Identify Two Main Social Concerns of the 1980s and Explain Why Americans Focused Their Attention on Each?

Question by Adrian: Identify two main social concerns of the 1980s and explain why Americans focused their attention on each?
Think about: health issues, education, and equality for minorities.

Best answer:

Answer by Jody
AIDS – entered the public awareness early in the decade and became a national issue with the death of actor Rock Hudson in 1985, it came close to creating mass hysteria with the rapid, seemingly relentless spread by the late 1980s. For years, no one knew what caused it or where it came from.

Cocaine – was expensive and abused mainly by upper-income people, frequently celebrities and yuppies (young, urban professionals). Robin Williams once said Cocain was “God’s way of showing you were making too much money.” When the price dropped and “crack” became widely available it became a scourge on inner cities, where abuse was rampant and drug-related homicide soared.

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