deindustrialization of the economy. Contreras starts off by describing how his friends started to become “stickup”…

    • 1567 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Wilson believes that if the government had “yielded” in 1972 there would be several million heroin addicts. (Social Ethics)His first reason for having drugs staying illegal is that women “are much more likely to use crack than heroin and if they are pregnant the effects on their babies would be tragic. ”(Social Ethics) He testfies to the fact that anecdotal evidence suggests that crack mothers are most likely to abuse their infants than mothers that do not take drugs. The notion that cocaine is a victimless crime to Wilson is absurd.…

    • 1546 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cocaine as with many of illicit drugs, can be backed a theory regarding why users experiment leading to use, abuse, and may become addicted. My theory behind drug usage, in this case, cocaine, is backed behind the classical theory biological instinct – that being a psychological theory of reinforcement. It is important to understand what is meant by reinforcement theory – which can be split into two categories. The first, being positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement “occurs when the individual receives a pleasurable sensation and, because of this, is motivated to repeat what caused it” (147, Theories of Drug use).…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays