Black People : The New American Apartheid

Pharaoh Jahil

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Aug 2, 2003
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The New American Apartheid
Part 1
by: Randall Shelden
and William Brown

This article, the first in a four-part series, previously appeared in Znet.

Modern prisoners occupy the lowest rungs on the social class ladder, and they always have. The modern prison system (along with local jails) is a collection of ghettos or poorhouses reserved primarily for the unskilled, the uneducated, and the powerless. In increasing numbers this system is being reserved for racial minorities, especially blacks, which is why we are calling it the New American Apartheid. This is the same segment of American society that has experienced some of the most drastic reductions in income and they have been targeted for their involvement in drugs and the subsequent violence that extends from the lack of legitimate means of goal attainment.

An argument could certainly be made that blacks, especially males, are superfluous and expendable in American society (that is, they are not direct contributors to corporate profits). With constant corporate downsizing and deindustrialization during the past couple of decades came the elimination of millions of jobs that previously helped minorities to get out of poverty. Specific social control apparatuses have been deemed necessary to control human frustrations in the aftermath of diminished opportunities. The criminal justice system has been selected as the primary apparatus to apply social control mechanisms on the unskilled, the uneducated, the powerless and ethnic minorities.

While residential segregation continues unabated, policies that reek of apartheid have risen alongside of it. It is apparent that the criminal justice system has been engaged in a systematic attack on blacks and that going to jail or prison has become a common event in the lives of millions of racial minorities. The modern penal system accommodates the “new American apartheid.”

The most recent imprisonment data reaffirm this. At the end of 2002, blacks constituted 45.1 percent of the total prison population (with an incarceration rate more than seven times greater than whites); Latinos constituted 18 percent and whites only 34 percent. In other words, racial minorities made up two-thirds of the entire prison population. This is in direct contrast to the 1930s, when whites were overwhelmingly the numerical majority of all prisoners, constituting around 70 percent of the prison population.

please read more...
www.blackcommentator.com/...ons_1.html
 
Brother Pharoah, thank you for posting this information because it just goes to prove what many of us already knew. But you know what? As important as it is to know how a racist society impacts us, I'm really not in the mood today to read more hype about how bad things are. I wish we could get beyond this level and move on to solutions and action, don't you? When is there going to be enough information and statistics put out there before we decide that enough is enough. How many MORE Black men will have to become a statistic BEFORE we let the system know that we won't take it anymore? We are inundated with data...everybody knows what's going on...it's no secret. But what are we doing about it? Behaving like poor helpless victims wanting and waiting for some white knight to come to our rescue? It gets to a point when you just get tired of hearing/reading the same ole stuff! My goodness, who has the guts to buck this oppressive and blatantly racist system? Or do you and everyone else think that these Black men are getting what they deserve by putting themselves in harms way?

Let's talk about THAT for a change.

Queenie :spinstar:
 
Peace,


Sister Gempis.. Glad you enjoy the post..


Queen, Im with you 100%. We could name every problem we face as a people but we never mention a solution and whenever a solution is offered, we become lazy. No one wants to put in the efforts in order to improve our situation. God only helps those who help themselves...

Also, I've been to many community meetings/gatherings/events where many of our activist or leaders have brought forth so much information concerning the problems of our community but the only solution that seems to be offered is in the form of slogans and watered-down propaganda. What we need is to put forth solutions that are concrete. Example, Instead of attacking the racist prison industry, we need to first look within. Why are our young Afrikan-American and Latino brothers getting locked up? What are WE doing as a community to allow this? Is it how we're raising these youth? Is it something that we did or didn't do? When we start asking and addressing questions like these, we will be off to a start. What are WE doing to prevent this?
 

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