Ronald Reagan was an actor-turned-politician who served as Governor of California from 1967 to 1975, during which time he desperately tried to have Angela Davis removed from her post as an assistant professor at UCLA. As president of the U.S. from 1981 to 1989, Reagan drastically cuts welfare while fueling racist stereotypes about Black “welfare mothers” who drain the state of resources. He also introduces the War on Drugs, ramping up mass incarceration and devastating Black communities. In doing so, he embodies the racist retaliation to the radical social movements of the 1960s (especially Black Power). Reagan’s economic and social policies are continued in some form by every president who follows him in office.
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Ronald Reagan Character Timeline in Stamped from the Beginning
The timeline below shows where the character Ronald Reagan appears in Stamped from the Beginning. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 32: Law and Order
...the FBI learns that she is a member of the Communist Party, California Governor Ronald Reagan orders her to be fired from her post. Fighting this move, Davis manages to be...
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Chapter 33: Reagan’s Drugs
The racist retaliation against Black Power materializes in the form of Ronald Reagan, the “law and order” governor of California. While campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, Reagan...
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...the Klan and other white supremacist terror groups, and the escalating issue of police brutality. Reagan, meanwhile, successfully manages to win the election by appealing to racist desires without ever mentioning...
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As soon as he’s in office, Reagan begins decimating the economic stability of low- and middle-income Americans. As Black communities become poorer...
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In 1982, Reagan announces “one of the most devastating executive orders of the twentieth century”: the inauguration of...
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In 1986, Reagan passes “the most racist bill of the decade,” the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. Under this legislation,...
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...actually correspond to reality. They are in fact little more than propaganda used to support Reagan’s racist policies. Nonetheless, even some Black leaders fall for the illusion that there is “something...
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Chapter 34: New Democrats
...are exceptional for being distinct from the racist image of the Black community generated by Reagan’s War on Drugs. Indeed, media propaganda continues to rage with the invention of the “crack...
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...who cling to a belief in racial progress. In 1991, the Cold War officially ends; Reagan laments that the West has now lost its “common, uplifting purpose” (of opposing communism). At...
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Chapter 35: New Republicans
...same tactic they’ve used forever: attempting to persuade others that racism does not exist. Former Reagan aide Dinesh D’Souza defends the idea that Black people as a group could be less...
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