Oppressing the Already Oppressed

I’d like to start this with addressing each one of the promo questions as my spring entry! it will be my completely biased opinions.

For starters, when it comes to “Political Skepticism” I’m personally effected by this tendency. Personally, on a year-to-year basis or four-by-4 basis, when it comes to the presidential election, I feel completely left out ever since I lost my voting rights in 2015. It’s almost as if part of my citizenship was taken away, regardless of the fact that I still pay taxes, love my country, and even stand behind “some” of her systems. I’m only subjected to a few of the beautiful things she has to offer her normal citizens. That is one thing that makes me “Politically Skeptical,” because all politics are supposed to be for the people of her country! Am I not a person of this country? This could lead to the touchy topic of the 13th amendment and the 3/5th laws. but that’s a latter discussion.

When it comes to Glenn Youngkin’s move to take away automatic expungement without letting the people of the Commonwealth know, seems to me to look like another way to oppress the already oppressed. Or in other terms, keeping people down who are already down for mistakes made when they were younger. And refusing to ever give them another shot at the beautiful thing America calls “freedom.” It is really sad how it keeps his pockets fat from receiving funds from the federal government for housing state inmates.
Not being able to vote myself, I’d like to eventually have my voting rights restored so my little ripple can turn into waves in America’s lake.

In the meantime I can help further educate people who are able to currently vote and getting the severity of the matter through to them. Whether they are 18 or 80, they’re needed for a better future! This would be my way of getting involved, even know I’m not fully able to participate.

Finally, America would truly benefit from knowing what she wanted if every citizen was able to vote!

Thank you for your patience, and your time is greatly appreciated as well!

Jaime Reinard
Harrisonburg, VA

The Justice System’s Antiquated

The fact that the United States still operates under post civil war era criminal justice standards is plain wrong! Governments need frameworks to establish beginnings. Not saying the way of our founder’s frameworks were the right path to take, but frameworks are needed to build period. Once the initial building is over certain things need to change (amended) or be removed to better society or just to be morally sound. Again, in this essay’s case, the justice system’s correctional approach is antiquaaaaaaaaaadaaaaaaaaaaated in our modern society, which many people have fought and died so hard to change.

One of the essay questions that i personally would like to elaborate on is question #3: How can the prison system be use to better our community?

Well, my personal opinion is that I feel the number of correctional facilities should be reduced and the closed facilities should be remodeled into immigrant/disaster relief facilities where people in need have shelter, clean water, laundry, dinning areas and grounds for medical attention. The federal government could easily funnel some of it’s money used to incarcerate the population to aide others in more immediate need. While at the same time, create jobs for the economy that current inmates could be employed that would better the economy by being paid more, therefore, taxed more. This was one of the ides I had on this year’s fall essay. Thank you for the time that you took to read this and I hope that it may take root.

Shout out to the crew behind Brilliancebehindbars.com.
Keep up the work!

J. Reinard, LVCC

Am I Imprisoned for Profit?

Editor’s Note: Quadaire has been on a long lockdown for the past few weeks, and spent some time researching the deep roots of mass incarceration. He wanted to share the facts he learned and engage the incarcerated population in Virginia.

Since its conception, America has benefit from free labor and the industry of slavery. Slavery has long been abolished, but the clause of ‘supporting it in cases of punishment for a crime’ has been continuously exploited by corporations and politicians. This has lead to the modern day social crisis of mass incarceration and the lucrative enterprise of the prion industrial complex.

Post-civil war, disgruntled Southern lawmakers sought to evade the parameters laid out by the Reconstruction Amendments (Amendments XIII, XIV, and XV). They used the exception marked out in the 13th amendment that legalized slavery in case of punishment for a crime as the basis for achieving their goal. Incarcerating former slaves disqualified their newfound citizenship, nullified their voting rights, and returned them to chains and involuntary servitude. These Southern lawmakers legislated numerous laws and policies such as “Race Codes,” “Black Codes” and many more targeting former slaves for incarceration. White Southerners effectively weaponized the law to enlist America’s Criminal Justice System as a device to perpetuate slavery under other names.

One of these reimagined forms of slavery mirrored a pre-civil war program used in Louisiana, known as “convict leasing.” Incarcerated prisoners were leased to private companies and plantations as laborers. Ironically, these programs were often many more times dangerous than slavery conditions prior. Private companies held no direct investments when it came to their leased laborers. Unlike former slave owners who stood to lose money if the slaves were to get horribly sick or die, private companies with leased convicts were less dissuaded to put them in very unsafe and hostile environments. Convicts were more harshly abused, and in many cases, company task masters would drive them to their deaths. Since the convict leasing program was facilitated through contracts between the prison and the employer, when a laborer died, the prison would simply replace them to meet their contractural obligations and business resumed as usual.

Convict leasing took numerous lives before it was outlawed. Eventually, the program was replaced by ‘correctional enterprises’ — state-owned companies that used prisoner’s forced labor. Correctional enterprises used prisoner labor to manufacture a number of products ranging from eye glasses, shoes, and state license plates. Correctional enterprises are still widely used today. While they gross multi-million dollars a year, their workers, incarcerated peoples, average to earn about $1 per day to take care of themselves and in many cases, their families.

The prison industrial complex has thus evolved. Today, the highest grossing business fueled by the incarceration of Americans is that of the private prison sector. Private prison corporations gross multi-billion dollars a year. The business arrangement set between these corporations who provide incarceration services to the governmental agencies that employ them is a simple one: Incarcerated service providers supply bed space to state and federal agencies and must meet a quote of occupants in order to satisfy their contracted obligations. The most sinister part of this dynamic is the corporations that provide private prisons are publicly traded on the stock market. Thus, anyone and everyone, even law enforcement officers can profit from an increase in the incarceration rate.

One more interesting concept to identify in the scheme of prison for profit is a little more subtle than others. In 1994, 10 years after the first installation of a private prison, the Clinton Administration enacted the Crime Act. This piece of legislation awarded incentives to the states who get more severe on crime. The Crime Act inadvertently encouraged systemic racism with monetary gain and further the profit-for-prison dynamic.

In a perfect world, we can see the logic in society profiting from anti-social acts such as crime. But in America, our racist past infects our criminal justice system to its core. Post-Civil War and Jim Crow politicians have taken advantage of that notion from the onset of the Emancipation Proclamation. Segregationist politicians worked hard to frame the tactics of the civil rights movement as ‘crime running rapid in the streets’ and spawned “tough-on-crime” politics that still serve as the breeding ground for dog whistle politics today. (as defined in Rethinking Incarceration, as racial legislation ensconced within coded rhetoric about the common good)

Never forget that the American justice system is built on principles of the slave trade, monetary gain at the cost of human lives. Everything from the low cost, low quality food being served in prison mess halls, the highly marked up nearly expired food products being pushed through commissary, excessive price tags on essentially free services such as emails, all combined with state-sponsored monetary incentives for persecuting felony charges, keeping an ample incarceration rate, and cutting corners on a bare essentials are all aimed at profiting of human lives…

All of this takes place under the guise of sound economical principles, public safety, and justice for victims, but just as slavery was regarded as a noble conquest in the eyes of many Americans, profiting from the misfortune of already poor, disparaged people is nothing more than vile, life-costing capitalism.

Quadaire Patterson

Thought Starter Questions for the Incarcerated:

Write your own essay, poem, or submit art relative to this topic. Do not forget to include your name and any contact information for any readers who may be able to offer you some assistance.

Do you believe it is possible to overcome hundreds of years of slave trade mentality in America and your lifetime?
Crime must be addressed in order to have a functional and productive society. How can society better use the prison system to work for those incarcerated and the general public?
How can the prison system be used to serve communities?
Do you believe that mass incarceration is racially motivated due to the past? Why or why not?
Do you believe America can survive without the use of slavery in one form or another?

America’s Contradictory Support for Reparations

by Lord Serious

Did you know that the United States has openly supported and even provided reparations to numerous groups who have suffered racial or ethnic oppression at the hands of a White majority? America has supported the Jewish Holocaust survivors fight for reparations from the Germans after World War II. America has provided Native Americans with reparations for its past transgressions, and it has also given reparations to Japanese victims who were confined to American concentration camps during World War II. Contrary to popular belief, reparations are not a free hand out. Reparations are usually given to a racial or ethnic group only after it has suffered an injury so severe that the party which caused the injury cannot reverse the harm, therefore, monetary compensation is given to the descendants and survivors for the purpose of making amends for the injustice that was inflicted. Most recently, President Joe Biden has approved a $460,000 payment to be given to both the parents and the Hispanic children who were separated from their parents and held in cages at the border during the Trump presidency.

Now, the uncomfortable truth is that each of these groups were entitled to receive reparations. But there is no group who has endured more inhumane treatment from the American government than Blacks living in America. No other group is more deserving of receiving reparations from the American government than the descendants of America’s former Black slaves. Yet, as I will show and prove it is our group (native Blacks living in America) who have been historically denied monetary compensation for the damage inflicted upon us by the White majority. America cannot deny its role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and until native Blacks receive fair compensation in the form of monetary restitution, we should never allow America to forget the injustice our group has suffered.

Why has no other group been subjected to the level of hostility and opposition whenever the topic of whether America should pay reparations is being discussed? In fact, when the topic of whether this nation should’ve supported the Jewish claim to extract reparations out of Germany for its role in the Jewish Holocaust, there was very little opposition to this cause. Most Americans overwhelmingly supported this and regarded it as their moral obligation as Anglo Saxon Christians. And the German government was forced to pay $55 billion to approximately 50,000 Jewish survivors of the Nazi death camps. That amounts to $1 million per survivor!

Likewise, in 1991, the United States government passed the Japanese Recovery Act which authorized payments to Japanese Americans who were relocated to American internment camps (concentration camps) during World War II. These Japanese Americans were not stripped of their culture and enslaved for multiple generations. Neither were they subjected to public lynchings, beatings, castrated, raped, or prohibited from learning how to read.

Yet, the American government paid each Japanese claimant $20,000 for the four years they spent in confinement. It only took the American government 42 years to apologize and provide Japanese Americans with reparations for their 4 years of suffering. Now contrast that to the 400 plus years native Blacks living in America have been forced to endure due to the post-traumatic effects of slavery, and not only are Blacks denied an apology or reparations from the federal government – but Blacks are also insulted and told to get over it. They tell us slavery is in the past. But how can we be expected to get over a severe injury such as 400 years of slavery when we are being systematically denied restitution to remedy the injury suffered? Why are all other groups entitled to reparations except for native Blacks in America?

Of all of the groups to receive reparations the native American’s claim may have been one of the most substantial. They had their homeland stolen by an invading force, and after fighting numerous wars against the White settlers, the native American was relocated to Indian territories which eventually were dwindled down to reservations. The native American, similar to America’s Black slave, was subjected to not only social degradation, but they also suffered physical abuse and death at the hands of these White settlers. The difference between the native American’s claim to reparations and the native Black’s claim to reparations, is significant in many ways too. Although our mistreatment at the hands of the American government share many similarities, there are also many stark differences that cannot be ignored. For instance, native Americans have been permitted to live tax-free, they have been provided parcels of land where they may live separately from the White majority, and are allowed to self-govern. Historically, native American children have been provide a tuition-free education from this government, and their children have been encouraged to learn. Furthermore, unlike Black slaves, native Americans were always free to carry firearms, they could marry members of any race, and they were free to come and go as they pleased. And most importantly, the five so-called civilized tribes of native Americans benefitted from the enslavement of Blacks. These five native American tribes not only owned slaves, but they fought on the side of the Confederacy to preserve the institution and inhumame practice of enslaving Blacks. Therefore, not only were native Americans permitted to keep their own culture, they were also permitted to fully assimilate into the White American culture. Which is a privilege Blacks are still being denied to this very day.

Yet, despite all of this assistance from the federal government, native Americans have still received far more in reparations from the United States government than the native Black who has received nothing as it concerns the harm we suffered as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. To add insult to injury, President Biden has managed pay Hispanics over $400,000 for each child and parent directly affected by Trump’s immigration policy which separated Hispanic children from their parents at the border and then locked those children in cages. So after Hispanic children suffered about four years of confinement, their group is now being rewarded with almost half a million dollars for each person affected.

Coincidentally, President Biden can’t get the George Bill passed, he won’t get the Voting Rights Bill passed to protect Blacks from voter suppression, and he refuses to even discuss the topic of providing reparations to the native Black! Yet, he had no problem getting the Anti-Asian hate crime bill passed. President Biden lost no time giving Israel $1 billion for its under the dome missile defense system. And Biden made Hispanic reparations for what occured at the border during Trump’s presidency a top priority. When viewing all of these facts in totality, there can be no doubt that America’s INACTIONS regarding its native Black’s claim to reparations have been contradictory when compared to the relative ACTIONS America has taken to provide reparations to other groups. A precedent has been set and America’s refusal to give its native Black population reparations is only compounding the injury we have suffered from this government’s discriminatory practices towards our group. Think about that. Peace!

Lord Serious is an author, blogger, podcaster, and activist. You can learn more about him by visiting his website www.Lordseriousspeaks.com. To view his other pieces on BrillianceBehindBars, click here.

HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT CRITICAL RACE THEORY

by Lord Serious

Before you make the decision to accept Critical Race Theory as the lastest progressive tool to help Blacks achieve racial equality in America, let us exercise prudence and CRITICALLY THINK about the potentail pros and cons of Critical Race Theory. We do not have to accept this theory on face value. We should test this theory, challenge it, and force it to prove its accuracy. There are many acedemic and scientific theories from cosmology to social science which initially appeared to be accurate but upon closer examination they fell flat on their face after getting debunked and discarded like yesterday’s trash. For instance, Karl Marx held the theory that every capitalist nation would collapse and transition into a socialist society. But, this theory was proven wrong. Then there was the theory that giving criminal offenders lengthy mandatory sentences would lower the crime rate when actually it did the exact opposite; it has only acted as a catalyst for corporations to privative the prison industrial complex and lobby politicians for tougher crime policies. Then there’s the criminal justice theory that justice is blind and that we are all innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But the history of American jurisprudence tells quite a different story. From the era of the Black codes and Jim Crow laws, to the era of mass incarceration due to racially biased laws like the disparity in the treatment drug offenders received for possessing/distributing powder cocaine – compared to the the sentences drug offenders received for possessing/distributing the same amount in crack cocaine, to the public policy of stop and frisk, which permitted law enforcement to racially profile “suspicious looking people” (meaning Black and Brown people). These laws and their enforcement all disproved these theories and reveal that historically Whites have weaponized the laws in this nation to target and control Blacks. Now that we all agree that just because a theory is receiving a lot of media attention, or it is being endorsed by experts or scholars in academia, this does not mean we should automatically agree. Remember, it was these same prestigious institutions of higher learning who supported all of the racist anthropologists and social experts in the 19th Century who theorized that Blacks were an inferior race to Whites. Therefore we must proceed with caution and THINK CRITICALLY about Critical Race Theory.

Next, let us analyze how this society has used race to advantage Whites and disadvantage Blacks. And while doing so, we must ask ourselves… since America has used race as a means to implement social control, does this mean we should write race off as being a purely a social construct? Since the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Berlin Conference, Whites have used race as the gatekeeper to determine who in the society is entitled to receive benefits and access to resources and who is not. Typically, in societies where Whites make up the majority, the policy has been to remain as exclusive as possible. Citizenship and naturalization is usually reserved for members of their own group. This is why early America adopted the “one drop rule”. Having one drop of Black blood in your genealogy made you a Negro in America who had no rights the White man was bound to respect. However, in areas where Whites are in the minority, yet the society is under White domination, these societies usually are far more inclusive. The trend has been whenever Whites are in the minority, they are more willing to allow fairer skinned others to pass as White. Asians, Arabs, Hispanics, and mulattoes, who are typically barred and discriminated against in majority White societies, will be classified as White or Colored when Whites are a minority in that society. A few examples of this can be found in South Africa, North Africa, Central America, and South America. This is clear and convincing evidence proving that the White race has historically used race classifications to establish White domination over any society, and it doesn’t matter if Whites make up the majority or the minority of the population. Whites have never failed to find a way to manipulate the way societies in Africa, North America, Central America, and South America determine race classifications to keep power in White hands. But using race as a tool to keep and maintain social control does not meet the scientific threshhold of proving racial classifications themselves have no biological basis.

In fact, there is an entire scientific discipline dedicated to the study of such matters and it’s called ANTHROPOLOGY. However, it’s true that during antebellum (slavery), most White anthropologists selectively interpreted the data to support their biased views on the inferiority of Blacks as a race. But does this mean we should dismiss this entire science and all of its findings as being more speculative than scientific?

Here are some undisputed facts we must consider before throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The science of anthropology has provided sufficient evidence to support the necessity of at least two racial classifications, if not three. There is a significant difference between the bone structure, bone density, and level of calcification of the pineal gland to justify acknowledging Black people and White people as two separate and distinctly different races of people. There is no evidence to support any claim that our biological differences rise to the level of requiring a separate species classification, as is the case when you compare the biological differences between our species Homo Sapien Sapiens to the Neantherthals who are now all extinct. I would also like to highlight that one contributing factor to the biological differences between Black people and White people is the fact that most White people have at least 3% of Neantherthal DNA found in their genetic make up, while Blacks have none.

For all of the above stated reasons we have enough evidence to conclude that the provision within Critical Race Theory that proposes race is merely a social construct having no biological basis is inaccurate. Therefore, the entire theory is false and it should be rejected and discarded.

However, I will now like for us to further dissect Critical Race Theory, because I’m of the opinion that it’s fundamentally important that we learn how to THINK CRITICALLY about things like Critical Race Theory. Historically, Blacks have indiscriminately accepted progressive policies, BELIEVING that these policies would perform just as advertised. We have taken your experts at their word BELIEVING that their latest social measures would finally deliver the long awaited promise of racial equality for Blacks in America. And as a result Blacks have historically found themselves victims of White subversion instead. Blacks were told that ending segregation would improve our quality of life and our children’s education. But the only thing integration did for Black people is it destroyed the Black community. Today, there are less Black home owners, less Black-owned business in our neighborhoods, and our children are still disproportionately receiving a substandard education. Blacks were also told by progressives that Affirmative Action would level the economic playing field. Instead, it has done the exact opposite. Affirmative Action has only fortified White privilege by granting White women the progress America promised to Black people. Furthermore, the unemployment rate for Blacks in this nation has typically remained around 14%.

So, the Black race in America must ask itself could Critical Race Theory be the latest Trojan Horse? Every progressive measure their experts promised would help with America’s race problem always benefitted the White race more than the Black race. Every progressive measure implemented to render support for Blacks who have been disadvantaged by the racism of Whites has always served the interest of Whites more than Blacks. This is why we must THINK CRITICALLY about Critical Race Theory. It is time for the Black race to learn how to use foresight so that we may predict how these so-called progressive measures could potentially harm Blacks more than help them. It is highly probable that though Critical Race Theory appears to be promoting what’s best for all of humanity, it is actually designed to impede the Black race’s ability to advance.

I’m sure there are some Blacks who saw the controversy surrounding Critical Race Theory and they thought to themselves: “Since racisist Whites are opposed to it and seem to hate the idea of Critical Race Theory being taught in schools, then I should be all for it because it’s teaching that racism is wrong.” But what these Blacks fail to realize is that as dangerous as overt racism is, covert racism can be just as dangerous. The White Liberal has to be a lot more cunning to conceal his racisist intent. So he designs these progressive measures and policies that are intended to incite and inflame Conservative Whites today so that he can disadvantage the unsuspecting Black race tomorrow.

Therefore when analyzing the potential long term ramifications of allowing Critical Race Theory to be taught in schools we need to look out for the following:

1. Black children once were encouraged by James Brown to “Say it loud – I’m Black and I’m proud!” But future generations will no longer understand the significance of how racial identity relates to their self identity, and as a result Blacks will be even less likely to successfully unite around their common racial group identity.

2.Black children who are taught to believe that race is a social construct having no biological basis will have no desire to learn Black history.

3. Critical Race Theory miseducates children to believe that it’s race and not White supremacy that is the social construct having no biological basis.

4. After a couple of generations of Blacks have been taught Critical Race Theory what is the likelihood that Black people will value our RACE’S unique experience enough to still hold White America accountable for the sins committed against their Black ancestors? Will Blacks still demand reparations? And by allowing Black children to be taught race doesn’t exist what grounds will future Blacks have to stand on when they need to be protected as a disadvantaged group?

5. What guarantees can these experts give us that none of these things will occur?

In conclusion, I hope that you find my take on Critical Race Theory educational and thought provoking. I even encourage you to fact check me, maybe you’ll believe Google if you don’t believe me. I know some of you are closed minded and you already had your minds made up. But my goal wasn’t to convince you of anything. I did not write this to tell anyone what they should think about Critical Race Theory, remember I wrote this to teach you HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT CRITICAL RACE THEORY. Peace!

Lord Serious is a blogger, a podcaster, and the author of two books “Apotheosis Lord Serious Hakim Allah’s Habeas Corpus Appeal” and “The Powerless Pinky”. You can learn more about Lord Serious by visiting his website www.LordSeriousSpeaks.com.

Just Maybe

Just maybe,
if I wasn’t considered 3/5ths of a hue-man being
and stripped of my nationality and creed by Europeans,
my right to vote would not denied or abridged,
my citizenship would not be secondary to his.
I would not be treated apparently with racial disparity,
my vote is my voice, my moment of clarity.

Just maybe,
if I knew the power of the vote before imprisonment
and realized the inability to vote was a hindrance
I would not be looked at as insignificant.
Just maybe, I would be treated with equality,
and not defeated by poverty.
just maybe,
they would understand my people’s psychology.

Just maybe,
if my political views weren’t misconstrued as being racist, or me being bias.
Just maybe, my views come from me being tired,
and me being bullied by Goliath.
What is power, but an illusion driven by force?
What better way to gain control than imprison the source?

Just maybe, if we were able to cast a vote,
It would give the people of the lower class some hope.
Just maybe…

My name is Antoinne Pitt, I am from Portsmouth, Virginia, currently incarcerated at Lawrenceville Correctional Center. I am the author of Thinking With A Purpose, which is a curriculum created to reduce the rate of recidivism and prevent criminal thinking and influences and the author of C.O.A.T (Countering Overdoses and Addiction Treatment) a curriculum created to combat the opioid epidemic that has plagued our nation. You can contact my publisher, Winter Giovanni, for additional information or go to www.infinitypublicationsllc.net to see my bio. You can also support my fight for freedom by signing my change.org petition, or writing a support letter to: the Secretary Of Commonwealth, P.O. Box 2454 Richmond, VA 23218- 2454.

Peace and Blessings.

Power

“The Black Man is oppressed because he has not developed the power to prevent his oppression.” -Amos Wilson

Usually Black History Month is a time to celebrate Black achievements and Black excellence, while we all spend this month sharing our knowledge about the greatness of the Black race. It is my opinion that the above quote perfectly sums up the experience of Blacks living in America. Despite our race’s numerous contributions to this society as a whole, Black people remain the most oppressed group in the United States. The purpose of Black History Month is not to give us a false sense of security. Black people cannot afford to rest on the laurels of our ancestors. None of their accomplishments have yet to liberate us from White supremacy. Therefore, the true purpose of Black History Month is to inspire new generations to surpass those who came before them. And as noteworthy as our individual achievements may be, our primary goal should be gaining the independence of our race from White domination.

In his book “Blueprint for Black Power”, Amos Wilson provides the blueprint needed to reverse engineer the structural racism within America, which was designed by White elite males, to keep Blacks permanently trapped in a subordinate position. In closing, I encourage you all to learn all that you can about the illustrious history of our race. But under no circumstances must we ever become content, because there is still so much work to be done.

Lord Serious is the author of “Apotheosis Lord Serious Hakim Allah’s Habeas Corpus Appeal” and the childrens book “The Powerless Pinky.” He is featured on the podcast “For The Culture,” which airs every Friday at 7pm EST. You can follow him on Facebook and Instagram @Lord Serious Speaks. To learn more about him visit his website www.LordSeriousSpeaks.com.

Financial Freedom

The words of the multi-platinum selling billionaire rapper and American icon point to a very factual solution to the problems Black Americans face today.

Black American’s ancestors, slaves ripped from their home country, were poor, destitute, and forced into servitude unwillingly, and were unpaid workforce and the backbone of the American economy for centuries. The physical shackles have been long released, but substituted for more subtle forms of bondage. Today, Black Americans as a whole are still experiencing the economical oppression that echoes from times pre/post/antebellum.

In a capitalist society such as America, poverty may be as good (if not worse than) death – at least death to any hope of the American dream. White Americans from back then realized the importance of economical wellness as a means to greater participation in the American dream. Through legislation, intimidation, and physical force (such as the burning down of Black Wall St. in Tulsa, Oklahoma), they were successful in stagnating the development of Black wealth, but not achieving it’s death. Those times have changed for the most part, but not entirely. The presence of systemic racism has recently been widely accepted as fact, barring a majority of Black Americans from obtaining a grip on basic livelihood, let alone equitable wealth.

Surely these are the facts, but another fact remains… to obtain true freedom in our capitalist society, it is not enough to be only physically free… you must also be free financially. That takes cooperation, persistence, and fortitude of an entire people. In addition to those characteristics, a greater perspective must be gained. A perspective encompassing generational wealth- beyond day to day, or even year to year… not only for your children, but your children’s children. Don’t think in decades, garner a perspective that equates to millennia. Rich is for the moment, true wealth is forever – accompanied with the knowledge and wisdom not only to survive, but thrive…

– Q. Patterson, #1392272

The Cycle of Victimization

When will we, as a country, began to see crime as an extension of a vicious cycle of victimization?

I myself – a ‘convict’ – have been beaten, abused, shot, and stabbed… ridiculed, rebuffed, and victimized. None of my assailants were arrested, or put to trail. Even now, I do not wish the harshest of punishments to befall them. I wish only for a chance for their hearts and minds to be changed…

When I see people who have been victims of crime profess that the people behind bars should face more punishment, I wonder to myself how easy it is for people to forget that they (the ones incarcerated/the “criminals”) are victims themselves: victims of financial oppression and social oppression, victims of mental illness, victims of emotional dilapidation. It’s so easy to ignore the voices of those victims… easier to sacrifice the tears of ‘con-victims’ to appease the ‘real’ victims.

Do not misunderstand, I do not disregard their loss or abuse. NO ONE should have to go through such, life itself is hard enough. I merely want to offer a perspective that may hopefully open the mind’s eye and get us on a path to ending m the vicious cycle of victimization.

I hear the testimony of state senators about constituents as victims of rapes and murders. I also hear the testimony of incarcerated constituents as victims of molestations, fathers and family members lost to wrongful deaths, poverty and abusive upbringings… what I see, what I hear, rings a tone of hurt people, hurting people… is it right? NO. But neither is the outlook that the prisons that span this country coast-to- coast do not house the majority of the greatest victims of society.

This is an injustice that will only serve to further the vicious cycle of victimization… and continue to cost lives… to the grave of the prison system.

– Q. Patterson, BrillianceBehindBars Creator, #1392272

Prompt: (Non)/Violent Criminal Justice in Virginia

The fight to dismantle a racist criminal justice system and free disadvantaged minorities from the grip of systemic racism is an uphill battle… Fear is the prime strategy for politicians who favor long term confinement and profitable human warehousing, rather than opting to see the human soul as capable and worthy of rehabilitation. Fear is easiest, because it does not have to be given to anyone. It is primal, and everyone already has it in abundance.

I caught a bit of the Virginia State Senate meet on prison reform and wondered to myself how easy is it to hide the truth of profile-fueled mass incarceration behind the myth of a colorblind justice, and promoting “community safety” as a means of pumping more young black and brown men through the proverbial prison pipeline…

The senators, representing their respective counties, some for numerous terms and spanning decades of elections, stood to give their uninventive political spiel. Lofty, fear-writhed narratives framing Virginia’s prisons full of rapists, murderous lunatics who can’t for Christ’s sake ever be trusted with civil privilege again… That fantasy propagated by our state senate is far from truth… I’ve also come to find that most politicians at the state senate level just so happen to know numerous victims of overtly violent crimes, and no people incarcerated for crimes of any type. I found that concerning… it’s the tell-tell sign of a major disconnect between politicians and so many minorities who are faced with the ‘awesome’ fact of incarceration illy effecting their families and communities.

The senate pleaded for an amendment that extented the good time earning credit to only those incarcerated that have charges falling within the category of “non-violent.” This provision does not meet the cause for which special session was prescribed – reformation for racial and social justice. The simple fact being that most falling under the non-violent criteria happen to be white ‘victims’ of the drug epidemic. Once again, a chance for some correction of the racist system to take place may be manipulated, distorted, and amended to meet the needs of the already privileged.

Though the provisions for “violent offenders” likes to cite murderers, rapists, and other sexual offenders as the centerpiece of its public safety interest, it is an examination of the more ambiguous crimes of desperation that exposes a line-teetering sensible policy making and subtle racist devices of the past still being unknowingly used to disempower and disenfranchise minorities today…

The crime of robbery, majorally effecting downtrodden poor minorities, a crime of desperation, is considered a violent crime whether actual violence occurred as a result of the act or not. A large portion of the prison system is made up of robbery charges… some were accompanied with coinciding charges identifying violence, such as malicious wounding or assault. Others, not so much.

A crime such as robbery is not a result of some mania or perversion of mind in most cases. This crime directly reflects the pressures facing a 1st world society and its social systems failing its most needed citizens. It is economical disparities that create the prototype robber, not some lust for violence. It just happens to be black and brown Americans that make up the lower side of that economical ladder. Black and brown men are no more violent than any other race in this country, therefore there must be some deeper reasoning behind the mass incarceration of these people.

Aided by time and information, the once ago capital of the Confederacy has made strides in the abolishment of racism… But the dismounting of monuments means little if the ideals behind those statues remains in tact and still dictate how minorities are treated in this country today…

Prompt: What do you think about the criminal justice system in Virginia and how they are separating violent and non-violent offenders?

What do people need to know about you that would show them that you are human? Imperfect, but full of limitless potential and capable of astonishing change…

We are accepting different form of expression, (writings, essays, poetry, and art) that highlight the question at hand.

-Q. Patterson, BrillianceBehindBars Creator