Category: Black Lives Matter

Unveiling Resilience: Black Lives Matter Through the Lens of Black Women’s Struggles

The Stereotyping of Prominent Black Women

This can be explained by the controlling images that have been applied to women such as Michelle Obama and Maxine Waters. Former First Lady Michelle Obama is more than the wife of Barack Obama. She is a woman from the south side of Chicago who holds degrees from two prestigious schools (Princeton and Harvard), a lawyer, and a former university administrator. Even with this impressive resume’, Michelle Obama was reduced to “Barack’s baby mama” by a Fox News anchor during the campaign. This derogatory term is akin to the Jezebel and the sapphire.

The term “baby mama” describes an unwed hypersexual woman who causes drama and emasculates her child’s father. This is not the only time during the campaign that Mrs. Obama would be stereotyped. Later in the campaign, her thesis became public. In it, Mrs. Obama expressed feelings about her experience at Princeton and becoming aware of her “blackness” and feeling like an outsider. She was painted as ungrateful, and critics questioned her anger towards institutions and America. Critics would question why she was angry when she should have been appreciative of the opportunities she was given. After reducing her to the emotions of her experiences, the image of the angry black woman was used to overlook the issues that her thesis addressed.

Maxine Waters is a senior U.S. House Representative and former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. Representative Waters’ resume dates back to 1990, when she was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She also serves as the chair of the House Financial Service Committee. This has not stopped her from receiving heavy criticism from the current president, Donald Trump. Representative Waters is not one to hold her tongue when criticized. Responding to insults from Trump has given other critics the excuse to label her aggressive and angry. Even though she has the right to respond to attacks towards her, as a black woman, she cannot without consequence. All responses are subjected to stereotypes. No matter the status of the woman or how high she rises, she cannot rise above the controlling images of the group.

The Dangerous Catch-22 of Controlling Images

Black women are not required to internalize controlling images to be harmed by them or feel their consequences. By simply existing, any black woman can feel the penalties of the stereotype. When not portraying the strong black woman stereotype, the black woman can be seen as weak, undeserving, or inferior. She can also be highlighted as selfish, just for administering self-care. This paradox is a dangerous catch-22 for the black woman. On the one hand, she can do nothing and have one of the multiple controlling images applied to her, or she can choose one that is not considered shameful; however, there are consequences for that option as well. No matter how hard she works at it, the controlling images will find her.

Black women often find themselves at a crossroads. They face a double whammy. They are both women, which is inferior to men, and black, which is inferior to white. The term intersectionality was introduced by Kimberle Williams Crenshaw (1989) to address the marginalization of black women. No one universal definition of the term exists. However, Collins (2016) yields an applicable one. “Intersectionality is a way of understanding and analyzing the complexity of the world, in people, and in human experience (Collins p2).” Collins goes on to suggest that intersectionality be used as an analytic tool to “address a range of issues and social problems.” When used as a tool, intersectionality could address differences experienced by different groups of women.

Health Disparities Faced by Black Women

Early this year, The New York Times Magazine ran an article with the heartbreaking story of a black mother, Landrum, who experienced the loss of a child. After a difficult pregnancy, Landrum delivered a stillborn daughter via c-section. During this pregnancy, Landrum experienced intense headaches, back pain, and extreme fatigue. She was so sick during the pregnancy that she had to quit her job. At her doctor’s appointments, Landrum, who had two sons, expressed her concerns as she knew something was not right. Doctors ignored her concerns, even though she had high blood pressure, telling her to rest and take Tylenol.

On the day that she could no longer deny something was wrong, Landrum started bleeding before she could make it to the hospital. After being taken to the hospital, she was informed that her daughter had died inside of her. Landrum was sedated, and her baby was removed. Landrum herself had to receive half a dozen units of transfused blood and platelets. She was told that she was lucky to be alive. Landrum was a 21-year-old mother of two who worked as a waitress and was in an abusive relationship at the time. This story is unfortunately not unique and happens regardless of class.

Professional tennis player Serena Williams is arguably a living tennis legend and household name worldwide. She has been ranked number one in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association eight times and has 39 major tennis titles. In 2017 she gave birth to her first child. After her daughter’s birth, Williams experienced a pulmonary embolism. Williams, who had a history of this, sought the aid of her medical team. Her complaints fell on deaf ears. She was originally ignored. After pressing and once treated, Williams continued to experience difficulties which led to the discovery of a hematoma during emergency surgery, which led to more surgery. She, too, was fortunate to be alive.

Black women are four times more at risk of death from pregnancy complications than their white counterparts (Tucker et al., 2007). Their babies are two times more likely to die compared to white babies. Between 2006-2010, “Black women contributed to 14.6% of live births but 35.5% of pregnancy-related deaths (Creanga et al. 2015)”. This inequality is affecting all black women, not just the poor, as once believed. This myth allowed blame to be placed on the mother, citing her laziness and lack of education as the cause of her not doing what was healthy for her and her unborn child.

The cause for this disparity has been a looming question for years. A growing accepted probable cause is toxic stress. The heaviness of oppression and discrimination is causing physiological stress, and that stress is being expressed through the black woman’s health. “For most of the 15 leading causes of death including heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, liver cirrhosis, and homicide, African Americans (or blacks) have higher death rates than whites (Williams and Mohammad 2008).”

Once the illness has occurred, black women are not heard or believed by their physicians. When expressing a problem, she is more likely to be ignored. The complaints of the black woman can be dismissed by two controlling images, the angry black woman and the strong black woman. On the one hand, when expressing concerns, she can be seen as the always angry black woman who has found a new subject to complain about. On the other hand, she can be seen as a strong black woman who can handle anything thrown in her direction. Both images can result in detrimental consequences for her. These consequences know no class or age.

Challenges Faced by Young Black Girls

Black girls also face disparities in comparison to their white counterparts. In their report of overpoliced and under-protected girls, Crenshaw, Ocen, and Nanda found that black girls are often punished not only more often but more severely than white girls. This is true for all black children; however, because they are at the intersection of being black and female, the attention to this inequality is often focused on black boys. The silence surrounding the disparities of black girls speaks volumes. They are being taught to always expect the actions and views being inflicted upon them. They see at an early age that they will experience troubles, and no one will care.

In their study of youth in Boston and New York, Crenshaw et al. found that black girls were twelve times more likely than white girls to be suspended from school. In Boston, black girls represent 28% of girls enrolled in the Boston school district; however, they account for 61% of disciplined girls. In New York, black girls represent 34% of girls enrolled and 56% of girls disciplined. The rate at which black girls in the study are expelled is also alarming.

During the 2011-2012 school year, no white girls were expelled from New York City. Black girls accounted for 90% of girls that year, showing that black girls were fifty-three times more likely to be expelled than their white counterparts. In Boston during the same year, black girls accounted for sixty-three percent of girls expelled. Again, no white girls were expelled from that school district that year. It is irrational to believe that this is happening because black girls are inherently bad and deviant. These numbers suggest that black girls are problematic and beyond help while highlighting their white counterparts in a more innocent light.

Research suggests that not only are they being punished at a higher rate, but they are also being punished for lesser offenses. In their Black Girls Matter Report, Crenshaw et al. outline examples of these instances. Included is a 12-year girl who is expelled in Georgia for writing “Hi” on a locker room wall. Another example is an 8-year-old being arrested in Illinois for acting out and a 16-year-old being arrested for dropping cake on the floor and not picking it up to the school official’s liking. No matter how these situations escalate, it is important to be mindful that these are children. In focus groups, the girls in the study report feeling that the teachers don’t care about them at all. One student reported how large portions of students are kicked out of the school on a daily basis due to the “sweep-ups” done after the bell rings. At young ages, these black girls are learning that their value is low.

Black Lives Matter and the Rise of Black Girl Magic

Being a black woman means learning to navigate life and working through stereotypical images. These are images that have been placed upon her, meant to keep her at a lower status. Even when she enacts an image of strength, the consequences that will soon follow are not only inevitable but surely harm her and remind her where her place is in America. In recent years, a new social wave of pride has made its way to the black female community. This is not to say that the black woman has not always been proud of who she is.

Even when being labeled, black women know they are more than a stigma. The new term that captures their pride is “Black Girl Magic.” In the midst of the Black Lives Matter Movement, black women are more and more becoming unapologetic for who they are. More women are wearing their natural hair and being who they are comfortable being. “Black Girl Magic” encompasses who the woman really is. She is resilient and makes it through all the distractions and roadblocks and defies all obstacles put in her way.

References:

1. Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 139-167.
2. Collins, P. H. (2016). Intersectionality’s Definitional Dilemmas. Annual Review of Sociology, 41, 1-20.
3. Tucker, M. J., Berg, C. J., Callaghan, W. M., Hsia, J., & Barfield, W. D. (2007). Black-white disparities in pregnancy-related mortality in the United States. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 197(5), 409-e1.
4. Creanga, A. A., Syverson, C., Seed, K., & Callaghan, W. M. (2015). Pregnancy-related mortality in the United States, 2011–2013. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 125(1), 5-12.
5. Williams, D. R., & Mohammad, S. A. (2008). Discrimination and racial disparities in health: Evidence and needed research. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32(1), 20-47.
6. Crenshaw, K., Ocen, P., & Nanda, J. (2015). Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected. Columbia Law School, Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies.

The Evolution and Impact of the Black Lives Matter Movement

Origins of the Black Lives Matter Movement

The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013, following the loss of life of Trayvon Martin, an African-American teenager who was shot whilst walking to a family friend’s residence, and the following acquittal of George Zimmerman, the police officer who shot him. The phrase’ black lives matter’ was first used in a Facebook submission by Garza after Zimmerman was cleared of all charges against him and became the inspiration for the campaign. The movement fast collected tempo, with interest and momentum spiking on every occasion a Black person was killed as a result of an altercation with the police.

In 2014, Black Lives Matter protested against the deaths of numerous Black and African-American people. Each non-violent protest and riot were observed, much of which was completed beneath the banner and hashtag of “Black Lives Matter.” In response, co-founder PatrisseCullorsorganised the Black Life Matters Ride, which gathered a meeting of 600 people and sparked the founding of more localized Black Lives Matter groups and the promulgation of the campaign into a network.

Broadening Scope: From Police Brutality to Social Injustices

The year 2015 noticed another spate of Black people being killed by enforcement officers in the USA, including Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, and Meagan Hockaday. Black Lives Matter protested against these and many more. They also organized protests to spotlight the injustices and other problems confronted by Black women and Black LGBT communities.

Continued Activism and Expanding Influence

In 2016 Black Lived Matter organized many protests against police brutality directed towards Black people. The ones whose deaths occurred due to police actions in conjunction with Deborah Danner and Alton Sterling. In 2017, Black Lives Matter placed on their first artwork exhibition timed to coincide with Black History Month in Virginia, US. It featured the work of over 30 Black artists and creators.

Rise in Global Awareness and Solidarity

By May 1st, 2018, a study observed that the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was used nearly almost 30 million times on Twitter since the first instance in the year of 2013. In February 2019, the rapper 21 Savage was arrested and detained by the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)in the US. Cullors convened a collection of 60 high-profile stars from the music and entertainment worlds to advocate for his release. In May, a teenager, Isaiah Lewis, was shot by police and killed in Oklahoma. Days later, Black Lives Matter held a 100-sturdy rally in protest of the incident. Major protests were sparked at the end of May, followed by the loss of life of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. Black Lives Matter went on to organize protests around the world.

References:

1. “About Black Lives Matter”. Black Lives Matter. https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/
2. McKesson, D. (2016). “On the Road with the Black Lives Matter Movement”. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/de_ray_mckesson_on_the_front_lines_of_the_black_lives_matter_movement
3. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. (n.d.). “Our Herstory”. https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/
4. Burch, A. (2020). “How Black Lives Matter Went Global”. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/george-floyd-protests-global.html
5. Cullors, P. (2021). “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir”. St. Martin’s Press.

The Resounding Impact of the Black Lives Matter Movement

The Tragic Killing of George Floyd

“On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed by an Officer in the Minneapolis Police Department. The officer used his knee to pin Floyd’s neck to the ground for over eight minutes. As you read, you might think oh, another black man just killed, but no, it’s not. Over the past hundreds of years, black people have been getting killed by the very people we think are here to protect us. Between 1991 and June 2020, at least 437 innocent people died while in police custody, many from violence or neglect.

The Rise of “Black Lives Matter” Movement

It’s police officers killing us, not a gang on the street, not a robber, not a terrorist but police officers. The Police are here to serve and protect the people, but do they consider blacks or other races people? It’s like we’re animals that they’re just shooting; it even has us scared to go for a walk because the Police are giving the citizens the feeling that they can shoot people and not get charged like Travon Martin.

With all this going on, it brought light to a movement that has been taken as a lackluster movement…The Black Lives Matter. “The Black Lives Matter protests for reform in law enforcement and for greater social equality have espoused some tactics which appear to be in direct opposition to one another.” When the George Floyd killing happened, that’s when the height of Black Lives Matter went to an all-time high!!!
News of the killing sparked an immediate protest of policing behavior, with the first protest taking place in Minneapolis on the next day, May 26, 2020.1 The death of George Floyd also sparked widespread protests in large cities nationwide.

A Global Response to Racial Injustice

While many protests were peaceful, some were violent. There were large incidents of looting in cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles, as well as smaller cities. It even got to a point where police units started to use force against protesters, including pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets. But, the force came after cities put out nightly curfews. But it didn’t stop there!!!

The George Floyd killing caused outrage throughout the world!!! Brazilians filled the streets following the recent killing of a 14-year-old black teenager by Brazilian Police. Protests in London and Amsterdam even brewed out with the support of the U.S. Black Lives Matter and called attention to racism and injustice in Britain and Europe. So this shows you that racism and racial inequality are not in just one place. It is everywhere!!!

There is even racism among the same races. A Lot of black people separate themselves by the shade of their black, and Caucasian people separate themselves by social status or class. So it’s not just a one-race thing or a one-way thing. It is everything. However, blacks and
people of color are treated worse, and we’re tired!!!

George Floyd had three home-going services, and during one of the services, In his eulogy, Reverend Al Sharpton stated, ‘God took the rejected stone and made him the cornerstone of a movement that’s going to change the whole wide world.’ That is true; it took for this man’s life to be taken for the world to realize that we are wrong and it is time for a change, and this election proved that we are ready for change.
Change is what we got.

This Movement has brought America closer than ever. We were in the streets protesting even during a pandemic. People were risking their life and chances of catching a disease that could kill them. It was thousands of people out in the streets posting, but everyone had a mask on. Still, it was during a pandemic, and this showed how committed we were. It wasn’t only black people protesting, it was people of all racist backgrounds, but there still was hate.

On August 25, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse decided to go to a Kenosha city protest and shoot innocent protesters, and he was arrested and unharmed. This goes to show that even after what happened to George Floyd, it is still some injustice that is not equal; this kid shot and killed multiple people and made it out alive, but an innocent black man gets accused of having counterfeit money and gets strangled for it. It is horrific. It goes to show that America has some improvement to do.

“Based on research Acknowledging institutional racism is the first step to addressing it. Indigenous social disadvantage is associated with increased crime, compounded by aggressive and disproportionate punishment, creating a cycle of disadvantage. Closing the gap is easy to say but difficult to achieve. Doctors who can not only provide evidence-based, high-quality care at the bedside but who strive for health justice, advocate for more equitable health policies, and are willing to challenge harmful systemic issues like institutional racism”.

The Need for Reform and Education

At the end of the day, we as a whole are going to have to deal with racism and institutionalism because a lot of people still have to learn and stop being ignorant. Racism is something that ignorant people do. Officer Chauvin was ignorant when he ignored George Floyd’s plea for his life, Zimmerman was ignorant when he shot Trayvon Martin for having a bag of Skittles, Rittenhouse was ignorant for shooting innocent black protestors, and Dylann Roof was ignorant for shooting innocent black churchgoers. All of them were ignorant when they did their acts, and they had no hearts.

That’s why we as a whole should educate ourselves and generations to come about racism in America. We have to stand united and be one for us all to succeed and be prosperous. God loves us all; red, yellow, black, or white. He loves us, and those who believe in the power of God should listen to him, and his word and all come together as one and not be identified by race but as God’s children.

References:

1. “Protests and Demonstrations” – The New York Times. (2020, July 30). Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/george-floyd-protests-minneapolis-new-york-los-angeles
2. Ren, J., & Bennett, D. E. (2021). “Did Black Lives Matter? Social Media, Protests, and Demonstrations”. Social Science Quarterly, 102(2), 659-677.
3. “George Floyd’s Killing at the Hands of the Police” – Council on Foreign Relations. (2020, June 4). Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/george-floyds-killing-hands-police
4. Frankenberg, R. (1993). “White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness”. University of Minnesota Press.
5. Patel, N., & Seyed-Raeisy, I. (2021). “Reconceptualizing Racism as a Public Health Issue: A Critical Review”. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 8(4), 833-840.
6. Keet, A., & Walsh, M. (2020). “The Killing of George Floyd Sparks Global Demonstrations”. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/killing-george-floyd-sparks-global-demonstrations
7. Sofer, M. (2021). “Racial Discrimination as a Social Determinant of Health”. In Social Determinants of Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Inequality and Wellbeing (pp. 103-116). Springer.
8. Levin, B. (2006). “The violence of hate: Confronting racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of bigotry”. Algora Publishing.

Over Criminalization of Black Lives Matter: Impact of Political Policies

Black Lives Matter: The Over-Criminalization of Black Individuals

In recent years there has been a lot of scrutiny about the injustices that exist in the justice system; one of the major injustices is the over-criminalization of black men and women. Black men are six times more likely to get incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails than white men. This statistic had increased since 1960, when black men were five times as likely as whites to be incarcerated. In 1972 the United States had a prison population of 300,00. Today, we have a prison population of 2.3 million. President Barrack Obama said in one of his speeches, “So, let’s look at the statistics. The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners.” The likelihood of a black man getting locked up during his lifetime is 1 in 3. The lifetime likelihood of imprisonment for a white man is 1 in 17. Why are black men getting incarcerated at an alarmingly high rate over white men? The Nixon and Reagan era was the start of mass incarceration for poor people of color.

Nixon’s Appeal and the “War on Drugs”

“America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.” – Richard Nixon. During the presidential race, Richard Nixon used his “get tough on crime” to help persuade poor working-class whites to join the Republican party. Nixon was able to speak to the poor white working class by speaking in subtle, non-racist terms. He would use the rise in the crime rate, law and order, and other subtle racist hints to appeal to whites.

The Expansion and Implications of Nixon’s Initiatives

In June 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs. A rise in recreational drug use in the 1960s led President Nixon to focus on targeting substance abuse. President Nixon increased federal funding for drug-control agencies and proposed strict measures as part of the War on Drugs initiative. Nixon started mandatory prison sentencing for drug crimes. He also created the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP). Then in 1973, Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA is responsible for tackling drug use and smuggling into the United States. In the beginning, the DEA was given a budget of $74 million and 1,470 special agents. Now the DEA has a budget of $2.03 billion and over 5,000 special agents.

The Ehrlichman Revelation and the Impact on Incarceration Rates

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. Do you understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.” – John Ehrlichman, Nixon Advisor.

Nixon`s war on drugs did work on incarcerating blacks. During the nearly 50-year period between 1925 and the early 1970s, the male incarceration rate was remarkably stable at about 200 men per 100,000 population. By 1986 a decade after the War on Drugs started locking up drug users and dealers in cages, the male incarceration rate doubled to about 400 per 100,000 population. Then after another decade, the male incarceration rate doubled again to more than 800. It hit its peak in 2008, reaching 956 men per 100,00 population were getting locked up. The War on Drugs had a significantly much greater negative effect on blacks and Hispanics than whites. The War on Drugs had a more devastating and disproportionate adverse effect on America`s most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations.

President Nixon was the first one to start the term “A War on Drugs,” but President Ronald Reagan turned that rhetorical war into a literal one. Ronald Reagan started the modern war on drugs in 1982. The popular opinion polls of the day show that drugs were not an issue for most people in the United States at the time. President Reagan was determined to convince everyone the War on Drugs should be put on his agenda. Reagan even used his wife to help support his War on Drugs by having her start the “Just Say No” campaign. Most people supported the War on Drugs by supporting the “just say no “campaign. The “Just Say No” campaign was not about locking people up. It was about educating people and talking about prevention.

In the mid-1980s, they already started to embark on a war on drugs, then all of a sudden, a new drug came along, crack cocaine. This drug could be marketed in small doses, relatively inexpensively. Crack cocaine started taking over communities, particularly African American communities. In almost record time, Congress established a mandatory sentencing penalty for crack that was harsher than those for powder cocaine. You would get the same amount of time in prison for 100 ounces of powdered cocaine that you would get for 1 ounce of crack cocaine. Even though crack cocaine and powder cocaine are the same drug, the only difference is how you take it; the mandatory sentences are longer for crack cocaine.

And even though white people used and sold crack more than black, somehow, it was black people who went to prison. The people who were usually getting these longer sentences for possession of crack cocaine were black or Hispanic, or Latino. If you were black with crack cocaine, you were going to prison for basically the rest of your life, but if you were white, you just got a slap on the wrist. The media ignored the actual problems to this day, and crack is still talked about as a black problem. The black communities would get raided by police while the big-time bankers openly used coke with impunity.

Over the next year, the United States’ spending on drug law enforcement tripled from 1981. It looked like a tornado went through black communities cutting off men from their families as they disappeared into prisons for long periods of time. These types of disparities in the Reagan era quickly exploded into the era of mass incarceration. President Reagan ultimately took the problem of economic inequality of hyper segregation in American cities and the drug abuse problem and criminalized all of that in the form of the war on drugs. Looking back on how crack cocaine and powder cocaine were treated, most people believe that they should have treated the drugs the same. Treating crack cocaine more harshly, even though it was the same drug as powder cocaine, put an enormous burden on the black community, but it also fundamentally violated a sense of core fairness.

When crack cocaine hit in the early 1980s, there were a lot of politicians who thought this was a real threat and wanted to crack down on it. Mayor Rengel was one of the guys who were pushing for stronger sentencing. At the time, it seemed like a good effective idea, but looking back, it did not work out as effectively as they thought it would. The rhetorical war was announced as part of a political strategy by President Richard Nixon, which then turned into a literal war by President Ronald Reagan. Then it began to turn into something that began to feel like nearly genocidal in many poorer communities of color. President Nixon`s Southern strategy was implemented right after the Civil Rights Movement. In 1891 soon-to-be President Reagan`s campaign strategist, Lee Atwater, explained what the Southern Strategy was.

“You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968, you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So, you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

Nixon played on the fears of crime and law and order to win the election. President Reagan promised tax cuts to the rich and to throw all the crack cocaine users in jail for long amounts of time to keep the streets safe. Both of which devastated communities of color but were very effective in getting the southern votes. You cannot understand American political culture without race at the center of it. In many ways, the so-called “war on drugs: was a war on communities of color; black and Latino communities had devastating impacts.

We have more African Americans under criminal supervision than all the slaves back in the 1850s. The Prison industrial complex is modern-day slavery because it relies historically on the inheritances of slavery. Once you have been convicted of a crime, you basically lose all your rights as a citizen and, in essence, become a slave of the state. Since the beginning of the United States’ history, blacks have been repeatedly controlled by systems of social and racial control. Social and racial control never dies. They are reborn in a new form to the needs and constraints of the time.

Once slavery ended, a new system was born, and it was “convict leasing,” which was a new form of slavery. Once convict leasing was done, a new system was born, which was the Jim Crow system. The Jim Crow system regulated blacks to a permanent second-class status. Decades later, after the Jim Crow system collapsed again, a new system was born in America, the system of mass incarceration. Mass incarceration strips millions of poor people, most poor people of color, of the very rights they won in the civil rights movement.

There are thousands of people sitting in jail right at this very moment only because they are too poor to get out. The criminal system treats you better if you`re rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent. Most American think the criminal system is about judges and juries because of all the courtroom dramas they’ve seen when, in reality, that is not the case at all. They cannot have everyone go to trial. If they did, the whole system would shut down. What normally happens is the prosecutors pressure them into taking a deal by saying you can take this deal, and we will give you the minimum amount of time, or You can take your chance and go to court, and we will give you 30 years.

Most people from poverty do not make it to trial. 97% of the people in jail right now have taken the plea deal. Plea bargaining is one of the worst violations of human rights that can happen within the justice system. People are pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit because the mandatory minimums for the crime are so unbearable. What people do not realize is that if you exercise your right and if you are convicted, you will get punished 10x worse than if you just took the deal.

An example of a poor black man fighting back at the justice system and exercising his right to a trial is the story of Kalief Browder. Kalief Browder was accused of a petty crime that he did not even commit. He was accused of stealing a backpack. Kalief realized that if he pleaded guilty to this crime, it would completely change his life in the worst way possible. He would have a felon on his record for the rest of his life. Kalief`s older brother had a record, and he saw how he struggled to get a decent-paying job and how hard it was to restart his life. He refused to ruin his clean record for a crime he did not commit, so taking the plea deal was never in the picture. His mom was too poor to afford bail, so he sat in Rikers Island as a 16-year-old awaiting his trial. If he had taken his plea deal, he would have only been in jail for one year, but he ended up being at Rikers Island for three years.

The Tragic Story of Kalief Browder

Browder spent nearly two years in solitary confinement to keep him protected from the inmates and correction officers who would continually beat up the 16-year-old. Browder eventually got broken down and started giving up hope about getting released from Rikers Island; he even started considering taking the plea deal, so he could get out of prison faster. He was released when the prosecutors were found to be lacking any evidence against Kalief, and the case’s main witness left the United States without communication with the prosecutors in years. The court basically punished Browder for having the bravery to not take the plea deal and want to go to trial. In that time, in those three years, Kalief Browder was sitting in jail waiting for his trial and not being charged for anything; his when mental health started to deteriorate, and he started getting into fights. Two years after his release from prison, Browder committed suicide.

The Prison Industrial Complex and the Cycle of Incarceration

The Prison Industrial Complex is a beast, and it eats up black and Latino people for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Jail dehumanizes and sensory deprives people; humans are not meant to be locked up in cages. The conditions people live through, you would not even think to keep your pets in those kinds of conditions that we keep people in. The way prisons and jails are set up not only do they deprive you of your liberty, but they punish you too. Once somebody is locked up, they`re basically gone. Everyone stops caring and thinking about them. That is one of the problems with the prison system.

They`re basically all in the dark, and no one knows what happens within them. In many ways, it is much easier to send people to jail than society is able to forget about them. We have too many laws that are locking up too many people up for too many things and giving them sentences that are too harsh. We are putting them in prison for long periods of time, doing none to very little rehabilitation, so when they re-enter society, they get shunned, and then they go back into the prison system, and it is a never-ending cycle. Why is it easier for inmates to go back into the prison system than to be able to restart their life?

The Lasting Mark of a Felony: A New Form of Discrimination

A question that appears on job applications is, “Have you been convicted of a felony.” When you have a felon on your record, you basically become a slave. You lose all your rights. In some cases, you cannot get student loans; you cannot get many business licenses, food stamps, private rentals in regard to housing, or life insurance. Felon is the scarlet letter that follows you around for the rest of your life in this country. Once you do commit a crime and do time, you should be able to move past it, but in the US, you can never move past your past. In many ways, the old Jim Crow laws are legal again once you’ve been branded a felon. It seems in America, we have not ended racism but just redesigned it.

If we leave it up to our politicians, they might tamper with the system because we are at the point in history where it is politically right to make a change within the justice system. They are not going to change the prison system like we need to see to get the United States out of this mess. They are most definitely not going to go backward and fix the mess they made because they are not ready to make that change. As a country, we have never been able to own up to the fact that we have steamrolled through entire generations and communities with things like slavery and Jim Crow laws and all the other systems of oppression we have created to keep black people at a disadvantage and led us to where we are today.

The black lives matter movement is really about everybody’s life mattering, including the people who enter the criminal justice system. It’s not just about black lives. It’s about changing the way this country understands human dignity. The black lives matter movement highlights the idea of whose life we recognize as valuable. The movement is about rehumanizing everyone as people, not just blacks but all of us. We ended the KKK, but when you see black kids still getting locked up and shot down, you realize the image of a black man has not changed. Society still views blacks as dangerous criminals; society still does not value the life of a black man. People of color are still getting locked up and shot down by police while the white man can walk away unharmed and get a prison sentence not as harsh as a black man would, even when they commit such horrific crimes as mass murder.

When slavery ended, they called it Jubilee; blacks thought it was done. Then you had 100 years of Jim Crow and lynching and terror. Then Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came, and we got bills passed to vote, and then they broke out, then handcuffs. Now they label you a felon, and you cannot vote or even get a decent-paying job. The system of mass incarceration has grown and has an appetite that is eating up people of color communities. People always say I do not understand how people could have lived through slavery and been okay with that. How can people go to a lynching and participate in segregation? How can people stand by while others are getting mistreated for only one reason the color of their skin? Well, the crazy thing is we are living during a time when blacks are being mistreated within the prison system, and most people are turning their backs on it and tolerating it.

References:

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