Saturday, December 13, 2008

WEEK 13: Incarceration and Slavery

From the beginning of this country, the people in power have been trying to keep people of color locked down and under close watch. From slavery to the prison industrial complex to urbanization, all help the government keep a close watch on people of color and in a way, keep them locked up. A fact that a lot of people might not know is that prisons didn't come about until right after slavery was abolished. Coincidence, I think not.

It went from black folks being slaves to being forced into chain gangs, which eventually evolved to actual prison complexes. All of these excuses for the people in power to keep people of color oppressed. Our country always talks about how much we need to get out of this economic drought and how our society is in a horrible place right now, but yet they continue to spend millions and millions of dollars just to make sure the people of color are kept in prison. It seems like our governments motives are selfishly driven than economically driven. If they really wanted to save our economy, they would spend money educating kids before they get old enough to go to prison, and they would use the billions of dollars spent on incarceration and war and put it into our country. It seems to me that the government would rather win a self-moraled victory by keeping people of color locked up than win a victory for our country by using money in a different way.

It seems like every century, we find a way to break the oppression, than a couple years later, the people in power find a way to oppress us again. After slavery was abolished they came up with chain gangs and prisons. Then as segregation and Jim Crow became closer to ending, they came up with urbanization. They moved all the people of color into the urban centers not for any purpose but that it would be easier for the government to keep a close watch on us. It was sort of like a diaspora within our own country. Now people of color who live in urban centers face constant surveillance from cops, for no reason but just to keep watch, as if they are predicting that something illegal is going on. Sounds pretty stereotypical to me. It isn't even the government who runs prisons, it is private corporations. This basically made the prison industrial complex a business that makes money, and that people can invest in. So basically, the more people the prison held, the more money the owners of these corporations made.

The penalty for crack, the poor man's cocaine, is now a lot worse than that of cocaine. Coincidence that crack is running through the urban streets where yes, people of color live. Illegal drugs kill about 11 thousand people per year while cigarettes, alcohol, and pharmaceutical drugs kill near a million. The government works in mysterious ways, and every way they work is a way that is trying to oppress people of color. Our country continues to deny it, but all their agendas seem to work against people of color.

Monday, December 8, 2008

WEEK 12: Education is The Key To Everything


As much as the government doesn't conform to our educational needs; the fact is that education is the key to all of our success. The downside is, it is also the reason for all of our failures as well. All of the problems that face the working class of our country stems from lack of education. If we put more money into our elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools instead of spending it on fighting with everyone, a lot of the plights that face the African American community would be a lot less severe. The bad thing is our country's system, even down to our earliest years, has socialized racism. I think the fact that integration of schools was passed a long time ago and our schools are still segregated is a testament to this. In the past, it was the law that blacks and whites couldn't go to school together, but now, the law permits it, and our schools are still segregated. This in turn socializes people say in the suburbs, to believe that it is the norm to see all white people at school, and when they see any person of color, it is weird, and this person gets treated weirdly.

The urbanization of black folks in our country's history caused most black folks to be centralized in our urban centers, where resources were lacking and money was scarce. This lack of money didn't help when cities needed funding for the community, such as in schools, housing, and things of that sort. This lack of money going towards schools not only made it so that the schools couldn't rebuild and get renovations, but it also prevented the school from being able to hire qualified teachers. This became a chain reaction that led to students not getting adequate education, children dropping out of school and joining gangs as an alternative, which led to more and more violence in our country's urban ghettoes. One would think there is more to it, but if you think about it, not really. Education is the key to everything, whether we realize it or not. We put money into education, a lot of the problems we face within our country will go away. So wake up government, quit trying to implement racist agendas and put money into the cornerstone of society...education.