“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” - Dostoyevsky
Reading that quote, I could not help to think that my own country would be perceived by the old man as incredibly civilized.
Of course, mother Russia’s prisons wouldn’t stand up to that standard so well… neither would Guantanomo bay. But what of the prison industry that has taken hold of America recently? Is that positive or negative? Civilized or uncivilized? At least the new prisons are high tech, and I’m sure they’re not so violent as the Shawshank Redemption or any other prison film suggests. Or are they?
Is Fjodor right? Does a prison reflect the degree of civilization? If so, what is the highest, and what the lowest degree?
In America, our degree of civilization can be judged by who enters our prisons and how many… mainly Black males.
There is a great book on this deplorable racist situation called The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. See: amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Inca … 1595581030
Contrary to the rosy picture of race embodied in Barack Obama’s political success and Oprah Winfrey’s financial success, legal scholar Alexander argues vigorously and persuasively that [w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration as a system of social control (More African Americans are under correctional control today… than were enslaved in 1850). Alexander reviews American racial history from the colonies to the Clinton administration, delineating its transformation into the war on drugs. She offers an acute analysis of the effect of this mass incarceration upon former inmates who will be discriminated against, legally, for the rest of their lives, denied employment, housing, education, and public benefits. Most provocatively, she reveals how both the move toward colorblindness and affirmative action may blur our vision of injustice: most Americans know and don’t know the truth about mass incarceration—but her carefully researched, deeply engaging, and thoroughly readable book should change that.
I like that question, kuze. Not only that, but why not blame white culture? Does anyone here think that whites don’t commit the same “crimes” as the blacks in as many numbers if not more; and yet because they have money and connections, they do not find themselves disenfranchised and helping to support the prison industry and working as slaves there.
There is a great need for awareness and a change of perspective here.
hahaha glad i could help… i just think there is little effort to make a difference. some might see this is how it is supposed to happen, for the better. I see a shepherd who has too many sheep.
I see comfortable white people who think the days of racism and Jim Crow are over and just turn a blind eye to what’s going on with the criminal justice and prison establishment because it doesn’t affect them.
Personally I’ve not met anyone with those views. However, institutional racism goes beyond the criminal justice system and prison establishment. It’s evident in the education system, in small-scale social interactions and on an organisational level. However, I do believe that today’s society is far less racist (although this is hard to prove because it’s difficult to operationalise or quantify racism) than the days of Jim Crow. Although in the past decade there has been a resurgence, partially due to the “War on Terror” and also the “Arab-Israeli Conflict”, some people see this as an excuse to be more agressive towards minority races.
Also there’s a thin line between what is and isn’t racism, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Sorry if I’ve brought this off-topic slightly, don’t hate on me I’m new here
Being blind to something and stuck in one’s own comfort zone isn’t exactly a view; it’s a state or condition of mind and life. The racism driving the criminal justice and prison system is insidious for being itself active while being passive on the part of those who don’t consider themselves racists.
