Incarceration
Speech Mumia Abu-Jamal wrote for Congress "A race in jail," at Princeton University, USA, March 25 2011.
Dear friends, activists, acad é monkeys and colleagues A move!
Thanks for inviting me to participate in this Congress. It is an honor to share these few moments with you. Greetings to the panelists, many of whom I know and admire.
The theme is a formidable challenge, not to say another thing: the mere ú n mere marvel, especially when we consider its impact on family, social, community and political.
I dare say that African-Americans among you, whatever their social class or income level will not have to think hard to remember a nephew or a niece too often, not to mention a son or daughter, that, not be locked at this point, has been arrested or detained in a local, state or federal.
This speaks to the ubiquity of the problem, the vast n mere ú men, women and youth who reside in the prison industrial complex in America. As many of you know, the United States, with only 5% of the world's population, imprisons 25% of all prisoners in the world. As noted by Michelle Alexander (who will participate in this conference tonight), the number of black prisoners here rivals and exceeds the number imprisoned in South Africa to during the obnoxious system of apartheid , at its peak.
We should not make light of this analogy, because the apartheid South Africa was the epitome of racist police state, surpassed only by Nazi Germany in its repulsive nature. In addition to s, much of his energy was devoted to a de facto war (or at least, to use the jargon of military intelligence, a low-intensity conflict ) against the black majority, which criminalized almost all aspects of independent living in Africa, by restricting the places to live, work, study and even make love.
This speaks of how blind we are in this country to the extent of the problem (let alone its resolution), and how it has been standard in the social and political awareness, partly because the media ignore corporate history, or present biased. If they could fail in the reports that led us to a horrible war (I mean to war against Iraq), they certainly can fail in their reporting on the parameters of low intensity conflict that crushes the life of blacks.
Quiz s to the words of someone who is not American (I do not call "foreign" ), but who has long been an observer of this country can help us understand this. At 71 years, the great musical gift to South Africa, Hugh Masekela, gave an interview in which he spoke of South to post-apartheid Africa : "Most people just won the right to vote and less police harassment. but any change would be bad for business. The same thing happens here in America, where the fruits of the Civil Rights Movement are minimal. "
Masekela I quote not just because it é c lebre (not because I love her m ú sica ), but because é l, as millions of Africans living under apartheid Madness , and so he knows intimately, to ú when n é l subsequently escaped and lived abroad. know recognize the elements of apartheid in American life.
But why é the apartheid is seen as repulsive as the prison industrial complex U.S. is seen as something benign?
I think the answer is twofold: 1) the political elites of the Democratic and Republican parties reached a bipartisan consensus on this issue, and 2) the presence of black political actors in various government positions works as a shield to repel the criticisms of the racist nature of the system.
As in South Africa to , black political elites of the United States have benefited from an economic system that is deeply unfair to the vast majority of African people, especially the poor and working class. So the race protects the class divide, and despite appearances, it also protects social inequality.
In essence, the r é post-apartheid regime got a result that the era of apartheid had tried to build without success: create a buffer class to protect land, property and the material wealth of a minority class of white settlers.
is one of the ironies of history that the African National Congress government has achieved this result, but came about through a negotiated settlement.
Let
interpretations and political theory for a moment to see a real example. Several months ago, a squad of police raided a house from a family of black working class. He fired home from outside and killed a girl. That, in itself, unfortunately, is not remarkable. However, it has resonance when we realize that both the mayor, as his chief of police, were black. I remind you that this incident will also recognize the name of the beautiful girl murdered, Aiyannah Jones, and the city, Detroit, Michigan. Without doubt, e sto gives us another perspective on the political role of black leaders, and their impotence in stopping the state's actions that endanger the lives of poor blacks.
One of the main participants of this Congress, the law professor Michelle Alexander, addresses some of these points in his book, The New Jim Crow . But the reviews I've read I have not seen mention of a point which I think is very important (but probably have not seen much of the criticism because generally, prisoners do not have computers). I refer to his observation that the black poor and working class are a caste in American society.
In a nation that promotes democracy, one would think that the accusation that there is a marked racial caste to center of it would have caused controversy. But judging by what I read, this important point has not even been discussed.
In conclusion, of course I recommend this book to all for study. But I must do something more to s.
We call a new popular movement, agitating for it, and if there is no other, creating a movement that will fight to destroy this caste system once and for all. It's in our interest é s collective do so. Because the majority of scholars, intellectuals, acad é monkeys and black political elites to est n only one generation away from the ghettos of distant memory. But with the collapse of the U.S. economy and reducing the welfare system and the state itself where do believe that will make the cuts?
Finally, we know that laws that deny ex-prisoners of their right to vote inexorably led to the election of George W. Bush, in 2000. Think of how the world might be now if the political event would not have happened. Is in the inter é s of all and everyone.
Thanks. A move!
Mumia Abu-Jamal, MA from death row, Pennsylvania
Translation: Amig @ s de Mumia of Mexico
