A District Attorney (DA), a lawyer and a Social Scientist (SS) walk into a bar. They pull up to the bar and each sits on a stool. The DA sits on a stool in the middle of the two ladies. The SS is to his right. The DA leans forward and orders a beer. The SS calls for a whiskey on the rocks. The lawyer’s wants a rum and coke.
Anyway, so the DA looks at the SS through the mirror at the back of the bar and says, “So what do you want me to do? They commit the crime, they do the time! My DAs don’t come in to work every day saying – I wonder how many Black people I’m going to lock up today! That’s not how it works people! My job is to keep the public safe of these criminals. I don’t want to be locking up people. This is not something I like, but I have a job to do. You lock them up and keep the public safe. What they need is education. You can’t expect to get a job or hold a job with a sixth-grade education. Fix the damn education system. That’ll keep half of them out the system.”
Well, by this time the drinks arrive. The DA takes a gulp of his beer. He’s got foam all around his moustache. He is pissed. He swallows hard. The SS dips her finger into her whiskey drowning one of the blocks of ice. She is contemplative. The lawyer draws hard on her straw.
One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand… You could feel the dead, tense air drawn into your nostril.
The lawyer pulls the straw from her pursed lips, looks aimlessly straight ahead and says, “All I know is that we should be ashamed. We look at this disparity in our jails, and we should be ashamed. I am fed up with placing it on someone else. It’s the parents. It’s the children. Where is your culpability? How can you just sit there and defend this crap? How can you do nothing? This is painfully embarrassing. We must be embarrassed! Every one of us should be embarrassed into action!”
The DA does not shift. He looks into his drink and takes another gulp. He looks down the counter at the bartender and knocks his half-emptied glass calling for a refill. “I’ve got a job to do” he says under his breath. “Give me an option. I let them out, they hurt somebody…then what?”
Silence. Deathly silence.
The SS holds her drink with both hands on the counter, turns toward the DA and says with the sweetest of tones. She clearly wants to acknowledge his pain…if only having to sit between these two. She leans in, arms touching lightly and says; “You know, that’s actually not what the data says. Honestly, if you control for education level…if you take education completely out of the mix, there is still a disproportional number of Blacks in jail. It comes down only slightly, but it is a significant difference. So there is something else happening here.”
The DA empties his glass and hands it over to be refilled. The SS touches his arm ever so lightly. He shudders. He doesn’t want to be touched – not now…not by her – not by either of them.
She continues; “And the way we’re doing it right now is not making the public safer either! Which is weird. You think you lock ‘em up and it’s all good, but it’s quite the reverse. You lock ‘em up, there are three kids with no adult running around potentially getting in trouble. All it does is ensure that the cycle is maintained. It is actually the inverse. So public safety is not served at all.”
She pauses and continues:”Now – Building jails is good business. You build jails and you fill them, you keep a lot of people employed and a lot of people disenfranchised. The jail system is a really good stock to invest in.”
Not another word is spoken. The women finish their drinks, step down from their stools and exit the bar leaving the DA to warm his beer and cold his palms – angry. Pissed off! Determined!
HE IS NOT GOING TO LOSE ANY VOTES AND ANY SLEEP ON THIS ISSUE.
Comment.
Man, I tried really hard but I couldn’t find the punch line. Maybe I have no sense of humor. Maybe the joke is on all of us who pay the $30,000/year/person to keep these men and women in prison rather than what it could be costing us to help out on the other end. But then the prisons would crumble like the Collesium. Hum…perhaps tourism will be the answer when we no longer incarcerate but provide education and parenting and mental health treatment and human respect. Yep. I think prison tourism on the “North Coast” (as opposed to the East and West Coasts) is our long term answer. I can head up the foundation to raise the funds. Let’s call it North Coast Reform a Prison, NoCRAP for short. Now that’s funny.
Don’t you dare quibble when I tell you guys that I absolutely honor the depth of your insight. The power that some of you are bringing to this work just blows my mind. I will not touch your comment – other than to say “thank you.”
Why is there such a disparity in jails, really though? I would really love an answer. I think it may go back to the stereotyping again, the fact that white cops are not going to take any chances with a possible drug dealing black person that is somehow, more dangerous than a white drug dealer. I also think it goes back to control. Hispanics for example, recently have been controlled against again, and are unable to obtain a valid drivers license unless they can show green card documentation. After so many driving without a license violations Hispanics go to jail and then “la migra” gets called or maybe not depending on how well they play their cards.
I will be the first to say I know almost nothing about crimes, law and other such things. But I do agree with the fact that putting fathers and mothers of children in jail is not doing society any good nor is deporting mothers and fathers of children. Its not doing the partners any favors and its not doing the children any favors either. Supposedly though, we are keeping the criminals off the streets and keeping the public safe.
There are a lot of things affecting this disparity. I will list a few.
1. Negative Stereotyping: Blacks are perceived with a subconscious negative stereotype. This stereotype is reinforced through the one-sided images we are fed on television, and the language used to describe Black negative behaviors versus White negative behaviors. (see images from Katrina with Blacks and Whites foraging for food.)
2. When a Black does something stupid, dangerous, wrong, criminal…that behavior is painted/sprinkled on all Blacks. When Whites do something stupid, dangerous, wrong, criminal…that behavior is assigned to that individual. So you have a difference between individual culpability versus cultural culpability.
3. Education: When 13% of your population is Black, and you have such high rates of poverty within that population, people will do what they need to do to get their needs met. Much of this ends up being criminal activity.
4. Differential sentencing: For the same crime, Blacks are given harsher sentences.
5. White judicial system: There is little to no ethnic diversity throughout the judicial system, in-so-much that if a Black was assigned a post within the system, he or she will tend to assume the role of the “house negro” in order to keep his or her position. (See the police chief in Crash.)
6. Familial Support: When White kids go before the judge, he generally has his mom and dad in there with him. Black kids tend to have less (if any) members of the family present. In most cases, mothers try to show-up, but because the cases tend to be held-over (put off for another day), many of my parents lose their jobs. They do not have the freedom to take off work.
7. Truth in Sentencing: Many times Blacks would get, let’s say, one-year in jail and three years supervised probation. The probation requirements are so tight that any singular slip-up, even one-month or one day before the end, lands you in jail for the entire three years.
8. Children of the incarcerated. When you have high levels of incarceration, you have high number of un- and under-supervised children. This assures the next generation of incarcerated individuals.
9. Hopelessness: (I will stop afer this one so that it does not become a thesis.) There becomes an internalized image and belief within the community that there is nothing they can do to get out of this cycle. It does not matter what they do, it will never get better. They actually begin to dissuade their children from dreaming, because they just know that those dreams and hopes will be smashed. That internalized hopelessness and depression are acted out in destructive ways. These destructive ways tend to be toward self and other.
There are quite a few others like the lack of a large Black middle-class, but let me stop here.
Hope this helps. Thanks for the question.
This paints such a true picture of today’s world. To be honest, I did not know the disparity until our class period on Wednesday. It thoroughly makes me ashamed to think about the unequal rights, and treatment, colored people of today’s world are faced with. It is upsetting to think that we are constantly told how we are all equal, how segregated treatment and racism are decreasing, when in reality this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
What bothers me the most is the fact that this is a problem with no simple solution. There are so many aspects that are playing a role is causing the disparity, that there is NOT only ONE solution that is a cure all. It is not possible for us to just pay someone to resolve our issues, but instead takes much hard work from individuals-work that takes heart and hope. It will takes years to completely resolve the issue; so many years that I am not even sure I will be around to see it take place. Until we are ALL ready to stop this disparity, it will continue to occur, causing more and more people to be affected. After hearing about these details of disparity and the involvement our criminal justice system on Wednesday, one wonders what else is going on in our world that is being hidden from the general public. After all, who would want to let everyone know that we, as a country, are not perfect?
You are correct on a number of fronts. (1.) We are not perfect. We have created many ways to argue for things we do and to defend against others. (2.) Neither you nor I will be alive to see a resolution to this challenge.
It has happened in every culture in every time in history. This is just another year and another time.
We simply keep working at it and thanking ourselves for the few who, despite the tremendous pressures put against some of them by friends and family, neighbors and colleagues, still get up and want to learn…want to try.
I agree Malorie,
We are told that segregation is a topic of the past and that all are equal yet to have this disparity in the criminal justice system is mind blowing to me. It brings me back to the movie Crash that we watched in class. While watching the movie many think that the opinions and stereotypes displayed in the movie are grossly exaggerated and only a small number of people actually have the same prejudice like for example the cop has in the movie. Yet doesn’t the fact that prisons are filled with majority of black individuals, there for who knows what reason, prove the point that there must be quite a few officials with the same view as that cop in Crash or is it just a coincidence that prisons are filled with proportionately higher population of black individuals. Does the black population really commit more crimes, get caught more easily, or are is the population just prosecuted more heavily?
I wish that I would have been able to attend class last Wednesday to truly get the grasp that the rest of my classmates got about disparity and how even now it affects our society in such a large way. I agree with Malorie with how until ALL are ready to stop disparity it will continue to happen and I am also disappointed that it has to be that way. This to me shows how truly blind we all are to what happens around us.
Here is what guys…this may sound so weird coming from me. I don’t want you guys to become all hyperbolic on this. I truly don’t. I don’t want you guys to become all activist on this issue. I truly don’t. …and I definitely don’t want you to become all Ghandi or Sister Theresa on it either.
Just your actively engaging is a huge blessing. It means that everyone of you who is honest and serious about the humanness of ALL people will become great teachers, great nurses, great chemists…great human beings.
This issue (and others like it) will NEVER be erased. We have been dealing with issues of abuse against the weak way before the days of Robin Hood. The strong will always impose their will on the weak, and they will use laws and declarations to do it.
I hope this makes sense.
Thank you for your comment.
From personal experience, I can say that the “justice system” is extremely flawed and prejudice! There are very few public defenders , lawyers, probation officers, judges, correctional officers, DA’s and even social workers who are of color (with the exception of large metropolitan areas). The same holds true for juries…they rarely reflect the society we live in. Stereotypes perpetuated by the media don’t help either!
However…when a Black young man, raised in an educated, middle class home with solid values and strong support believes what the media perpetuates and what other Black youth chastise him for if he doesn’t act like the “thug” portrayed in music, movies and TV…it’s very difficult to help him believe he has a choice to be a strong, educated, proud, leader…a Black man with integrity and honesty, who is law-abiding!! So, he finds himself with a choice…fit in or go against the “norm” society shoves down his throat. Unfortunately, quite often he chooses to fit in, knowing perfectly well he is going against all the values he was raised with in his home and by his family! After being followed in stores for no reason for years, being pulled over for DWB~ Driving While Black, being singled out when there’s a fight at school and because he just happened to be in the same vicinity…he’s assumed guilty because of the color of his skin…he starts to believe he’s worthless and a self-fulfilling prophecy begins…”I must be what they expect me to be…otherwise why am I treated this way?”
So, he chooses to follow the pack…trying to find himself…trying to fit in! He chooses to be with the ‘wrong people” at the “wrong time” in the “wrong place” and finds himself locked up…with a White attorney, in front of a White judge and being prosecuted by a White DA!! They all believe the stereotype…from experience I know this to be true! Sure, there’s the occasional person in the justice system that cares enough to get to know the individual…to look into the young man’s eyes and see the fear he tries to hide, into his heart and soul to see he’s got potential, he is smart…he is NOT disposable…but they are far and few between!
So, more often than not the young Black man is given little hope…treated like a number, not a human being! He is taken before the White judge and the White DA…who know nothing about this young man but what they’ve read in the police report… that was probably written by a White officer. He’s portrayed by the DA as just another street thug, no mention of his 3.85 GPA or plans to attend college! His attorney has a huge case load and has only had about 5 minutes to meet with this scared young man prior to standing before the judge. To make everyone’s life easier (except the young Black man) they agree to a plea deal…telling this young man it’s his best bet!! Only thing is…his sentence and probation are at least twice as long, if not more, than if the “criminal” was White! He is sent to jail or prison…where to keep their jobs, many correctional officers treat the prisoners like animals…who wouldn’t start to become angry and bitter when treated like you are worthless?! The young Black man is released, coming out angry and not trusting anyone! He’s assigned a White probation officer…she’s burned out, hates her life, and believes most of her clients are just an annoyance! She presses his buttons, he falls for it! The only people who seem to understand his angst and frustration with the system are others who have experienced it! He begins to hang with the same bad crowd and the cycle continues! His White probation officer lies to him and says if he pleads guilty on a new charge…she’ll offer an alternative to revoking his probation. His family and he have little experience with the judicial system so they believe her! He’s convicted without any evidence for a crime he swears he did not commit…but because he had associated with some other Black young men who were caught and confessed…he’s automatically assumed guilty by association. His probation is revoked and he’s now given an even stiffer sentence of 6-8 years!! He may qualify for early release programs, even college classes…but he sits in prison for years…on a wait list for these programs! There’s no rush to “rehabilitate”… if they don’t keep the prisoners angry and bitter the correctional officers are out of a job! They love seeing repeat offenders coming back through the system!
I found this to be appalling, unbelievable, and absurd!! I would never have believed it was this bad in this day and age if I hadn’t experienced it first hand!! This young Black man who is smart, funny, and has such great potential is my son! He is wasting away in the WI prison system. I am a White woman who adopted him and his sister at age 5 and 4 years of age respectively! They had horrible beginnings to their lives…unimaginable things happened to them…but we were on the right track and he was an amazingly loving, funny, bright and kind child from the day I met him at age 5 until his freshman year in high school…until his peer group thought he acted too White! (Whatever that means!!) All he wanted to do was fit in!
I tried desperately to surround him with positive Black male role models…but I guess it was too late! The pressure to fit in was stronger than the all too short
time spent with these amazing men (one of them being
Dr. Al Felice).
So, through tears and disappointment…I can say from personal experience…the judicial system (and quite often the educational system) is deeply flawed and prejudiced! There are many days I’m ashamed to be White…I’ve
tried to educate others…but as Al knows all too well, institutional racism is extremely difficult to change…if people aren’t ready, we can say and do all the right things to educate and promote awareness, mutual respect and a better understanding of the deep oppression that still exists in our society…but it falls on deaf ears…we can’t force people to be ready for the change that is needed. All we can do is continue to provide teachable moments and keep the dialogue going!
There is nothing I can say to add to this other than, “I am sorry for the inhumaneness that occurred and that occurs on a daily basis.”
…other than, “Any Brown or Black person invited into the system must make the system comfortable with him or her, and therefore either reflect the system or his or her role in the system.”
…other than, “There will be no shift, and no reason to shift, until you have more credible Brown people in more credible places of influence.”
Until our children see models of other ways to be, until more millionaire athletes open more charter schools aimed at educating us…there will be no change. It is not the fancy Jaguars that middle-class Blacks around here drive. It is not their fancy clothes and exclusive groups. That does not impress me much. That does nothing for my kids. Thanks for your comment.
We now understand the system much better…my son has been a “model prisoner” since being sent to the Racine Youthful Offenders Correctional Facility! He sees so many young Brown and Black young men acting out…just reinforcing the stereotype! They represent approx. 92% of the population according to him. He’s very dismayed by their behavior and has said he refuses to give any correctional officer any reason to believe all Black young men act that way…even though he did to fit in! He’s been threatened by inmates because of it…so he stands tall, goes about his business and spends most of his time reading and trying to mentor his younger cell mate. He knows he once ‘acted a fool” and wants to at least make an impact on one life while he’s in there!
Of course, you know I’m a single adoptive Mom, Al…but for those of you on here that don’t know, I thought I’d mention my son was on lists for years for a Big Brother or a mentor that shared his skin color…because as a White woman I was not fully prepared or qualified to teach my son how to handle being a Black man in this country!
Dr. Al Felice and Will Green (who has gone on to start his own company called Mentoring Positives, in Madison) were the only real positive male role models…with my son’s skin color…unfortunately, he was not able to be with either long enough…but he remembers their lessons well! My son hopes to follow in their footsteps and some day mentor and advocate for young men who get lost along the way in this society!
And, you are so right about the need for wealthy athletes, actors and musicians of color to open up charter schools, make time to mentor, or simply be better role models than some are! Riding around in fancy cars and buying multiple multi-million dollars homes, yachts, buying their 16 year old sons $250,000 cars, and throwing outrageously expensive and extravagant parties is such a waste of money!! If more of them gave back to the community, maybe the children who look up to them, and the communities they live in, would have a different view!!
I know I won’t live to see the changes necessary to end institutional racism…but I’ll die trying!!!
I am also in the same category of not knowing the disparity until our class period on Wednesday. I knew a little, but when our lecture came and the numbers came pouring out really amazed me to see how many colored people are placed in the jail system today. It also disgusts me as well. Because know matter what, unequal rights, mistreatments, and colored people are faced with it each day, every month, and year.. People keep saying there are equal rights, and that the stereotypes are diminishing, or what segregation… which is far off from being the truth like Malorie also stated. People are scared to face the truth that our world today is still how it was many years ago, although with a little improvements. I often wonder to myself, if Martin Luther King Jr. was still alive today, what it would be like. Would it be entirely different or would we still be facing the same problems as we are today?
We probably would be facing the same issues. And “yes” it is not something that is in your awareness…and it must be kept that way. Finally, this is a billion dollar business. $$$$$$
Politicians make their living this way.
Hundreds of thousands of people make their living by building and managing jails. Think of all the businesses that pop up around the jail industry. This is no little money. So there are legitimate reasons (sickening but legitimate) why this culture is maintained. This story and belief and perception of Black people and now Latinos did not “just happen.” It is manufactured and marketed.
Who’s next???
It is absolutely just unbelievable how much disparity there is in the criminal justice system. The woman who came in last Wednesday and spoke, (I apologize for not remembering her name), did an excellent job explaining the situation. I was absolutely shocked at the numbers and statistics I saw while reading that document. A lot of the comments that people have been posting just bring to one’s attention how unaware we all are about this situation. I think that making people aware is also what is key in fixing this problem of racial disparity.
There are so many insightful comments in these blogs and a lot of great points being made. Whether we want to believe it or not there are stereotypes associated with skin color and people are treated differently. This is a big problem that needs fixing, and one not achievable in this lifetime. I really think, though, that by bringing these matters to people’s attention we can really make a difference in improving the future to help stop racial disparity. I think right here in this class we are making a difference, even if it seems small, by taking about these issues and sharing our thoughts and opinions on them. We have to decide if we are going to take what we talk about in this class and apply it in our own lives.
People may claim it’s pointless to discuss these issues, but that’s not true. These talks get people thinking and engage them with questions they usually don’t think about. I think among the many other things that must be done a big one is to elect a more racially diverse board of members for education, criminal justice, etc. We have to open the ball park to all people, not just white people, even if they are a majority of the population. One would think in our modern society that we are past these problems like racial disparity, but we can’t deny it. The numbers don’t lie and we can’t deny there is something wrong going on in the criminal justice system with racial disparity and that something needs to be done about it fast.
Thre is a lot in your comment that I am going to pull-out and address.
1. “…how unaware we all are about this situation.” YES – you are very correct. We are all very unaware. But as someone in class noted, if it is not pertinent to my everyday struggle, then I let the politician, or the dude on the television tell me stuff. The popular vibe is “IT IS NOT MINE TO WORRY ABOUT!” …and in a way – it is not. It is not your son. It is not your brother. It is not your mom. Unless it affects you, it is peripheral.
2. “…there are stereotypes associated with skin color and people are treated differently.” Again, SO TRUE!!! But again, there are stereotypes associated with everything. Blue hair, brown hair, blonds, brunettes, old folk, young folk, White males, Asians, accents, geography, religion…you name it, there is a stereotype available. Stereotypes sell stuff. If I can make you feel different from somebody else, then I can sell you stuff that will promote that feeling of “difference.” I use clothes. I use cars. I use houses. I use schools. I use anything that helps me tell you that you are special. Stereotypes will always exist.
3. “…not achievable in this lifetime.” TOTALLY!!! Will not. There is too much money and power tied up in this. Not going to happen. It is all about awareness.
4. “…improving the future.” YES!!! If your kids learn different languages; if your kids expand thier knowledge of the world…and not by going to Sandals; if your kids have friends and neighbors who don’t look like them…that is an imporvement. If you pause to think before you get pissed at a student; if you pause to find out why a Black woman will not go to the doctor until she is near death; if you pause to think that your research may not be worth crap if all your subjects look like you…then we have moved forward.
5. “We have to decide if we are going to take what we talk about in this class and apply it in our own lives.” EXACTLY!! The decision is yours.
6. “The numbers don’t lie and we can’t deny there is something wrong going on in the criminal justice system with racial disparity and that something needs to be done about it fast.” THE NUMBERS DO NOT LIE. It is pretty sickening, but if I can make you feel afraid, and identify your fear by color, then I can get re-elected. You keep your job if you keep me safe, where “safe = lock up black folk.”
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Thank you. Honestly!!!
It was crazy to hear on Wednesday how unequal the system is. I knew that there was some disparity, but when the stats were seen, it was unbelievable. It is too bad that there are so many people out there trying to fix the injustice, but many don’t listen. It was brought up in class that there are many conferences and groups revolving around this topic, but nothing will change because the people attending those are the ones who already know what exists. It is the people who know nothing about the disparity that need to see the truth. The question is, how do we make them see it?
Thank you for your comment. We can’t “make anybody” – and guess what “we must not want to.” Think back to the things your parents “made you do.” The minute you got the chance to quit – you probably did.
That is what excites me about this class. Very few of you are angry. (maybe 3) Very few of you are here simply to laugh and get a grade (maybe 4). That leaves about 10 – 12 of you who are honestly wanting to understand.
Now let’s say each of you has two kids and a life-partner who can learn. That is 48 people. That is not a lot but as we move along the wave grows.
So, please keep asking the tough questions.
Thank you for your comment.
After reading this I was the most upset when I read
:”Now – Building jails is good business. You build jails and you fill them, you keep a lot of people employed and a lot of people disenfranchised. The jail system is a really good stock to invest in.”
It is extremely upsetting to me that people can look at jails as a positive aspect to our country. I agree that if one commits a crime, they should go to jail, but I can only think of the poor family members affected by the situation. It is true that so many children are left without parents because they have been incarcerated and what kind of role model does that leave them then? It amazed me on Wednesday to hear the real statistics on the racial issues still present in today’s world. I used to think we have come a long way at creating equal rights and moving forward but the truth is we havent. It never occured to me that we are only getting to and changing 1/3 of the populations idea on racism. The people that show up to the meetings and speakers are already the people that care and want things to change. That means that we’re not getting to the people that need to hear it the most. I never really thought about that before and realize now how long of a process it is going to be until everyone is on board with changing the way things are. I whole-heartedly want everyone to be equal but know that my opinion only matters to the other people who think the same way as me. I was completely unaware of the statistics out there dealing with segregation issues and am convinced that a huge majority of the rest of the country doesn’t either. I feel that the only hope of changing the world is by speaking to the public about the statistics and issues going on today. Only then can we hope that people spread the word and inform others of the MANY disparity issues still going on today.
I totally agree with you. My hope/prayer lies in you guys and your children and grandchildren. Think of it like a garden. If we plant really good sunflowers, then maybe (just maybe) the seeds from that plant will provide more just as beautiful sunflowers…and the seeds from those plants, and so on…and so on. Now, think of this…if I come yelling at those sunflowers for having access to great fertilizer and better sun and shade, how does that help anybody???
I need you guys to understand the challenges and ask the hard questions.
Thank you for your comment.
I must admit that I too was looking for a good punchline, I even read it twice. After reading it again the story was even a bit more upsetting. The statistics on the racial desparities in our jails is appalling. At first when asked to think about what the problem was education seemed like a good answer. But now I think that it is impossible to pinpoint it to one thing. Many schools aren’t doing what they can to support the students and help prevent troubles with the law. The schools blame it on funding and little support. THen we look to the community. If the schools dont support their youth the community doesn’t seem to either. The governement doesn’t do much to support those communities in need so then the government is to blame as well. And you cant forget the parents. Isn’t it their job to raise these children well? But parents have some of the hardest jobs with so many factors influencing their lives. I think the drug policies are what we should look at now. It seems that the cocaine vs crack cocaine has clearly shown racial differences when prosecuting people and sending them to jail. Drugs have a lot to do with people going to jail and that needs to be closely examined.
EVERY POINT you make here is valid. Let me share what these meetings look like: Every one of those constituents sit at a table and point at each other. “You are to blame!” said the dog. “You to blame!” said the cat. “No, clearly it is you!” said the tiger. “Don’t start with me – it is definitely you!” argued the elephant. The bird had been caught up in a nasty storm just the night before. Her wings were damaged and she could not get to the meeting. Everyone around the table noticed the empty seat. “Ah!” they thought – “who is not here to defend themselves?”
So everyone agreed that it was all the bird’s fault. Bird was the one to blame.
That is how these meetings go, and my poor parents generally do not have a seat at the table. No seat = no voice. No voice = no power. Therefore no seat = no power.
Yes, my parents do share in the balme and must be a part of the solution…but so does every other agency you identified: The teachers, the school district, our government, our businesses, our universities, our public…everybody has watched this happen and simply pulled their blinds shut. It is sickening.
Thank you for your comment.
I find it hard not to catch myself everytime I make a stereotypical, or judgemental thought at the sight of people now, especially if they are of color. The thoughts are inevitable, they come to me, but im trying to grasp each thought and think about why I thought it in the first place..where did it come from? And one of those thoughts as always been, blacks are in jail because they do more bad things. Yes, blacks do bad things. And whites do bad things. But on tv the bad people are usually black, so that idea is stronger in my head, whether or not I try to change it. And when this topic of racial disparities came up about Dance county with my friends and I, I could do nothing but stand up and say our system is messed up. I wanted my friends to realize what I learned in class. I want more awareness now, because that is the first step to anything. You have to know, before you can change. And knowing is the first step in changing those engraved stereotypes and views that make my thoughts so often. Awareness is happening because of what Celia taught all of us.
The blog joke was confusing, frustrating, and i feel, common. Yes bad acts should be punished, but is punishment being felt by too many people?
It is really hard. …and just think “this is an equal opportunity issue.” From the study we reviewed, you see that Black students learn about Blacks and therefore perceive Blacks the same way that Whites perceive Blacks. Can you imagine the anger that results from perceiving yourself as negative. If you learn that you are bad, and there is no way that you can ever be anything but bad then you decide, “What the hell. It does not really matter. I’m either BAD or White, and since I cannot be White, then I’m BAD! Hmm!! To hell with it! I better be the baddest bad I can be!” So it cycles to the extent that “bad” is no longer a behavior.
“BAD” is no longer a behavior. “BAD” is now a color.
I love the upset/confusion/angst that the “joke” offered. There is nothing about this that is comfortable or funny!
Thank you for your comment.
i like it HI 404-016 #4: HA! This individual Just Cracks Me Up!!! « altercation Contact now im your rss reader
What is so hard for me to grasp, is who ever stood behind a podium and said from now on we have to have reversed numbers in racial disparities. So because one man says…”those blacks need to be locked up”, everyone is going to listen to him. What makes him any better than a black person.
It really makes my skin crawl to think that we (as people) could put someone behind bars because they caused a crime, or are charged for a felony. Are people that vain that we can’t give people (mostly A Americans) a chance to live for their family. Are people that vain that they can’t support each other? And who has the back bone to watch the cops pull a father away from his african american family that he was trying to support/ But due to our justice system he couldn’t get to work unless he drove illegally to work. What ever happened to a word called “justice”. Justice is defined as doing what is “morally right”. Is that morality. I think not!
Judicial system is defined as ” resolution of disputes”. How are we RESOLVING anything. Do people not look into definitive words when they are to obey by them. Resolution means a “written motion adopted by a deliberative body “.
Who is the deliberative body. Do 30 year old caucasian people that work 8-430 Monday through Friday and make $85000 annually count as a deliberative body. Why should they. They aren’t having to fight to make a living, work for their family, support more than just themselves.
Why isn’t an african american 27 year old male deliberative when he is walking 7 miles to work, to than work 11pm-7am and walk 7 miles back home. He is working this shift just to put his children through school and support an african american family. However, his wife may not be able to get a job to help pull in the income because they would have no one to watch their children. Isn’t he more of a man to work long nights with little pay, walking back and forth, to support a whole family, working hard?
Consider the words Deliberative, Justice and African American. How can we make all three words relate to each other?
“Consider the words Deliberative, Justice and African American. How can we make all three words relate to each other?” I don’t know! I am sorry. I do not know.
I can tell you three things, none of which may have anything to do with your question…but in some weird way I feel they do.
1. The fact that you guys are trying to establish a relationship (however rudimentary) with a historically Black college is HUGE. This has the potential of normalizing academics and Black people. See, we (teachers, students, staff, parents, etc) have not ever witnessed the marriage between Black and academics in any strong way before. We may have see none smart Balck guy. Half the time he has a different accent!! This expands that reality.
2. Many poor Blacks have, in fact, given up. They have become very apathetic about life and opportunity. They don’t vote. They don’t care. Life expectancy is pretty low in that population.
3. Because of #2 (above) you will see many acting-out behaviors…particularly in teenage Blacks. These lead to aggressive behaviors in our law enforcement, which lead to these issues.
So, in a dumb way, we have to increase #1, which hopefully will affect #2, which hopefully will affect #3.
So how do we get better schools to affect #1? …and by the way, how do we get those kids away from #3 to positively affect #1?
Thanks for your commment.
So, this really makes me think about all of our conversations last week, and how my opinion on the subject changed from the beginning of the class to the end. I had stated that a large reason for the greater percentage of blacks in jail was the result of a highly politicized factor, and education. I think after coming out of that class and realizing it was much more than just education, and it IS highly political, made me think even more about just how flawed our system seems to really be… I would like to sit here and say that this is sad and we all need to change it, but in all reality, actually implementing change in a political system seems almost an impossible thing to me. ?! Well obviously not impossible… but perhaps difficult if lacking in the voices of many.. And another thing, if these statistics are so apparent, I wonder WHY the people who hold political power (if aware of what is happening, which I’m sure they are) allow the continuation of such flawed policies which result in these high percentage prison populations? What are they really gaining from that? And, if a wider range of people are in recognition of these statistics, common thoughts, ect.. then why do they not speak up? simply because they don’t care/doesn’t affect them? or are people really just that misinformed…..
You ask some very very pertinent questions. There are a lot of reasons.
Some are political. There is one of the judges going for Wisconsin Supreme Court whose advertisement boast of keeping the community safe and putting the bad guys in jail. In my mind, I need to have a description of a “bad guy” and a wish to keep him out of my neighborhood.
Some are economic. This system makes lot and lots of money.
Some are social. If it is not in my back yard, why should I worry about it? The cops are protecting my fears. I am not worried about it. Or maybe – I just don’t like the looks of “those people.” The less of them, the safer I feel.
It is so built into the fabric of our consciousness, that we walk past it and it really does not bother us. We’ve got our stuff to deal with.
It is so much that we could write volumes and volumes on this issue. …and then Egypt erupts or Iran erupts or Israel flares up – but you have a degree to get and rent to pay and friends to hang-out with, and papers to write. You have life to live.
I hope that makes a little bit of sense.
Thank you for your comment.
The people saying we shouldn’t incarcerate people for their actions don’t have a very practical view on American society and it’s people. If we didn’t punish people for their actions, they would be much more prone to do whatever the hell they wanted because there’s no negative consequences. In fact, people have understood this simple concept for a long time. Read Hobbes’ Leviathan, written in the 17th century.
As for the disparity, I realize that imprisoning someone not only messes with the mentality of the convict, but the family as well, but that doesn’t mean that convicts can just be left alone and, as the posts above claim, support their family.
I don’t claim to know the solution to the issue of the disparity, but some of the solutions here are…nonsensical.
By the way, great punchline.
Everything you share on this site must add to this conversation. You offer a wonderful perspective in your first paragraph.
“…but some of the solutions here are…nonsensical.” DO NOT CHARACTERIZE YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES IN THIS MANNER.
Like most some other students said, I was not aware of this problem until we discussed it in class last Wednesday. I never really saw much wrong with the justice system and jails, but then again, I never really paid any attention, or thought I needed to. I just assumed that our government, the people we’re supposed to trust and depend on, knew what they were doing and would never do anything that is knowingly hurting people or causing bigger problems; clearly, I was wrong. It was a huge eye-opener when it was put into perspective for me how putting a parent in jail really affects their children and makes the cycle continue. Since Blacks are often targeted over Whites when it comes to crimes, this is why it is affecting the Black community so much and eventually can affect so many things like education and employment, which directly leads to poverty. The children of these inmates often will not even have a chance to fulfill their goals in life, since they will never have the proper resources that students like us have (and often times take for granted). I don’t think that many people realize the problems of racial disparities in our jailing system, so I feel that it’s important to at least make people aware of the problem. They won’t necessarily do anything about it, but I think that making people aware is the first step to figuring something out—some kind of change.
Awareness!!! …and, the truth is – you guys have your very busy lives to take care of.
So how do we deal with it? Well, as a teacher, it might just be realizing that for that one little kid, what you’re doing might not be the most important thing right now, or that he cannot sit still be cause he has not had the training. YOU DON’T EXCUSE IT!!! YOU BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE MAY BE FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN ISSUES LEAKING OUT IN CLASS.
As a nurse, you might begin to understand why a woman might wait until she is almost dead before coming in to the hospital. …or why she is half-dead and smelling of alcohol. YOU DON’T EXCUSE IT. BUT YOU GET A BETTER SENSE OF WHAT MAY BE GOING ON.
You get a sense of why life expectancy is lower in that population.
That does not take away from you or your family, but it helps to widen your understanding.
Don’t give anything away. It does not help anybody!!
Thanks for your comment.
I think this all comes down to stereotyping once again. We think that because they are black they commit violent crimes and in order for us to be “safe” we continue to put them in jail. We blame everything on everyone else but we have to look at our justice system and that is where the change needs to happen. It’s sad to learn about what we did and to know that there are kids running around in our society with no parents because they are locked up and that it is a continuing cycle and when it comes into focus it makes our own system that we have so much pride in look really bad and corrupt. We need to start somewhere and by making people aware of these issues by making baby steps but is baby steps enough because it seems to be getting worse and worse.
I have a really hard time with this because of how much people do not realize about why people are arrested. The war on drugs, as we discussed in class, made different laws for crack cocaine and cocaine. The punishment for crack cocaine was much more severe. The population using crack cocaine is generally people of lower socioeconomic status, which often are minorities. This new law off the bat is putting more minorities in jail. Again, this relates to class..you’re going to catch fish where you fish. Of course there are going to be more minorities in jail if you are targeting them. This is a really frustrating thing that many people do not understand or want to accept. The reason people are arrested and the rates they are arrested are not cut and dry. People need too look at the big picture and how it affects different groups of people before they make assumptions about why the disparities are the way that they are. Basically, people need to be much more educated about policies and look at the consequences they have on particular groups.
I agree with you…but…as someone in class noted “We’ve got busy lives.” In short, “It ain’t my problem until it is my problem.”
Take Egypt for example…or Haiti…or New Orleans…or Malaysia with the tsunami a few years ago.
You’re paying bills. You’re going to school. You’re hanging with friends. You’re trying to find money for rent. In short, you have your life to deal with.
So the television brings blah, blah, blah for a few days and we get all hyped. Then they bring rich people in expensive clothes walking down the red carpet. We move from “Oh my goodness” to “Wow, she looks so beautiful!”
That is life. Changes, right now, what is in our face… That is life.
And people depend on each of us…most of us…not paying attention (it is not our affair) to get through with things like this.
Egypt took 30 years. And the powers that be cannot wait until the eyes of the world come off them so they could get back to “business as usual.”
I hope that makes sense.
Thanks for your comment.
Why is “Three people walk into a bar…” the ever popular way to start a joke? Just wondering?… Anyway, this “joke” portrays just how serious each opposing person is; each has their own cause that they are venomously trying to defend, each has their own portion of the issue that is most important to them. What each individual is really representing is different part of our society (yes, I know that’s obvious). But really, each person has a unique attitude, demeanor, etc. which is an uncanny representation of the larger system. The DA is basically an ass, wanting to lock people up and complaining of the demands put on him for upholding public safety. But really what does this term mean? It’s one thing to keep people from being mugged, it’s quite another to enter an individual into a system that is ultimately a cycle that is inescapable. Bet we would feel pretty unsafe if we were the target of the system.
Also, why is the SS so soft and sensitive and lacking of assertion… Perhaps this is why the opinion that imprisoning a father only further ensures that his children will also enter the system is not a true contender is this fight, if you will. We as a society, if we do indeed believe that breaking the cycle is only way to truly solve this problem, need to be more assertive that the system itself IS THE PROBLEM. Basically, the SS needs to be more like the DA—sort of.
What’s “funny” about this blog is that, other than the bar, much of it really happened…or the essence of it happened. The DA may be fighting for his political life. Who votes him in or out? White Folk. And what game do we play for White votes? Public safety. How do we advertise that we are serious about Public Safety? Find a boogie-man. This is a tried and true game.
The SS is trying to lightly sway the DA to think differently…to soften his hard heart. So rather than fight, she is using the motherly tact. “Come sweetheart. LEt me show you this perspective.”
The Lawyer is just pissed and pissed-off. I think she was about to pour that beer over-top the DA. So the SS dove in to save the situation.
Makes sense? Does not have to be right, but you see how people bring their history and their loss & gain to the table.
Should I get involved? Should I not? Is it my business?
Thanks for your comment.
Do you think the lawyer would have done it if the SS had not intervened?
No. The lawyer has neither the internal freedom to separate self from self emotionally, nor the tools (data) to employ that would put a pause to the joust. So it’s not just having the data, but the freedom and ability to deliver that data before people run to their respective corners. A White man talks passionately to a White audience about disparity – people frown, but they listen. A Black man talks passionately to a White audience about disparity – people say “Was he in jail? Is his son in jail? Oh no, not again…what’s he going to blame us for this time?” It’s funny how every little piece helps flavor the soup. 🙂
So as the man said, we each have our role to play. I think the SS was probably pretty steamed, too, partly because she wanted to talk more, but as you say, as a White mother figure she had some privilege available as a resource in the contest.
“…resourse in the contest.” Just think…it has, and always will, degenerate into “a contest.” There is not a sense of shared winners.