I watched this interview tonight and found it really enlightening re: the prison system and racial hieracrcy which gives some citizens privilege as is disenfranchises others. The two attorneys, Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson, were quite eloquent in their conversation with Bill Moyers about this crisis.
If any student watches the program and writes something about it, that is, writes a critical analysis, he or she will get extra credit. One page, 250 words is fine. Writers include a works cited page, and email the essay to me.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/profile.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/profile.html
April 2, 2010
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. This week, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL observes the anniversary of King's murder by examining America in light of his dream. What would he think of our country today and where would he focus his fight against inequality and injustice?
Two talented lawyers who've dedicated their careers to fighting inequality, Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson, join Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to examine justice and injustice in America 42 years after King's death.
Alexander believes that King would be deeply troubled by the remaining inequality in America. As she tells Bill Moyers, "I think Martin Luther King would be thrilled by some of the individual progress of African Americans, but stunned, absolutely stunned and saddened, by the state of African Americans as a whole today."
Stevenson adds that to reach King's dream, America must address the causes of poverty, "I think in America, the opposite of poverty is justice. I think there are structures and systems that have created poverty, and have made that poverty so permanent, that until we think in a more just way about how to deal with poverty in this country, we're never gonna make the progress that Dr. King envisioned."
Both believe that America's policies of mass incarceration continue the cycle of poverty. America is the largest jailer on the planet, with 2.3 million people behind bars. But the policy of mass imprisonment, unique among industrialized nations, disproportianatetly affects minorities, especially African American men. One in 100 adults in America is behind bars, but one in nine African American men aged 20 to 34 is behind bars. Much of this arises from the "war on drugs." According to Human Rights Watch, African American adults have been arrested at a rate 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white adults in every year from 1980 to 2007. Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing.
A consequence of this disparity, and America's harsh treatment of lawbreakers, according to Alexander, is a population of people living in conditions shockingly like African Americans experienced under Jim Crow:
Today in communities of color across America, large majorities of African American men have been branded criminals, felons for life. And as a result, many are denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to public education-- public benefits. Many of the forms of discrimination we thought we left behind in the Jim Crow Era are legal again, once you've been branded a criminal.
Stevenson points out that these are not inevitable policies:
We didn't have to incarcerate people for 10, 20, 30, 40 years for simple possession of marijuana, for drug use. We didn't have to do that. We made choices around that. And now the consequences are devastating. I think they're not only devastating from a political perspective, but — I think this is the way I think it relates to Jim Crow, as well — it's also been devastating within communities of color. Right now, for black men in the United States, there's a 32 percent chance you're going to jail or prison. In poor communities and minority communities, urban communities, rural communities, it could be 60 percent or 70 percent. You're born, you're a ten-year-old kid. There's a 70 percent chance that you're going to go to jail and prison. What does that do to you?
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** I also e-mailed this extra credit to you professor.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the U.S. government treats people equally? My answer is no. We should remember that Oscar Grant was murdered. It happened just few months ago!! It was not a mistake by a police man. After King died, a lot of people hoped that racism in America would be eliminated, but discrimination is still an ongoing progress. I totally agree with Martin Luther King turning his attention into the economic injustice. At that time, he made a critique on Vietnam War. The U.S. government should have spent money on the social welfare for poor people. Although MLK criticized the U.S. government’s decision, there is no change for the way to spend money by the government. They are still wasting money on the useless things such as Iraq War, and economic pressure against North Korea.
In this interview, Bryan Stevenson said, “If we violate people's rights, because they're poor. Because they're people of color. If we incarcerate them wrongly. If we condemn them unfairly, then that implicates who we are. That's an American issue. And I don't think that that in any way is a black agenda issue or poor people agenda issue. It's an American issue.” I totally agree with him. I don’t understand why there is an expression like people of color in the U.S. I’m an Asian. Should I be called people of color? No. This expression is too much centered for white people. If we think that racial problems are only for people of color, American society will be in racism forever. To realize MLK’s dream land, we should think that discrimination is not limited to Black, Latino and Asians. This is an American issue. Bryan Stevenson, Bill Moyers and Michelle Alexander also discussed about incarceration problem. Stevenson said that the United States didn’t have to incarcerate people for 20 or 30 years in prison. I think that it made a burden to the government and U.S. citizens to keep prisoners, and made economic injustice for the people in poverty.
Waking up every morning and knowing I have a a 60-70% chance that I am going to jail just makews me wonder why am I here on this planet. Every little thing I do must be thought through or else I can be locked up in jail. As a Asian American gorwing up in America I have seen a majority of people of color getting arrested and hauled off to prison, we see this on the news all the time. This makes me mad beacuse the US government are targeting people that are living in poor neighborhoods, and I guess in a sense that they believe they will commit a crime as oppse to the people that live in Beverly Hills. People that neglect the law system have good reason, take a white man and a person of color, and their are just walking down the street minding theur own business, we pretty much know if the police was going to pull someone aside it is going to be the person of color.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Eo, Seung Won when he states that
"I don’t understand why there is an expression like people of color in the U.S. I’m an Asian. Should I be called people of color? No. This expression is too much centered for white people." We know that white people use the term people of color most because that is how they regard to other people without offending them.