Domestic Issues In The 1970s

The 1970s served as time of mass hysteria surrounding different national issues. The stereotypical American, white and middle-class, worried about issues that began in the 1960s and continued into the 1970s. The media depicted and often over-dramatized concerns over heroin use segwaying into the suburbs after tearing apart nation 's great cities. American’s had an immense concern over the new way sexuality was being portrayed in media such as pornography. Discussions soon emerged on childhood sexual abuse and families began to be frantic over the fear of homosexuality, cults, and sex rings. The Kerner Commision deliberated on the causes of the riots and tried to create a plan to better deal with the violence. The panic over these issues all …show more content…
First, racist policies such as redlining made it easy for white, middle to upper class families to move to the suburbs and separate from African American and Latino populations. According to the article “How Redlining Led to Rioting”, “white society” is the idea that the government makes racist laws that ensures African Americans and white Americans would have separate communities and spheres of life. Redlining is the process of denying services to a specific demographic either directly or indirectly. In this case, redlining consisted of denying bank loans to African Americans making it impossible for them to purchase homes in the suburbs. Originally, policies such as redlining seemed to be the answer to the epidemic from the point of view of the white Americans because it allowed families to settle into neighborhoods that did not have the stereotypical heroin users. This philosophy followed that children wouldn’t be tempted or wouldn’t ever even learn about harmful drugs such as heroin because they wouldn’t be surrounded by negative influences. Realistically, the “junkie” would have never been able to afford a home in the white, middle-class areas and the practice of redlining directly made it impossible for middle-class African American families to move into the suburbs. Ultimately, redlining as a policy to prevent heroin …show more content…
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act emerged in 1974 and required reporting and investigation of all abuse allegations and started a federal agency called the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Large numbers of abuse allegations quickly got reported to these local and state organizations and surprisingly many allegations of abuse involved middle-class households. New ideas circulated that child sexual abuse can occur in normal, middle-class families. In 1977, Ms. Magazine reported an alarming statistic that “one girl out of every four in the United States will be sexually abused in some way before she reaches the age of eighteen”. These intergovernmental organizations allowed the nation to take a more accurate approach to dealing with sexual abuse. Small steps to figure out how to deal with these crimes initiated by starting both conversations on sexual abuse and national campaigns against sexual