• ShannonLeeMcBride we need to keep talking — spreading awareness
    Howard Zinn https://criticalmassprogress.com/2014/02/19/ci-beyond-the-pessimism-of-certainty/

  • ShannonLeeMcBride

    So at the end of the day, the real villain is the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, is it not? It’s all about the Almighty Dollar, and getting more of them into the pockets of the already wealthy old white guys… How do I fight back, without monetary power of my own? I find myself thinking – “well, when I have the money, this is what I’ll do with it…” Or “when I’m running my own business, I will make socially conscious hiring choices”… But those are ‘what if’ and ‘when’ statements. What is the course of action right now? Speak up, of course. Open the conversation with friends, family, co-workers, classmates, etc. I do that all the time. Not much changes, at least not that I can see. It seems that at the root of deconstructing racism, and helping to tear down the systems so deeply entrenched in our society, is access. Basic needs must be met. People need access to food, clean clothes, a roof over their head, education, jobs… Education, access, empowerment, agency… These are the ways I can see that people might actually be able to interrupt the School to Prison Pipeline. So how do I help put these things in motion? If even the non-profit industrial complex is now a thing – and I believe it is – then there is more of the Almighty Dollar controlling our society. I cannot fight that fire with fire, as I have none. So what does my bucket of water look like? And how do I get others to join my bucket brigade?

  • KayWhitlock

    nancy a heitzeg KayWhitlockThank you.  Oh, and question 1 should be expanded to add:  “And what in these reforms works to intentionally dismantle the structural racism which defines the prison system and much of the criminal legal system?”

  • KayWhitlock those are the questions – Yes
    thanks as always

  • KayWhitlock

    Yes.  To all of it.  When they say, “You people are never satisfied,” we simply say, “Why are there no clear responses to these questions?  Why no commitments made to addressing them head on?”  1.)  What in these reforms addresses the pre-emptive criminalization of communities of color and poor people (and queers, women, and others at the intersections of same)?  2.)  What in these reforms helps to dismantle the profiteering prison industrial complex?  3.)  What role does privatizing “community corrections,” ranging from monitoring parole and probation to treatment centers to community re-entry play?  4.)  Since accountability for prison profiteers has failed so abysmally, what in these reforms addresses public/community accountability more effectively?

    & etc.