CRACKS in the HOUSE: How a Drug Galvanized Social Change in America

America's urban centers have over the last 3 decades experienced an astronomical increase in its family infrastructure; the "extended family" enjoys far more social tolerance than other nontraditional families such as the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender (GLBT) units boasting 2 mommies or 2 daddies. Perhaps the acceptance of this avant-garde cultural norm can be attributed to the fact that, in American cities most of these (formerly unconventional) unions developed out of basic survival. The Crack epidemic crept onto the street scenes of cities like Chicago, Washington and New York almost simultaneously. Veteran drug addicts were well aware of the less popular freebase method of smoking purified forms of cocaine used during the late 1970s expanding in popularity just in time for the 1980s' disco era when it became wildly popular. However, the vets were ignorant to the extremely addictive and powerful pull of crack cocaine! At its inception the 1980s experienced a rash of crack-related crimes which spread throughout the nations' cities: both low-class street walkers and high-priced prostitutes transformed, into what is now referred to as,

"crack whores," while women normally opposed to and even disgusted by the sex industry began trying their luck by either exchanging sex for money and/or drugs or, setting Johns up to be robbed by male buddies or pimps. The former lucrative occupation of "Pimping" became almost obsolete as crack lowered the inhibitions, virtues, standards and self-esteems of its worshipers; pimps found that they themselves had become whores, exploiting and demeaning not only women, but even themselves for crack. Crack-related opportunistic plagues of deviance developed and expanded throughout urban ghettos: Long term residents simply walked away from fully furnished apartments or homes for handfuls of the powder-filled vials that, when induced, created within the user, a sense of detached depersonalization, a numbness effective enough for Bronx resident Tracy Bower to spend 3-4 days smoking crack in her grandmother's House as the old woman lye dead--murdered by Tracy and her boyfriend. The motive? The grandmother's social security check momentarily satiated their crack jones. When the smoke cleared, Tracy's extended family had been destroyed leaving her with a fifteen-year prison sentence in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women to elucidate the psychological ramifications of crack addiction. More prosperous and, if possible, more shocking was the melioration of an already fruitful black-market hustle: the underground "baby-racket." Children were being sold for crack or money to buy it. The flamboyant yet, savvy Lois Sums was always paid homage by New York's ghetto elite. A top-notch jostler (pick pocket), Sums was able to furnish her swank midtown condominium keeping her much younger wife, Yoko in furs, ostentatious baubles and automobiles. Undaunted by their obvious inability to procreate, Lois purchased a crack-addicted baby that had been allowed to leave the hospital with its mother through a popular Russian agent based in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Overwhelmed by her current circumstances and bewildered at the thought of motherhood, the child's mother viewed her five hundred dollar cut of the twenty-five hundred dollar deal with the Russian as a windfall. Upon receipt of the cash she quickly produced the child at an agreed upon site and went off to medicate any feelings of doubt, guilt or shame with the crack she had purchased shrewdly from the very dealer she'd just sold her only son to. By the time the child was delivered to Lois and Yoko's apartment, a spacious and sunny nursery freshly decorated and accessorized with all the latest furnishings and safety gadgets had been prepared for their new son, “Miracle Sums.” Full aware of the child's addiction, Lois and Yoko hired the appropriate health care providers to assess cognitive development and any other issues that may arise as a result of the child's circumstances. The extended family has, often, fostered safe environments for cracks' casualty children. The epidemic created parallel sociodomestic norms within so many households which ultimately encouraged the current social tolerance the group enjoys today. Children like Soldier, a Brooklyn born eleven-year old often refrain from judging classmates who live with grandparents, older siblings or Godparents. Jenifer, who sits beside Soldier in seventh-period Math, views her living situation as normal simply because within her community, Jen's Aunt raising her is just as normal as Soldier's sister raising him is. The absence of a mother or father isn't ignored but rather, accepted. Hector Ramirez, both Soldier and Jenifer's seventh-period Math Teacher minds his own business, respecting even those unorthodox family structures that he wonders about secretly. "Perhaps," Hector ponders," it is my identification with these children that prevents me from judging them too harshly!" But it is the ease in which this "new-age" acceptance of roles within extended families and the institution of the extended family itself that Hector envies. Reluctantly adding another child to the seven she'd been struggling with for years Magdalena Ramirez took in her emotionally tortured nephew, Hector. What else could she do with her sister, Consuelo incarcerated for criminal possession of a control substance? "Dolly" was forced to care for Hector who was teased relentlessly by cousins and classmates: "Hector don got no mutha! Hector don got no mutha," they sang: “No Madre, No Madre----You Madre a Puta, Hectaaaa?" The words haunted him even today. Yes, fear and shame and identification with circumstances so similar to his own, Hector exercises tolerance and acceptance marveling at the wonders of social change and the human ability to adapt physically, mentally and emotionally throughout evolution. Hector might do well to view himself as an activist that, having endured hardships as a result of personal struggle, the presence of his family helped to assuage fears and thus, create social acceptance. The suffrage movement he struggled through as an "other" generated fear because he belonged to a group that was different, unorthodox, and nontraditional. These groups however, came to create a required place within society for the nouveau family (the extended family) and they are here to stay!