“Nothing has devastated our children more than being raised in a drug-addicted household in which they fail to receive the basic benefits of love…Drugs totally sever the parents’ ability to nurture. A child who is not nurtured does not develop basic social skills. It’s almost like we’re raising feral children.”
-Julia Danzy, Director of Philadelphia’s Department of Social Services

Philadelphia Social Services Director Julia Danzy’s use of the term “feral” to describe children born to drug addiction speaks volumes about where we are in our collective interpretation of how to deal with the failed War on Drugs. In this case, her language not only paints a picture of a crisis. It also reveals a frustration with the magnitude of America’s preoccupation with drugs—both legal and illegal—and the lack of appropriate rehabilitative services to deal with the addiction that encapsulates all too many. Still, this opportunity for a clear discussion about how to heal our communities was botched by a comment that, for me, is inexcusable. For centuries, children served by social services—who are disproportionately African American and Latino—have been labeled as “super-predators,” “animals,” and other dehumanizing descriptors. “Feral” falls in line with the others as an offensive and inappropriate term to describe drug addicted, abused, and neglected children.

“Feral children” are those which have been raised by animals. They are completely devoid of human contact and nurturing. Children born into drug addiction are not monsters and animals, nor were they raised by monsters or animals. Drug addiction definitely impairs an adult’s ability to parent, but it does not mean that they are beyond rehabilitation and healing. They are human beings who need mental and physical health care, education, housing, and love just like everyone else. Undoubtedly, there are severe behavioral, psychological, and emotional consequences to drug addiction; and fixing those problems should be our focus—not labeling children to make them appear more vicious and incapable of rehabilitation than the generations before them.

Social science research has confirmed that aggression and violent behavior can be consequences of certain drug addictions including, but not limited to, crack cocaine. But the research has also identified a number of underlying factors that play a larger role in generating crime and violence, including poverty, unemployment, inadequate mental and physical health care, impaired housing, poor education, and limited parental supervision. While it is important to focus on the impact of drugs on our communities and children, it is even more important to approach this issue through an appropriate framework. Labeling children as “feral” creates a culture that doubts the possibility that they can be rehabilitated. In doing so, it also absolves the Department of Social Services, or other government agencies, from their responsibility to intervene and provide services where they are clearly needed. It allows public agencies to dismiss these children as non-responsive to treatment and ignores the true promise of children and families who are struggling to survive.

Obviously, drug addiction is complicated. So is its impact on children. Visit Youth Communications to hear from the mouths of babes who have been fighting the stereotype of the “crack baby” for more than two decades. It might be easier to just call them “feral” but the truth is that not only is that label demeaning and dehumanizing, it also a grave oversimplification of the problem.

Resources:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration- http://www.samhsa.gov

Drug Addiction Treatment- http://www.drug-addiction.com

“Addiction”, an HBO film - http://www.hbo.com/addiction

“The Damage Done: Crack Babies Talk Back.” by Mariah Blake. Columbia Journalism Review. September 1, 2004.