Vision

"More African American Adults are under correctional control today-- in prison or jail, or on probation parole --than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began" (180).

I'm definitely feeling a lot of things reading The New Jim Crow. The War on Drugs seems like such a rhetorical farse to keep black American's enslaved. When I was living in North Carolina, I went to this Anarchist conference, and in a lecture on harm reduction, we were told that there are more prescriptions for high potency painkillers (such as oxycodone or percocet) than there are number of people living in the state. So -- the drug usage has changed -- in a way that allows white middle class people to avoid being seen as drug users.

The "Prisoner's of a Hardlife" comic mentioned the sentencing distinction between Crack and Cocaine as reflecting class and racial oppression. Who do we think of when we hear the terms drug-user or addict? I imagine there are hundreds "high functioning" and legally sanctioned drug addicts and users who work on wallstreet or as Ibankers, who just fill their prescriptions of morphine and thus are considered upstanding, contributing members of society. Obviously the system is targeting certain people. 

Here is the facebook I made for the YASP Panel next week. RSVP, add me, and invite your friends!

https://www.facebook.com/events/351048734981604/

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure if everyone already knows about this event but wanted to let you know about a film screening tomorrow night that seems to connect quite nicely to what we've been discussing in class and also just looks rather interesting.  Description of it is below...

Colored Amazons keeps its narratives of blacks in the judicial system. This chapter emphasizes more on the unequal treatment from media.  It looks like the dark side of media, especially those mainstream media hasn’t changed at all. The misleading interpretation and partial coverage of events are means of delivering inaccurate message to the public. Even nowadays, people have so many different ways to access to the latest news. Sometimes, too much information, both useful and meaningless ones everywhere is overwhelming. Even though this kind of explosion of information can be annoying, people at least have the opportunities to see other side of the news. Maybe the other side of the story is still not the whole truth; the expanding modern medias are trying to illuminate the blind spots of traditional coverage of news.  Growing up in a country with different political system, I have the developed the constant doubt about  the news in my country which is usually monitored by government for "better" of as whole. I used to think media here should be the accurate and neutral due the fame of being the country of freedom. I guess I was just too naïve and forget that the capitalist countries are influenced by party with capital rather than one single government.

After our discussion in class last week about what a female offender looks like, and our reading of "The Real Cost of Prison Project" graphic strip, I see many of the intersections between what we wrote on the board, like "overpolicing" and the overcriminalization of drugs, leading so many of the women pictured in the graphic to prison and all the other consequences that came with their arrest (losing children, not being able to get a job, etc). Reading Alexander's book, however, has gotten me really upset about how hard people fought to criminalize drugs, especially in the 1980s, especially in the war on crack cocaine (used largely by African Americans), and how that vendetta is still so prevalent in our public consciousness today that drug rehabilitation is hard to come by, when offenders are shipped off to prison instead. 

Reading (the DEA officer) Stutman's quote from Alexander's book, on page 52, about how he had to lobby to make drugs an issue that Washington (as a symbol for the government as a whole) would care about and work to combat. I was kind of appalled by the idea of the media lapping at the DEA's story, since "crack was the hottest combat reporting story to come along since the Vietnam War". Making a great, sensationalized story for the masses is not reason enough to create harsh laws and punishment that will impact offenders, too many of whom like the women from "The Real Cost of Prison Project", will be hurt in such a negative and unforgiving way. 

I am not exactly sure how to express myself in this post and I am a little worried because the following thoughts will expose my judgemental side--but I suppose everyone is guilty of passing judgement at some point in their life. I stopped reading Colored Amazons mid-way through the 4th chapter because I got really uncomfortable and really angry. The chapter told the story of two black women who killed a white male farmer during the negotiation stage of sexual services. In the media, the women were portrayed as savages who ruthlessly killed a white man who was seemingly drunk and unknowing. However, the media failed to reveal a reality and hidden agenda of the parties invovled. To be blunt, the white man came to the women for sex and they were going to provide that service because, as Gross explained in an earlier chapter, black females were not protected by the law; therefore, their bodies were subjected to sexual exploitation and exoticism. I have never known this history in great detail but I, as a black female, have seen how the ripple affects of this history continue to haunt black communities, black females in my life and myself--my first boyfriend was a white boy. Therefore, reading this chapter reminded me of how uncomfortable and upset I get when I see interracial couples between a white man and black female (bring on the "love is color-blind, love has no limits"..blah blah, I have heard it all).

I wanted a female-bodied avatar -- and I like this artist a lot. His name's Conrad Roset-- and he does really powerful illustrations of people with a few simple lines and water color. The eyes in this one were particularly striking. I feel like it speaks to silenced women-- but in a way I can't exactly articulate. 

Free Film Screening on Peace, Education, and Justice: 6 p.m. on Friday, September 21, 2012, at the Friends Center in Philly.

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Hi- I had trouble uploading my avatar but here is the photo I would eventually like to use:

This is an eye that I drew this past summer, which I'd like to use both because I think eyes can be symbols of observation and envisionment. I also decided to use it because it was personal to me, as something that I had drawn myself. I also could not figure out how to get the picture to be right side up.....