Category: The Truth
we’ll see how this goes
This is NOT my article…i found it at http://blog.norml.org/2010/03/10/the-new-jim-crow-how-the-war-on-drugs-gave-birth-to-a-permanent-american-undercaste/
take a look . . .
“I work this issue every day and am well aware of the racist nature of the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs. But even I wasn’t aware of the outrageous statistics comparing the Drug War to Jim Crow era. Michelle Alexander lays it all out in her new book, The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste:
- There are more African Americans under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.
- As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.
- A black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery. The recent disintegration of the African American family is due in large part to the mass imprisonment of black fathers.
- If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas have been labeled felons for life. (In the Chicago area, the figure is nearly 80%.) These men are part of a growing undercaste — not class, caste — permanently relegated, by law, to a second-class status. They can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits, much as their grandparents and great-grandparents were during the Jim Crow era.
The uncomfortable truth, however, is that crime rates do not explain the sudden and dramatic mass incarceration of African Americans during the past 30 years. Crime rates have fluctuated over the last few decades — they are currently are at historical lows — but imprisonment rates have consistently soared. Quintupled, in fact. And the vast majority of that increase is due to the War on Drugs. Drug offenses alone account for about two-thirds of the increase in the federal inmate population, and more than half of the increase in the state prison population.
The drug war has been brutal — complete with SWAT teams, tanks, bazookas, grenade launchers, and sweeps of entire neighborhoods — but those who live in white communities have little clue to the devastation wrought. This war has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies consistently show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates. In fact, some studies indicate that white youth are significantly more likely to engage in illegal drug dealing than black youth. Any notion that drug use among African Americans is more severe or dangerous is belied by the data. White youth, for example, have about three times the number of drug-related visits to the emergency room as their African American counterparts.
That is not what you would guess, though, when entering our nation’s prisons and jails, overflowing as they are with black and brown drug offenders. In some states, African Americans comprise 80%-90% of all drug offenders sent to prison.”
the question is, what are you going to do about it?
This short film which will be entered into Campus Movie Fest 2010 was directed by Stephon Bristol, produced by Ezekiel Phillips and edited by Khalifah Muhammad, please take the time out and watch it. Tell me what you think.
I’m sure everyone has heard already but in case you haven’t, Haiti is facing a serious crisis. Earlier this week, Haiti was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake earlier this week. Many have been hurt and many more have been affected. Rappers, entertainers and the United States as a whole has donated money, but there is always more we can do. Read below:
Text the word “ Yele” to 501501 to donate $5
On behalf of the Yéle Foundation, the leading contributor to rebuilding Haiti founded by Wyclef Jean
Text the word “ Haiti” to 85944 to donate $5
On behalf of the Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International
Text the word “ Haiti” to 25383 to donate $5
On behalf of the Internal Rescue Committee
Text the word “ Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10
On behalf of the Red Cross in the U.S.
Text the word “ Haiti” to 45678 (In Canada Only)
On behalf of the Salvation Army in Canada
Please take ten seconds out of your day to donate, whether it be five or ten dollars. We can all make a difference. Haiti has needed help for a long time, it’s a shame it took such a terrible disaster for most people to realize. Also, do whatever you can to spread the word. For more information on these organizations, please visit the following site:
http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/news/2010/jan/14/text-help-haiti/
Also Morehouse Has been collecting backpacks for Haiti with special help from Nisa Muhammad of the Wedded Bliss Foundation, give what you can.
Welcome back for another Rare Impression folks. You’ve heard the gospel, now hear the science. You’ve heard the truth before; hopefully you came back for some more. Hopefully what I am typing is enough for you to read and if you don’t feel like reading, you can scroll down and watch some videos. This isn’t for the weak hearted. We live in times where unity is more important than ever. There is an economic recession forcing people and families to come together to help one another after a job loss or even finding a job. Unity works. Going to an HBCU is supposed to bring unity and I’m pretty sure anyone who goes to one can tell you that at most colleges’ unity is stressed. But what happens when you leave your campus and go out into the world? Just because people around you aren’t unified, doesn’t mean you have to stop trying, right?
Unity plays a major role in society and if you look at any great nation, people, or group, they all overcame difficulties and accomplished great things with unity. There are many forms of unity which I can discuss like what it takes for a team to be successful, businesses that go boom or bust but the unity I’m going to be talking about here is marriage.
Yeah i know lol, i said, “Marriage”. Don’t get excited, calm down.
I was having a conversation with my friend about women and it shocked me to say the least. He said, “I’m a find me a nice fine woman, we’re goin to be in love and she’s to have my children and we’re going to live happily ever after.” I replied, “I like how you left out the marriage part lol” and he replied saying “Come on now, that’s white people stuff, you know real black people don’t get married.”
Marriage is white people’s stuff?
And it hit me. Is this how we really think? Is this how we were raised? So I did some research and asked my other friends. Most of my friends come from single parent homes and when asked questions about marriage, they said similar words about not getting married. Some of them do want to get married and others don’t take it seriously. Why is that though? Life is about visuals and as the conversation went on, it became clear that most people in black communities haven’t seen a good positive marriage where the people who were happily married, looked like them. Growing up, we listened to things that didn’t promote marriage too much in the black community so it all lead to the same question, “Why get married?”
After all the deliberation, I’ve done some research. The places where marriage is low, so is the money. The poorest places have few if any married people and the cities with the most crime do so as well. These communities also have poor schools, poor shopping outlets, lots of liquor stores and carryouts. Look at communities where there are married people and you see something different. More money, better houses, better schools, lower crime and in general better life.
In slavery times, nearly ALL of black people were born out of wedlock. “But Khalifah that was hundreds of years ago!” And if you said that, you would be right. However, today’s statistics show us that 70% of black people are born out of wedlock. It may seem like it was thousands of years ago but if we are free then why are we acting like we’re still enslaved? But I guess no one sees a problem in that…
If you go to the prison systems, you will see a lot of people that are colored mostly Black and Latino. Black people don’t even make up that much of America but yet we make up most of the prisons. And in some cities, 80% of the people in prison come from single parent homes.
How is it that a small amount of people can have the highest divorce rate, the lowest marriage rate and the highest out of wedlock birth rate? No one sees a problem with this?
Back in the day when things we’re segregated, Black people had to stay to themselves. They needed each other and had no choice but to support each other. If it weren’t for the unification of the Black Man and Woman, we never would’ve made it where we are today. Strong marriages got us through reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Klu Klux Klan, segregation and the Civil Rights movement. Imagine if Barack Obama didn’t have a wife, but had a “baby mother.” Imagine if Martin Luther King didn’t have a wife, but had “side joints.” Rosa Parks was able to sit down on the bus because she had a husband at home to take care of her.
The destruction of a nation starts with the woman, and if all we’re doing is playing marriage and divorcing our women, whats going to happen tomorrow?
BTW I’m not saying marriage is THE new solution that is going to fix the neighborhood of life, but if you were to look at the statistics how could you not see that the foundation that is already laid down? Life is like a neighborhood, we have the study guide as neighbor, we have the helpful hints across the street, so i guess you can say in this neighborhood of life, marriage is down the street and the answer is right around the corner.
That’s the rare impression I’m leaving you all with today.
This post is filled with the gospel truth so if you don’t like reading or gaining knowledge, you can scroll down and watch a video. This is the truth. After going to a HBCU for only 1 semester so far, it kinda put things into perspective. Many of my friends go to prestigious schools and i would say i do too. After getting into a huge debate with people who DON’T go to a HBCU it is very clear how the world looks at us. When you go to college, you’re not your own person until you graduate. Until you graduate, you are your college/university, unless you go to a HBCU. They see you as a black person going to a black college. Many people may challenge this statement and many people may agree. HBCUs are the only colleges/universities still teaching African Americans knowledge of self, a teaching that is a dying breed. Now a days the knowledge of self is “primitive” because we are all “humans” and some would even say that HBCUs aren’t needed. Thats where Rare Impression comes in. Rare Impression. Just think of that phrase. Every college has left its history and its own impression on the world. When you think of Harvard, you don’t think of Drexel. Why? Because they stand alone. But for some reason, when you think of Morehouse, people like to bring up other HBCUs like we are a subdivision of higher intellect. This has to stop. The people attending HBCUs have their own life, own ways, and own thoughts that the rest of the world doesn’t see. They say HBCUs aren’t diverse, but yet i’ve seen the most diverse people just by going to Morehouse for one semester. Some of us are really into books, some of us want to be stars, and theres many more attributes that I can’t even touch upon. The world puts us all into one group no matter what HBCU you go to. It could be Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, etc. All they see is “historical BLACK college/university.” By the end of my 4 years at Morehouse, I will have shown the world the many faces of a HBCU.
