Richardson Crack Babies Research
- https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/17/us/crack-s-toll-among-babies-a-joyless-view-even-of-toys.html?pagewanted=all
- limit of scientific evidence available during this time period
- children’s “emotional poverty”
- continues the misconception that babies born addicted to crack would “present an overwhelming challenge to schools, future employers and society.”
- https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/25/us/children-crack-are-schools-ready-special-report-crack-babies-turn-5-schools.html?pagewanted=all
- predicts a future where up to 4 million crack babies whose “neurological, emotional and learning problems” will cause problems for teachers and schools
- Springer → The Race and Class Privilege of Motherhood: The New York Times Presentations of Pregnant Drug-Using Women
- Strong evidence to support her thesis that newspaper presentations of pregnant drug-using women served to perpetuate the idea that poor and minority women are unfit mothers
- Reporting on the crack epidemic focused less about the public-health issue at hand but worried more about what the future criminality crack babies would bring
- Blame put on crack babies mothers led to politics and policies that incarcerated not only the mothers but their young children, who have yet to do anything wrong except be born apparently
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1989/08/06/crack-babies-the-worst-threat-is-mom-herself/d984f0b2-7598-4dc1-9846-3418df3a5895/?utm_term=.1385f8a34d9e
- “These mothers don’t care about their babies and they don’t care about themselves,”
- claims that “some young mothers do not believe that crack is bad for their babies.”
- http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19910513,00.html 1991 TIME mag. cover
- Cover declares “their mother used drugs, and now it’s the children who suffer.”
