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?
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Hi Eddie,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you took away quite a lot from our discussion about the PIC! I appreciate your reflections and thoughts on the matter, thank you for that. You are correct in my opinion, about making the connections between the incarceration of people of color and the segregation that follows. In response to your question: we will be looking at this next week! I hope you find an answer that piques your interest.
I really enjoyed you post! I especially enjoyed the scenario you presented of what would happen if 50% of the white population was incarcerated or had their rights taken away. I actually laughed thinking about what their reaction would be. The number of people of color that are incarcerated is absolutely ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteHello Eddie I also would also have to agree with you that the reason for so many prison is to make money by putting them in jail but also locking people of color into a ssystem they cannot get out of.It is very difficult for a person who has been to prison to get a job. They are denied many opportunities due to the record, the way the system is set up , they are forced to do the same thing because the society does not give them a chance, or treat them like normal human beings, but rather than criminals.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the breakdown you made in the beginning of the blog how the prison complex creates a caste system which leads to colorblind racism. I also never looked at people paying taxes on prisons as a form of protection, but I realized that is true. Eventhough our tax money goes to prisons without our consent, it makes sense that prisoners are worth more than students because you our paying for criminals to stay off the streets, although some are probably innocent.
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