Dedicated to humanizing incarcerated people through the expressive vessels of their art and literature. Committed to accelerate higher education and careers post-conviction.
Racism can be over come and by nature is not able to establish the human race. I am not one who experienced much racism openly but have felt many of the after effects of the hatred that stems from racism. As long as people continue to keep the mindset that one race is superior, to another none will be able to reach their highest capacity for growth.
In fact each and every one of us are needed to support each other so that we can become what we truly are, which is ONE race. I truly have hope for changes within the system, that they will improve all of our living conditions but unless these changes touch the hearts of those who have had to endure mistreatment through these growing pains, no real change can be made. It all starts with you.
My name is Shaveek Pittman and I am currently incarcerated at Lawrenceville Correctional Center.
-Shaveek Pittman Contributing Writer | Virginia #1870834
The halfway point has arrived, establishing this year as the tilling: the cracking of the ground and ingrained systemic racism – granting some air to the fertile soil of change that has desperately been fighting for breath.
A pandemic – resembling a biblical pestilence; and protest – resembling a spiritual famine… what is this? The exodus? Who knows what powers are at work. But what is known (and is clear) are the frustrations baring down on the souls of the free… and now those souls seek the surface…
The pandemic has given time to those who were too engulfed in their own daily struggles to see the lifetime national collective struggle of our country and our world. Protests, like the pandemic, have reached beyond seas and touch minds and hearts of blacks, whites, and all colors of multiple nationalities that believe in the ideals of equality and freedom perpetuated and woefully being contradicted by our country. Those contradictions stand to tear the free world apart. But ever-resilient is the spirit of mankind, and even more pervasive is the spirit of freedom that drives man to fight.
To fight from chains onto an identity. To fight from poverty onto prosperity.
We must not forget, injustice festers in a state of complacency. Forever vigilant, is the eye of the one who fights for freedom. The energy for the movement towards true change is robust, but momentous. We cannot allow the visions of truth and justice to flee once this one ceiling gives way. And when I say we, I say ALL who believe, faithfully, that justice and equality are more substantial than empty undertones hinting to a state unattainable by the human family.
Some people profess: “well if the pandemic didn’t hit, then this wouldn’t be as intense,” or “If we had a different president, we wouldn’t be going through this.” All could be true. Even so, I myself believe that even when others like to disregard it in these tragic times, everything happens for a reason. Even the struggling is purposeful. Us, as a nation having to endure Trump, having to suffer through coronavirus, and the tragic loss of George Floyd, each egregious event holds its stake in the change to come.
I spoke with my mother one day and expressed my depression, seeing the early stage of the protests turning violent. My mother thought I was depressed because the people were violent. I told her it wasn’t that the people were violent, it was because the people they felt HAD to be violent in order to be heard… that tension over what is clearly a mistreatment of human rights was ignored to the point of explosion… My mother then reminded me that ‘change takes time, and the more monumental the change, the more time it it’ll take…’ She said her grandmother was a slave, her mother lived through civil rights, and she endured the social injustices of the 70’s. Now, our generation, and its youth, masses of whites, blacks, Asians; the modern make of America, take to the streets to push even harder towards equality’s inevitable fruition.
The seed of freedom has been sown in every lasts one of us.
Even in their most hopeless conditions, our ancestors nurtured that seed for generations, and for the generations to come. Now, that seed has pushed beyond the dirt. It has pushed beyond the unknown and hypothetical. To greet and take in the sun and its light… to take in its truth.
We NOW know. The idea of freedom and equality are no longer ambiguous or relegated to some seemingly special privileged class of people. No. It is known now that freedom is an inalienable right of every one human being ingrained in the soil of all who are blessed to take part in the life. So no, I am not distraught by the fighting. Because those who fight, are fighting for what is theirs…
May the souls of every person be aflame with the fires of freedom.
May every tear and drop of blood not be in vain, nor let the blood cool over illusions of freedom.
Continue to fight with every bit of your life, because the world of tomorrow is authored by the heroes of today…
Forever my love and strength to the movement, Q. Patterson
Brilliance Behind Bars 