.
ELDER  ACTIVISTS
  • WELCOME
  • GET INSPIRED
    • Your Stories
    • Inspiring Elders
  • GET EDUCATED
    • Resources
    • Connecting Links
    • Workshops >
      • Upcoming Workshops
  • TAKE ACTION
    • Why
    • Discover Who You Are
    • What Can YOU Do
    • Sign On!
    • Shop
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT LYNNE
  • CONTACT
  • RSVP

MASS INCARCERATION RACISM, and A JUST SOCIETY

10/17/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
I invite you to think about these facts.
  • The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population but nearly 25% of the incarcerated population of the world.  Our prison population has increased 500% over the past 30 years.
  • The U.S. imprisons more people than any other nation in the world – largely due to the War on Drugs.
  • In 2012 there were 1.5 million drug arrests, and more than 80% were for possession only – not for selling drugs.
  • Although rates of drug use are similar across racial and ethnic lines, black and Latinos are far more likely to be criminalized than whites.
  • 75% of people in state prison for drug conviction are people of color although blacks and whites see and use drugs at roughly the same rate. In NYS, 94% of those imprisoned for a drug offense are people of color
  • From 1997 to 2007 – in 10 years! -- the number of women in prison has increased by 832%
  • Over the past two decades, state spending on prisons grew six times the spending of higher education

I could draw my own conclusions but I rather share the words of Nicholas Kristof (New York Times, Sunday, October 12, 2014.)

Those of us who are white and in the middle class rarely see this side of the justice system.  The system works for us, and it’s easy to overlook how deeply it is skewed against the poor or members of minority groups.

Too many … accept a system that disproportionately punishes blacks and that gives public schools serving disadvantaged children many fewer resources than those serving affluent children.  We are not racists, but we accept a system that acts in racist ways.

Whose to blame?
Some people think that the fundamental problem is young black men who show no personal responsibility, screw up and then look for others to blame.  Yes, that happens.  But I also see a white dominated society that shows no sense of responsibility for disadvantaged children born on a path that often propels them toward drugs, crime and joblessness; we fail those kids before they fail us, and then we, too, took for others to blame.

The truth is that injustice is easy not to notice when it affects people different from ourselves; that helps explain the obliviousness of our own generation to inequity to day.  We need to wake up.

Together we have much work to do.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?    First, Learn More, Then, get engaged.
Nicholas Kristof – When Whites Just Don’t Get It, N.Y.Times, Octo. 12, 2014
www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-when-whites-just-dont-get-it-part-3.html
Read -- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Watch Bill Moyers & Michelle Alexander -- Locked Out of the American Dream
www.youtube.com/watch?v=om2hx6Xm2JE
Read-- Marjory Jones inspiring story, Finding My Voice in Prison at www.Elder-Activists.org

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND!  
 Every community has a need for folks to help with parole preparation, prison education and legal services projects, amongst many others.


2 Comments
nick freed
12/1/2014 03:30:25 am

i prefer to use the 99%-1% model in discussing political social topics.
my take on anti-black exploitation all across the board is that the 1% exploit black 99%'ers so ruthlessly in order to keep the white 99%'ers in line.
the lesson is never lost on the white 99%'ers that the power structure can have any and all whites murdered or imprisoned as easily and as guiltlesly as it has black 99%'ers murdered and imprisoned.

Reply
Leather Colorado link
3/24/2021 10:47:20 am

Hello nicee post

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Become an Elder Activist subscriber and get inspiring stories & announcements in your Inbox:

    * indicates required

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Lynne Iser
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    About Lynne

    Archives

    July 2021
    November 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    November 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    March 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.