Black People Are Still Targets For Imprisonment
There have been some recent, positive declines in statistics about mass incarceration, but it’s not all good news. Actually, the way that the system works has just changed. If we’re going to stop Black people from being targeted by the unjust prison system, we have to be aware of this.
Some states are reducing their prison population, but their jail population is going UP. Prisons are where you do long sentences whereas shorter stays happen in jails. Also, while some cities have shown a decrease in incarceration, in places outside of large cities, rates have increased.
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According to the Vera Institute Of Justice, 8 states currently hold more people in jails than prisons. Meanwhile states like Kansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arkansas are imprisoning people at an all-time high! And that’s happening in BOTH prisons and jails for these states.
It would take over a century at the current rates for incarceration to decrease to where it was in the 1970’s. It’s increased 400% since then. And don’t forget, the USA is still the top imprisoning country in the world, with some states exceeding the incarceration rates of whole other COUNTRIES.
Locking people up is not a solution to every problem. IT IS a problem. Until the USA accepts that fact and takes the opportunity to start making a difference, Black communities will be terrorized by mass incarceration. Fighting against it means fighting for our lives!
August 18, 2020 will be the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which ended the prohibition preventing women from voting. But which women?
Seneca Falls, the first major women’s rights convention in 1848, excluded Black women entirely. Susan B. Anthony prohibited the National American Woman Suffrage Association from supporting racial justice.
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That didn’t stop Black voting activists from doing important work. But their contributions have largely been erased.
At the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade, Ida B. Wells was asked to march in the back. And even after the 19th Amendment’s passage, Jim Crow laws still prevented Black women throughout the South from voting.
Black attendees of the recent Women’s Marches often argue that not much has changed.
Hundreds of thousands of white women came out to march against Donald Trump - but were seemingly nowhere to be found at marches for Black women like Renisha McBride or Sandra Bland.
The Marches seem to say little about issues relevant to lower-income women and women of color, like poverty and voting rights for people with felony convictions.
53% of white women voted for Trump, compared to less than 4% of Black women. Shouldn’t Black women, who condemned Trump in 2016, be leading the feminist resistance against him?
The most recent Women’s Marches have included more women of color as organizers and updated their policy positions. As the next election approaches, we’ll see whether anything’s changed.
State Senator John Alexander, and the whole Republican party in North Carolina, are in trouble. A court determined that the state’s Republican-drawn election maps - which determines whose votes count in which district - were biased!
Drawing these maps to guarantee your party’s victory is called “gerrymandering,” and it’s especially illegal when you do it along racial lines.
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North Carolina is redrawing the maps to make them fair, but there’s been a LOT of controversy.
Documents show Republicans indeed drew their maps along racial lines. They even split an HBCU in half so Black students would have less power - and then LIED about it in 2018!
Now, they’re forced by the courts to have an “open, transparent” process - but called the only public meeting for comment on the maps minutes before the meeting!
Very few people could make it in time, so essentially the public had no input.
Finally, because the courts forced them to livestream the process, Senator Alexander was caught on tape altering the maps on his own to make them more Republican-friendly.
When he got caught? He resigned! He says he wants to “spend more time with [his] family,” but the timing is very suspicious.
State legislators have WAY more power than we think - the maps they draw determine whether your vote counts! As 2020 approaches, pay attention to your local elections as much as to the President!
Althea Gibson was athletic from a young age. First training in boxing and paddle ball, then running away from home at age 13 in favor of street fighting, she took up tennis reluctantly.
“I really wasn’t the tennis type,” she wrote. “I kept wanting to fight the other player.”
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Regardless, she was a natural, and with her aggressive style began winning tournaments. But she struggled to get allowed to play in whites-only competitions.
Eventually she did - she was the first Black player to compete at Wimbledon!
A few years after that? She won it, and the U.S. Open, two years back-to-back! After her Wimbledon win, she even met the Queen of England.
"Ain't that a blip," she said, "that a Harlem street rebel would go on to become a world tennis champion?"
Despite her achievements, Gibson made almost no money from tennis. She was nearly destitute in her later years.
But the legacy she’s left is untouchable - and it’s finally being recognized.
Serena Williams cites Gibson as her inspiration. And the other hottest players in tennis right now are Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff, both young Black women!
Though Althea Gibson never got her props during her life, this year a statue was erected in her honor at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, where the U.S. Open is played. It’s about time.
Filming the police is a right - but there are some important details you should know: it matters where, when, and how you pull out your camera to record. Here are some things to remember in these high intensity moments when cops are under pressure, because things can turn deadly.
Filming the police should be protected under your First Amendment rights. Be careful how you reach for your phone, though, especially if you’re Black and you’ve been stopped. Sudden movements and police that are on edge are a bad mix. If you’re lawfully in a public space you have the right to record!
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The ACLU provides us with some important info we should take note of:
Police may not delete your photographs or video under any circumstances.
When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view.
Police officers may legitimately order citizens to cease activities that are truly interfering with legitimate law enforcement operations.
Some states have attempted to control the audio portion of video recordings of police by using wiretapping laws. This can get complicated depending on your state's laws around consent to record audio, so be aware. And if you’re on private property there may be rules you must follow that prohibit filming.
Some people make it their business to film the police and hold them accountable, but they often pay the price when police harass or arrest them. Remember you have rights and look into your state’s laws! Be safe out there and learn more here: https://www.aclutx.org/en/know-your-rights/your-right-film-police
Lawmakers have a plan in Michigan, and people from both sides of the aisle are coming together to make it happen. It’s called “expungement reform.” This is a plan that could help a lot of people with convictions get their records cleared. Here’s how it works.
Under Michigan’s current law, people can have one felony conviction, or two misdemeanors, set aside after five years. The Detroit News reported that a new bill “would remove barriers allowing automatic expungement for certain offenders, cover more offenses and shorten the eligibility period.”
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It would also allow people with marijuana convictions to have offenses set aside that no longer apply under state laws that have been changed. This is similar to Project Clean Slate in Detroit, an expungement initiative that helps people get access to much-needed resources.
A LOT of people could benefit from this. For example, Detroit News states: “In Detroit alone, about 82,000 residents are eligible for expungement under the state's current laws. If the proposal goes through, the city estimates 133,000 more would qualify.” That’s MAJOR.
One of the many reasons expungement is important is because for far too long, people have acted like because someone made a mistake once, they should be punished forever. That’s NOT true, especially for Black people in a system stacked against us. People deserve a chance.
Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Chad Scott is well known. He’s embraced an image of himself as a so-called “white devil” and accordingly, made a name for himself being a ruthless cop. In the process, he targeted a legendary rap label and its most famous artist...
Houston rapper Scarface of the Geto Boys was targeted, along with Rap-A-Lot Records, by Chad Scott. He tried to set them up, targeting over a dozen people associated with the label! Arrests were made, though Scarface and the label’s CEO J. Prince always maintained their innocence.
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Now the truth is out: Scott is corrupt! He had a local drug dealer buy a $43,000 Ford truck and bribed him, only so he could seize it as part of an asset forfeiture. Basically, he set up a legal ROBBERY and then lied on the books about what really happened. This time, however, he got caught.
ThinkProgress reports that “an indictment alleges the corruption ran from at least 2009 to 2016.” Scott and his boys were ripping and running, robbing drug dealers and others they were pursuing using their power as officers. Rap-A-Lot Records has been saying he was corrupt for YEARS.
Now Rap-A-Lot is having the last laugh. “Finally caught,” Prince said. “A decade later the Truth has come to light!!!”
It’s all there in songs from Scarface’s classic album “The Last Of A Dying Breed.” He called Scott and others out by name and now they’re being called out in court!