During President Ronald Reagan's "war on drugs" back in the '80s, his wife, Nancy Reagan, branded herself the queen of the brigade with her "Just Say No" campaign.
Both initiatives criminalized a jobs and addiction crisis and put hundreds of thousands of black Americans behind bars. But the hypocrisy of the initiative became clear when the CIA confirmed that it was involved with drug-cartel rings here in the U.S. that funded pro-U.S. rebels in Latin America, PIX 11 points out.
Essentially, U.S. officials—led by President Reagan—got their hands dirty with the folks funneling drugs into the country. But they put the users of those substances behind bars and tore up many black families in the process.
A petition on Change.org has labeled Nancy Reagan the biggest trap queen as a result and is calling for rapper Fetty Wap to perform his hit song "Trap Queen" at her funeral Friday. A trap queen is a woman who manages and runs her boyfriend's dope operations. People signing the petition think that Nancy Reagan fits the bill.
"While her husband, Ronald Reagan, was linking up with Papi to flood the streets with narcotics, Nancy was on TV telling kids to 'Say No To Drugs,' " a passage from the petition's description reads.
"Her infamous 'anti-drug' phrase encouraged strict laws on drug possession that led to a school-to-prison pipeline we're still dealing with now. Blacks and Latinos went to jail in droves for possessing drugs her husband gave them," the passage continues.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition has more than 6,800 signatures.
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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