ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter sheds light on ways for reframing the War on Drugs debate, discounting racial meanings that justify inequality, and working toward structural changes that reflect a profoundly sociological awareness of these issues. The chapter first discusses the relationship between racial ideology and racial identities that become apparent throughout this book and their implications for society and social change efforts. It then engages in a crucial and remaining question: How can we engage with and transform the reality that systems of racial oppression, which manifest in policies and practices like the War on Drugs, create arbitrary suffering and unjust bondage and limit people’s freedom, opportunities, and life chances? To answer, I reveal three methods of change. First, I discuss the importance of challenging commonsense myths about racial oppression. Second, I offer insights for rethinking issues of morality and identity to close the racial empathy gap and provide new opportunities for identity construction grounded in racial justice. Finally, the chapter concludes by sharing organizations and resources to empower readers to work for necessary structural changes such as decarceration and increasing digital racial literacy.
