1980

The total U.S. prison population rises from 329,000 in 1980 to 740,000 in 1989, with Black men comprising nearly 47% of inmates by decade's end despite being 6% of the population. Drug war mandatory minimums, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and intensified policing of Black neighborhoods drive the surge. Sociologists begin using the term mass incarceration to describe the phenomenon.

Ronald Reagan campaigns on the figure of the welfare queen, a racialized caricature he had used since the 1970s referencing a Chicago woman who allegedly collected multiple welfare checks. Though never explicitly racial, the trope activates stereotypes of Black women as fraudulent dependents. Scholars document the rhetoric's role in building political support for cutting programs that disproportionately serve Black families.