post week 13

The prison industrial complex in my words is a business that makes profits from creating a racial caste system, which is a method of colorblind racism.  By imprisoning people of color at a higher rate than those prisoners who are white, we create a racial caste system.  Therefore stripping people of color the rights they once had that made them equals to whites in many perspectives, leading to the reconstruct of the racial hierarchy statue which goes hand in hand with colorblind racism.  The business aspect of this complex is that people/ companies can outsource inmates for cheap labor, saving the company lots of money and brining in an income for the prison.  Our tax money also goes to these industrial complexes in order to keep them up and running.  We believe that our hard earned tax money is going towards these prisons in order to keep ourselves protected from bad people.  If we take into consideration that, yes our tax money keeps the jails running and bad people off the street, but these prison industrial complexes are owned or ran by rich right wing conservative white men, we can connect the dots that prison is a structure in itself that holds in inmates of color, but then segregates them from society once they are released by taking away their right to vote and also having to check that box on applications saying that you have been arrested.  We justify how this by saying “hey you can do your time, but when you get back into the real world, we will make it very difficult for you to be considered an accountable citizen.  People of color who come out of prison, not having to be for a federal crime, are put back into the racial hierarchy roll that gives white people more power and privileges that they do.  The statistic about how 50% of African- American’s have been put in jail for one crime or another is astounding!  Imagine if we took the rights away from half of the white population and made it very difficult for them to find a job in order to try and establish their place in the world as an equal, that would completely change how the world would be running right now.  A question I want to present is, if we all understand that this is truly happening and we consider this thought process as norm, why don’t we do something, on a large scale, about it?

word count

413

pre reading week 11

I am a major fan of hip-hop and rap and all things associated with it.  i feel like typically we see a masculine male black MC spitting his lyrics about bitches and hoes and money and drugs, this leads the world to create stigmas of what black people act like.  hip-hop is a genre of music that is entertaining and but i also believe that its main agenda is to show the world of the struggles people go through who aren't as privileged as others.  when you have rappers singing about how the law is trying to put the black man down and how you have to hussel drugs and prostitutes in order to survive, they are trying to show the rest of the population how they have to struggle in order to achieve anything.  For the most part we see black rappers and hip-hop artists.  i few observations that i can make is that rap songs and hip-hop songs tend to be about struggles and hardships and situations that most people can relate to, which leads me to connect how black communities tend to have a more rough upbringing in ghetto places.  gang affiliation also plays a role in these genres of music.  when you imagine a gang you imagine a group of minorities who stick together and cause problems in order to skew the power that is usually held by white people.  in a sense, its a way to challenge the system of racial hierarchy.  hip-hop is viewed as problematic, but at the same time it is popular with its catchy beats and skillful hooks and deep message of oppression, love, hate, rage, lust, and so many other things.  people can listen to an Eminem song and just bob their head to the beat or feel how he hates his ex-wife and loves his daughter.  he is also the only hip-hop artist to never use the "n" word in any of his sings.  its about respecting the artist for conveying a personal tough story to tell through a song where they can make millions of dollars off of.  also the rise of the female hip-hop artist is really tickling my fancy.  artists such as nicki minaj and azealia banks are on the top of my hip-hop list.  female MC's weren't around in the height of the hip-hop era but are making a stance for what women have to deal with in accordance to their male counterparts.  one thing that also draws attention to the hip-hop scene is what they refer to as "beef" or an altercation between one artist and another.  for example iggy azealia and azealia banks are two new artists on the scene,iggy is nothing compared to ms. banks, who have beef over who is a better artist.  beef like this keeps artists alive and motivated to crush their competition.

word count: 447