The Eye Opener
The New Jim Crow opens up discussion for the reason a plethora of laws were really created. The cycle starts off with the slaves being freed. Good thing right? But… Under these circumstances. Boom! The Jim Crow Laws are created, segregation. Then through the Civil Rights movement we kind of end segregation. Once the Jim Crow Laws are abolished; through the War On Drugs, mass incarceration takes the place of slavery. Every single aspect of jail or prison is a mirror image to slavery no matter what kind of way you put it. In prisons in the south like Angola prison in Louisiana, when the inmates go to work the security guards ride a horse with a rifle. Just like the slavery days.
This picture is from pbs.org
Laws Put In Place As Barriers.
I feel like certain laws were put in place as barriers for African-Americans. I never really thought about it until I read this book called, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander a social reformer and legal adviser. What she does in this book is open the readers eyes to the everyday barriers people of color have constantly had to face and how every time it seems as though the wrong is made right theres always another wrong waiting. I also feel like criminal records never going away and being able to use them against people is also wrong.
Criminal Records are used as follows
You no longer have the right to bear arm
You face perfectly legal discrimination with housing
You no longer have the right to vote
You also face legal discrimination with jobs and even some private schools
The reality…..
If You Went To Jail,
If you are convicted of a crime and completed 100% of your sentenced you still might be charged a fine. Double jeopardy. I thought it was fine or the time? No, it’s both. So you complete all these requirements and get your life together, you might start school, you might start a family, you might start a business, you might work with kids, etc; and you got this big stain on your shirt called a FELONY.
That Nasty Stain,
If you pay your debt to society and the debt is paid with long hard years in a cell away from your loved ones, I don’t think there should be any additional requirements for your reentry into society. Now, with that nasty stain on your shirt there is so much that you aren’t allowed to legally do, but should that stain be there anyway?
The Solution
We’d have to sit down and talk about it.
Chris's Blog 