Consciousness-Raising, Faith Communities and Mass Incarceration, the “Moral Equivalent to Jim Crow”
by: Megan Dowdell on May 30th, 2011 | 4 Comments »
On Friday, May 28, I attended a lecture at St. Paul AME Church in Berkeley, California by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. It was an interesting chance that Alexander’s lecture coincided with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the mandate for California to reduce its prison overcrowding by at least 30,000 prisoners.
While I have been aware of systemic racism within the prison industrial complex thanks in part to the community education efforts of organizations in the S.F. Bay Area and my seminary education at Starr King School for the Ministry, I was alarmed by the facts she offered as well as the links between Jim Crow laws enacted before 1965 institutionalizing social, economic and other disadvantages based on race and today’s mass incarceration. By the end of the lecture, I became acutely aware of what people of faith can gain from understanding racism and mass incarceration as well as sharing with others their reflective milestones. Together, these practices can help to unhinge the moral structuring of white supremacy and identify ways to protect those labeled criminals in the U.S..
Alexander revealed her own process of personal transformation in the midst of political and legal work on racial justice for the American Civil Liberties Union in Oakland, California. Through her story, she showed the development of her consciousness-raising that eventually led her to claim mass incarceration is the “moral equivalent to Jim Crow.” She argues that in the U.S., we have re-created a racial caste system that labels people of color as criminals.
In this video of a lecture previously recorded to the one I saw this past week, Alexander offers a challenge to all those concerned about mass incarceration:
Alexander’s thesis, shared with us at St. Paul’s Church and also in her book, is that “what has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society, than what language we use to justify it.” She reveals the links between conditions of Jim Crow and conditions of the current system of policing and incarceration in most of the U.S., including, but not limited to: the denial of the right to vote, exclusion from jury service, employment discrimination, and housing discrimination. All of these analogous practices are legal today, disenfranchising those in prison and the formerly incarcerated. The current conditions not only affect those labeled felons, but their families face direct repercussions of the system, not to mention the shaming and stigmatizing associated with criminal behavior that extend to U.S. communities of color.
At first, I was shocked to learn that a lawyer with so much experience working to reveal and eliminate racial profiling by law enforcement had not always been so on-board to her current thesis presented in the talk and in the book. However, I quickly realized how valuable her testimony is, particularly for communities of faith.
I realize now that Alexander’s consciousness-raising process is not unlike those processes that shape most activists’ understanding of systemic racism and other forms of institutionalized oppression. It is not unlike the process through which I have begun to make the links between my work on racism in healthcare and the prison industrial complex, or the process by which I saw the relationship between racism and healthcare in the first place! Furthermore, it is not unlike the political education that communities of faith must engage to address issues of systemic oppression.
Alexander mentioned briefly in her lecture that one of the ramifications of mass incarceration and the cultural stigma about criminality is the disablement and fragmenting of political activism. She shared that the shaming of the formally incarcerated is so powerful that individuals and families attempt to “pass,” or closet their experiences; not only do statistics that exclude the incarcerated and a widespread moral imagination that denies the existence of this “racial caste system” deter activism and consciousness-raising, but potential political activists are so burdened by shame and stigma about the label of “felon” that they experience a pervasive silencing.
People of faith bring a valuable contribution to political activism that breaks the silence around mass incarceration. Congregations can bear witness, provide welcome, and tell the truth. Alexander calls for the creation of safe spaces in churches and community groups for people to come home from prison to talk about their experiences openly and be received warmly. In the interest of creating just, healthy communities, congregations have the opportunity to confront the re-inscription of trauma through shame and stigma and organize to win legislative victories to protect, rather than further disenfranchise, people labeled criminals in the country.
Particularly, in a time of media and political backlash after the ruling and uncertainty about what precedent the U.S. Supreme Court ruling might hold for other states with overcrowded prison systems, faith leaders ought to be avid spokespeople for prisoner health and well-being. Communities of faith have an opportunity to express their religious values in public, build awareness about racism and mass incarceration, and join in solidarity with those most acutely affected by mass incarceration–the “moral equivalent to Jim Crow.”
I just discovered this much needed govt loop blog and was impressed by it’s breadth. I was a bureaucrat for 11 years in the IRS and HHS (whose letters may have changed since 1087). I was interested in writing about our educational systems since they are so fraught with controversy. I never did. But I am convinced that we the people need to find agreement about how to create right thinking mechaisms in our children’s minds. I just finished the Landmark Forum that is nonsecular and focuses on removing the filter of the past from the NOW and going forward. I checked it with A COURSE IN MIRACLES. Remove the god and spirt references and it’s saying the same thing. I noticed a lot of self help books are saying the same things in different concepts with different definitions. We need to teach our children about themelves: their minds, their hearts, their spirits, the mysteries of the universe. We leave a lot of that to families and religion. It may be that they are not doing such a good job. I am convinced we would improve the world and it’s conflicts if we focussed on right thinking. War is insane. Conversations are the civilized process of changing things from minds to transportation, safety or rescue systems. We are governed by fears and past incidents now. We will squabble endlessly everywhere. And yes, much teaching begins in the family (which statistics show is also changing radically). So what’s the answer to the bad stuff we see, where human beings can’t agree on the facts much less the theories to run their lives and the world. A better understanding of what we are would help. We are born into this world without thinking. We automatically adapt a language (even if it of wolves if we are raised by them). This language governs how we think about things. We need to help the children and the world SEE better. There is wisdom to being loving instead of being afraid. The consequences of not looking for the bad people will be argued for sure and I for one want to feel safe on planes. But we owe it to the future generations to have tried. I can’t stand to read how Congress is acting like a bunch of grade school children. It is disappointing to have come so far (67), and still have to deal with the past. I think our government has an obligations to enlighten it’s staff. Give them a course….in something noble to live by.If we are in agreement with nothing else, what are the rudimentary facts about being….human and in the NOW. How can the past help or hinder our progress? What can we do to ensure a better future for our Earth and the people it supports? Corporations do have a responsibility in this endeavor. I hope every organization finds a good ethic and teaches it to it’s employees. Better yet, I hope the educational system is mindful of how it’s role and responsbilities have evolved with the circumstance. AT MINIMUM we need a conversation about all this Thanks for this entire blogsphere. I may not speak here again, but these are critical times. We all must feel that now.
I also heard a recent address by Dr. Alexander on this topic at the White Privilege Conference here in the Twin Cities. As a social researcher I thought I was familiar with the disproportionality of people of color in the prison system, but my consciousness was also raised by the talk. I realized that the rationale may have changed but the impact is the same. Yes, disproportionate incarceration is a bad thing, but a policy which duplicates the imapct of strict segregation and perpetuates white power is a greater shame. And I was a sympathetic white person who didn’t “get” it before having my eyes opened.
This is how systemic racism works – it is just taken for granted and not examined by the majority of us who benefit from it. We don’t see prejudiced individuals beating Black slaves, so we presume there’s no more problem. We may even sympathize with the purported motivation of cracking down on crime. But what we never see (until its pointed out) is that we have a system which is functioning to disenranchise millions of people who are theoretically citizens.
I bought a copy of the book on the spot and I encourage everyone to read it and discuss it. Agree or disagree, it will make a difference for you.
Yes! In early 1982 I began work in a psychiatric prison unit and learned the prisoners were more like me than not. A young man from Mexico told me, “They can lock up my body, but not my mind. I am free to go anywhere any time.” A young African-American (arrested for living in a houseboat on the Berkely estuary) told me, “They have wanted to get me for a long time. I lived in Nature instead of on the street.” An ancient Native American man told me–nothing.
I know a poor Caucasian schizophrenic man who was in prison most of his life. Long long ago he gave up violence and drugs. He learned to ignore the voices. He wants to help others and himself, that’s all. If his parole officer can help it, he’ll go back behind bars to “live” out his life in a tiny tiny space.
That’s what we do to people with melanin they inherited that colors their skin. That’s what we do to people with brain illnesses they inherited that make them defined as “mentally ill”.
A shame? It is. Criminal? It is. More so than much of what gets us arrested these days like not doing what anyone in the present corporate regime’s uniform says, instantly, or smoking marijuana quietly for medication or for spiritual practice, for dancing in the wrong place, for saying the wrong words. We are a government by, for, and about corporations. We are quietly racist now. We are quietly facist now. We have need to be ashamed now. And change now.May it be so. May we all be kinder to ourselves and to each other. Blessed be.
I recently published a book entitled Bound to be Free: The Liberating Power of Prison Yoga. This book discusses Yoga as a rehabilitation method for those who are incarcerated, and although I’d already been aware of the racism involved in our penal system, I became acutely conscious of the insidious nature of this phenomenon and its historical context. In fact, wondering why there wasn’t more written about the subject, I felt moved to do more research and more writing on this issue. So, I was happy to hear from a friend yesterday and to read in Tikkun today about Michelle Alexander’s book, which I look forward to reading. Kudos to her and her service on behalf of those who are victims of cultural attitudes based on ignorance–not to mention greed.