By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Nov 14th 2010 11:36AM
Filed under: Dr. Boyce Money
Last night, I spoke to the Kentucky Alliance against Racial and Political Oppression, a very active group in Louisville, Kentucky. The group fights against oppression of all types, and represents a very impressive coalition of people from all backgrounds who want to make the world a better place. One testimony was from a young woman who said that her brother had just been sentenced to 10 years in prison. She said that the same judge that sentenced her brother was also the one who'd sentenced her father when he himself was a young man.
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Black Progress
Race Relations
Overt racism and bigotry have been shunned and pushed to the margins of American life. Inclusion and equal opportunity have been embraced as key principles in America as well. Discrimination, while not eliminated, is no longer humored or tolerated in the larger society the same way it was 50 years ago.
(Photo: Jeff Kravitz, FilmMagic.com)
AP
BlackVoices.com
Black Progress
Blacks in Business
The new generation of African Americans going the entrepreneurial route are well equipped and more knowledgeable than ever before. Despite facing many obstacles unparalleled to other races many African Americans have aspired to receive equality and the right to ownership since the ending of slavery. Now, in the 21st century we are able to see their successes as they become business moguls and CEOs of major companies.
Black Progress
Digital Divide Narrowed
The divide between African-Americans and the rest of the population has been practically eliminated. In recent years the number of blacks online and with high-speed internet has doubled. This gives our community more access to jobs, networking, and inexpensive goods and services. Today, more than 68 percent of African Americans report they are online, compared with 71 percent of all Americans. At one point, that divide was closer to 20 percent.
Black Progress
Race Relations
Overt racism and bigotry have been shunned and pushed to the margins of American life. Inclusion and equal opportunity have been embraced as key principles in America as well. Discrimination, while not eliminated, is no longer humored or tolerated in the larger society the same way it was 50 years ago.
Black Progress
Education
In recent years black graduation rates have been on the rise. School standards, charter schools and the no child left behind act have been cited as reasons for black students' progress in test scores for reading, writing skills, math, and social sciences. Consequently, the number of black men in women enrolling in college is increasing and in many states, the number of African Americans in or heading to college is actually on par with the region's overall population.
Black Progress
Hip-Hop Culture
What started as musical expression in the slums of the inner cities has turned into a $4 billion-a-year industry. Some say hip-hop is the most important contribution to the American cultural landscape since blues, jazz, and rock and roll. Now that's progress! Hip-hop literally forced the important melding of black and white and Latino cultures after the 1960s and 1970s. Today, hip-hop is not one thing, it is every thing: fashion, language, music and movies.
Black Progress
The Black Athlete
Michael Jordan, the Williams sisters, Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, and Jerry Rice. These names have revolutionized the sports industry. They have collectively made a mark for black athletic talent in the minds and hearts of people around the world as household names. Those names became synonymous with the games they dominated and with talent unmatched by any other person in history. Love sports or not, the black super-athlete has been an important part of our progress in the last 25 years.
Black Progress
Blacks in Hollywood
History was made at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002 when Halle Berry became the first African American woman to win Best Actress. Denzel Washington continued the legacy of greatness when he was awarded Best Actor for Training Day 39 years after Sidney Poitier was the first black man to win the award. They have helped open the door even more for a new generation of leading black men and women in film, not to mention Oscar winners.
Black Progress
Political Power
Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell are just a couple of examples of how African-Americans have advanced in the world of politics and government. In the last 25 years more black lawmakers, mayors and politicians have come on the scene. It is estimated that in the last 25 years nearly 9,000 blacks have been elected to public office. Powell and Rice have been influential in the advancement of black women and men in the U.S. government by their presence and success at the highest levels.
Black Progress
Empowered Black Women
Call it the Oprah effect if you want, but since this media mogul hit the scene, she has had an impact on all women, not just black women. Oprah Winfrey became America's first black female billionaire, and as inspiring as she is, she certainly won't be the last. She is a potent personality and a cultural phenomenon. Even though Oprah never depended on a black consumer base, her business activities reflect certain aspects of the expansion of black business activity in last 20 years. For instance, black women are more likely than black men to secure a small business loan.
Black Progress
A Black President
As Barack Obama continues on his path to become the first African-American President of the United States, history and progress is being made. It was monumental when Barack defeated Hillary Clinton in the primary to lead the Democratic Party, but before him there was the Rev. Jesse Jackson and others, who can not be discounted for helping pave the way.
Black Progress
The next morning, I happened to be speaking about the prison industrial complex with Rev. Jesse Jackson. Rev. Jackson reminded me of how mass incarceration affects the voting process by keeping inmates and ex-convicts from being part of the political systems of America. He also mentioned how being convicted of a felony isolates the individual from the rest of society by taking away his/her rights to financial aid, jobs, public housing, and all the other things we need in order to survive. I told Rev. Jackson about the young girl's experience, because it is reflective of how families are being harmed by the structure of the justice system. The kind of inter-generational transfer of oppression that the woman at the speech mentioned must be directly confronted. While I am not here to say that the girl's father and brother were innocent, we know that nearly every study shows that black males are far more likely to get long prison sentences than other Americans, even when they commit the same crimes. This kind of disparity in the prison industrial complex is one of the factors that threatens to undermine the strength of the black family and risks ruining the futures of our children.
I've been working with Ryan Mack to create 'Never Going Back,' an initiative to assist felons with their re-entry into society. Mack does interviews with individuals who are concerned with mass incarceration and helps to explore solutions to this very serious problem.
Here he interviews Yusef Shakur about the transition that men and women want to make when adjusting to a life outside the prison system. I like working with Ryan because his background as a conscientious financial expert ties the liberation of African Americans to the long-term goal of economic empowerment. His work is simply outstanding.
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The prison industrial complex is dangerous primarily because of the use of free labor from prison inmates. The 13th Amendment, which abolishes slavery, actually says that slavery is still allowed when a person is a convicted felon. When corporations profit from the number of inmates under their supervision, it can create a dangerous cycle in which capitalist greed ends up impacting the lives of our fellow human beings.
This
interview I did for AOL Black Voices with Dr. Byron Price sheds light on how companies make money from prisoners. We should educate ourselves and others on this process and do all that we can to stop it.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
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Comments: (37)
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By: The Truth on 11/14/2010 12:33PM
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
To think that being in jail correlates to voting absence sounds like a sensible argument on the surface.
But, I worked in a prison for 20+ years and in all that time only 2 inmates cared to attempt to make it a legal issue. The rest could care less (And I am not exaggerating).
One article quote...
“taking away his/her rights to financial aid, jobs, public housing, and all the other things we need in order to survive”
Since when does a convicted felon have right to any of those “survival” handouts?
Doesn’t being in prison negate the need for public housing and financial aid?
As to the alleged “Free Labor” reference, (It’s not realistic)
We’re not talking about engineering the space shuttle, most convicted felons are the ones we all see wearing orange vests picking up trash on a highway crew.
Other inmates with special skills (Plumbing/electrical) work only within the facility they are imprisoned. There are laws that prevent felons from working outside facilities ESPECIALLY when they’ve been convicted of everything from armed robbery to rape.
Calling it slavery is a mal-timed exaggerated stretch to imply exploitation for capitalistic greed.
What do we want?, Felons to ly around all day watching TV and lifting weights?
Well from observational experience...That’s just what they do. All inmates, All races.
When a person infringes on the lives and rights of others, to hell with them.
They shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy what they take from others and should be made to work!
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By: Just the real on 11/15/2010 5:08PM
Amen! I presently work as a correctional officer and everything you are saying is indeed "The Truth".
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By: owedia sanders on 11/14/2010 1:55PM
I am so in agreement with your comment. it was written objectively.
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By: Yup!... on 11/14/2010 2:45PM
All inmates should be FORCED to work!
When they work they develop a "work ethic".
Isn't that what inevitibly helps keep people out of trouble and out of jail?
What has an inmate learned if all they do is sit around, socialize, watch TV and work out while receiving 3 meals a day and free healthcare?
Sounds like good work if you can get it, but we all know that job doesn't exist.
MAKE THEM WORK!!!
ALSO... it costs around 75,000 dollars a year to house an inmate.
To imply for one second the supposed "free slave labor" makes up for that deficit is ignorant.
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By: leonardjohnson on 11/14/2010 3:44PM
slavery is a mal-timed exaggerated stretch to imply exploitation for capitalistic greed.I've never heard it better said That is exactly what is going on. the only difference between you and the masses is your in denial and the rest are just plain ignorant. Yes there are a few us that muddle through or had foundation of family but the majority is in big trouble. Let me take you back, first they freed the slaves then split the black family made the woman a bearer of future consumers turn the males into recipents of warehousing prisons, sold the compliers the american dream of homeownership. An artical on the internet from cnn news said this was to hold there feet to the ground to control and I think they used the word enslave. all in all it is going to be interesting there next move for I can only think of one. they are doing it evereywhere else in the world why not here at home.
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By: Rodney C. Pittman on 11/14/2010 5:51PM
These men were not felons until they were hoarded through an hateful,racist court system.We have leaders in this country who destroyed our financial system.told lies and broke laws that caused thousands to die.They now sit on their riches and brag about it.No matter how many services these "felons" receive it would not be equal to that stolen by the rich 2%.You have chosen your career path and I guess you are happy with it.I just ask you ,please do not justify it by the suffering of the victims!!!
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By: Renard Smith on 11/14/2010 7:46PM
It's funny how most who work in a corrections environment would say this. After all, it's about your job and not about a man's rehabilitation. I worked five days a week when I was in prison. I also worked to understand who I was in relation to the crimes committed so as not to regress and be a recidivist stat. It is difficult now to not rob, steal or cheat because of the difficulties of trying to live and provide for my loved ones. I haven't done any of the aforementioned things and have no desire to . I work hard when I can find work and try to educate others on the realities of being an ex-offender and trying to respect our laws. There are many re-entry programs that try to assist offenders upon release, so I am glad that not everyone thinks as correctional officers do. Many are not proud of their transgressions and wish they could turn back time-but we can't and must accept the repercussions of our actions. The only way for us to deal with our sins is to face it squarely for what it is-transgression and rebellion-and turn back from it. But some people and policies will not allow us to do that.
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By: yngyyong on 11/15/2010 5:55AM
When corporations profit from the number of inmates under their supervision, it can create a dangerous cycle in which capitalist greed ends up impacting the lives of our fellow human beings. I am an Air Force and single at present .I need a woman who can love me back ..I also uploaded my hot photos on militaryloves.c om under the name of hoho212..It's the largest and best club for seeking Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Police Force, and the admirers of those who wear the uniform.I just hope you don't mind me being a soldier ...Please Check it out!I'm serious.
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By: gloria on 11/17/2010 2:14PM
I don't know where you get your information from. I worked as an adminstrative chaplain for 23 years for the NYS dept of corrections. If you work in an office, the desk that you sit at my just possibly have been made by an inmate. If you ever want to get DMV info, you will be talking to an inmate. Inmates do all kinds of work in upstate NY towns that came into existence because of the prison that was built there. Inmates are made to go out to clean up after major storms if they are not violent or lifers. Prisons are the modern day plantations. There are prisons that have been privitized and big companies make most of the profit from inmate labor. How do you think Ebay got started. They were East Bay that sold their products to prisoners by catalog mail. Yes I do believe that if you do the crime that you should do the time, but it should be equally imposed. It is a known fact that white men get much less time for the same crime as black men, same for white women. Do your homework. I know for a fact that whites are not descreminated against when they come out of jail the same as blacks. I retired early not because of the inmates, but the disparity of justice was so overwhelming.
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By: Steven Leonard 'Abdullah MFEMFEMF on 11/17/2010 3:27PM
No prisoner should be forced to do anything except his time. I was recently released on 9/3/10, after having spent 29 years of prison deprivation and I was never forced to work. However, when I did choose to work I was subjected to slave wages but I did it to maintain a positive prison record while incarcerated. I do know of prisons that force prisoners to choose between work or solitary confinement.
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