13th
What is the likelihood of a black male being incarcerated in
America? 1 in 3
History is not just stuff that happens by accident. We are the products of
history that our ancestors choose, if we’re white. If we are black, we are the
products of the history that our ancestors most likely did not choose. Yet here
we are all together, the products of that set of choices. And we have to
understand that in order to escape from it. — Kevin Gannon, 13th
What are your
thoughts on this quote? Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
Agree because not everyone has been able to have a choice or
a voice and theses people were mainly the people of colour not white people,
which is why agree with this quote.
President Lyndon B. Johnson ushered in the War on Crime;
Nixon began a figurative War on Drugs that became a literal War on Drugs in the
Reagan era.
Were you surprised to learn about the racial underpinnings
of these legislative policies, and the active role of the state in
criminalising and targeting communities of color? Discuss using the quotation
below.
‘The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the
Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black
people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to
be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the
hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalising both
heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders,
raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on
the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.
– John Ehrlichman, Nixon Administration Advisor.’
Super predator.
Criminal.
Think about the power of media and the power of words.
Discuss media and how
words impact the perception and criminalization of people of colour, both in
the past and the present (animalistic, violent, to be feared, threat to white
people, criminals, etc.).
Give 2x modern-day examples.
- Media portrays black communities as violent and drug addicted.
- They also portrayed people of colour as rapist and paedophiles e.g. Uncle Remus.
PRISONERS FOR PROFIT.
Were you aware of the Prison Industrial Complex and how
corporations are profiting from incarceration?
- Yes.
What are the dangers
surrounding ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council—a committee of
politicians and corporations influencing laws that benefit its corporate
founders and pushing forth policies to increase the number of people in prison
and increase sentences)?
- America has 5 percent of the world’s population but, 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, why because of Alec a money-profiting organisation without any morals and these statistics will only increase with ALEC.
What is the impact of
CCA? (Corrections Corporations of
America, leader in private prisons that is required to keep prison beds
filled—the leading corporation responsible for the rapid increase in
criminalization) and how that impacts our communities. The film argues that
there is a direct link between American slavery and the modern American prison
system. What is your take on this argument?
- My take is, how our that how people meant to get by if they are already classed as criminals, used to make profit. The things can lead to their being no point for justice if there is none and therefore civil unrest and panic for safety for peoples own concern.
People say all the time, ‘Well, I
don’t understand how people could have tolerated slavery. How could they have
made peace with that? How could people have gone to a lynching and participated
in that? That’s so crazy. If I was living at that time I would never have
tolerated anything like that.’ And the truth is we are living in this time, and
we are tolerating it.” -Bryan Stevenson
What is the power of media
representations and how does this relate to cultivation theory?
- Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective.This relates to cultivation theory because media representation cultivates the perspective/view that we have on certain groups or people.
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