Right now Black Lives Matter, and racism hasn’t died. Far from it. And, with Islamophobia on the rise again, Muslim lives matter…no doubt. Y sabes que, Brown Lives Matter also. Far too long, we have been made invisible and marginalized in many aspects of society. Yet again, Chicanxs face racism as a third “Other” in forms of immigration reform, mass incarceration, and a broken system that doesn’t favor a person of color.
Some issues fought against during the Chicano Movement (police brutality/racist policing) are still evident today and the pinche media isn’t giving it play. We’re not aware of it, otherwise. Our Latinx leaders have proven inept to act on it as well, while other leaders in the Black community have brought the ruckus. Chicanx social justice activists have been at the front of the defense of those incarcerated. It’s there, and you need to care.
The BLM movements center around police homicides and brutality, mass incarceration, racist policing, unfair legal representation, and overall a broken criminal justice system. It’s the New Jim Crow and it doesn’t only affect our African-American brothers and sisters. 1 out of 5 of our Latino carnales is in jail. It’s more than likely for mota and not because they are the only ones using it exclusively, or at a higher rate than White males, but because law enforcement through the “Drug War” has targeted our barrios at higher rates than the White neighborhoods. This goes for the “Black” neighborhoods as well. Law enforcement justifies patrolling in Black/Latino hoods and barrios with reports on higher arrests, and other inflated statistics that don’t describe the problem of crime.
The truth is, it’s despicable and is just a piece of the Prison Industrial Complex where private prisons reap profits for the more inmates they have. The New Jim Crow describes the rise of the police state, the private prison-building industry, and of its capitalist connection to private interests. Overall, the New Jim Crow and Mass Incarceration of people of color, namely Blacks & Latinos, is unwarranted and propelled by racial profiling, in addition to racist policing that has escalated the criminalization of people of color creating the age of Mass Incarceration since the 1980s. Since then, the American prison population has quadrupled from roughly 500,000 to 2.3 million people, while the US represents 5% of the World population yet has 25% of world prisoners.” That’s definitely something to take in.
As Medellin alludes to in the film Sicario, we aren’t truly free anymore, “…this is the Land of Wolves”.
Pero juntos, African Americans and Latinxs comprise 59% of all prisoners in 2010, even though African Americans and Latinos only make up approximately one quarter of the US population. For Latinos, we represent 16% of the US population and 19% of the US prison population. For our mujeres, it’s even worse, and that’s not good. Latina.com reports that “Latinas make up one of the fastest-growing groups imprisoned” and a “majority of these mujeres are locked up for nonviolent drug offenses.” Damn sister. No voy a mentir, that’s rough, fam. In Texas, the numbers are similar. This is disproportionate, skewed, and it’s not cool. It’s like…¡no mames, guey!
Why should we care that so many people of color, our Xicanx hermanos y hermanas, are locked up? Aren’t they criminals? Shouldn’t criminals pay for their crimes and mistakes? Pues…si y no. If our criminal justice system was fair, then possibly. But even then, the idea of “doing time”/ “paying your dues to society” in a criminal justice prison system, should mean, that once your time is done, you’re back in the game, aka civil society. But that isn’t the case. With the alarming incarceration of people of color, the majority of these arrests are for drug offenses, mostly marijuana as alluded to. The President and the Department of Justice are basically ready to legalize marijuana, many states (Colorado, Washington, Montana, etc.) have already legalized/decriminalized weed, and a movement is growing to pardon nonviolent drug offenders, ridding the prison system of needed space for actual violent offending criminals. How are carnales in Tejas getting booked for dope, when white boys in Colorado ski towns like Breckenridge, are getting rich and high legally and without worry or risk? Chale, homie.
The problem with the New Jim Crow, the Drug War, and the Age of Mass Incarceration is that our people of color are getting jailed/imprisoned at higher, disproportionate rates and the effects after incarceration are long lasting. The effects on family, on economy, to the community, on one’s citizenship are impactful. Once a felon, you’re basically a second class citizen with limited afforded rights and opportunities: can’t vote, can’t get financial aid for school, can’t get social assistance (housing, etc.), can’t get a decent paying job with a living wage, and are stigmatized as a “criminal” for life, even after “doing the time”. Chinga, if that’s the case, it’s no wonder, carnales can’t get out of the trap game. Entiendes, Mendes? Instead of rehabilitating the inmate, our criminal justice system only punishes our brothers and sisters, negatively reinforcing the downward spiral of living in the barrio, surviving the punk police, and the capitalist economy that favors the white and the rich, who can apparently get away with a lot of jale, pun intended vato.
We’re “taught” at a young age, to respect the Law, but the Law doesn’t respect us, and never has. We’ve never been treated equally. Even after the victories of the Chicano movement, we’re largely invisible in society, in the media, and in the discussion of Mass Incarceration. This contributes to the idea that it’s a black/white thing, and to the idea in the communidad that the people in jail are up to no good, and deserve what they get. But, no mames, that’s not the case, especially when our brothers and sisters are racially profiled, with higher patrol rates in our ‘hoods/barrios, traffic stops, etc. We need to know that Latinxs, Xicanxs, and our African-American brothers and sisters are not treated fairly by the law, and it’s because of fear. Fear of THE FUTURE. Fear of the OTHER. Fear of the so-called “minority”. Its fear that the “White” status quo way of life will fade away, and become Brown. Y sabes que, it will.
The 2040s. Wait if for it, as the Third Root, el Tercer Raiz, grows to potential. Let’s hope that by then, sometime between 2040 & 2045, the US isn’t a complete right-wing, corporate-fascist prison State, and that democracy still exists. Para mi pueblo. The 2040s, the era of the New Majority—the age when the Black and Brown collectively become the majority of US population. It’s fair to say that we live in a racist nation. Just look at Trump and his followers, and the rest of the GOP. Pinches racistas, they want to imprison Mexicanos and Muslims. ¡A la _________! But by 2045, when the white population is the actual collective minority, and we will have had our first Latina president, and many other “firsts” (a sad reflection of our inequality, by the way), it’ll be Black and Brown that should be represented in every facet of society: education, commerce, politics, art, technology, etc.--not just in prison.
To get there, we need to organize, we need to realize that the Black and Brown are one, and have always been one. We need to realize that the punk police are racist, and they need to be taught how to protect and serve our communities. We need to wake up to the New Jim Crow, and fight the legalization & decriminalization legal battles; and also, protest, organize, innovate for the end of Mass Incarceration WITH our Black brothers and sisters, from the ground up. But if we don’t, we stand by, watch, and allow for our people of color to be imprisoned and limited.
The criminal justice system needs fixing. As the Drug Policy Alliance recommends, here’s a start I’m down with, and it’s only the beginning: Decriminalize drug possession, eliminate policies that result in disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates by changing police practices, and end policies that exclude former incarcerated from key rights and opportunities. Another US criminal justice system is possible. It’s about truth, knowledge, justice, and equality.
End Mass Incarceration and the New Jim Crow. Solidarity!/¡Solidaridad!
Some issues fought against during the Chicano Movement (police brutality/racist policing) are still evident today and the pinche media isn’t giving it play. We’re not aware of it, otherwise. Our Latinx leaders have proven inept to act on it as well, while other leaders in the Black community have brought the ruckus. Chicanx social justice activists have been at the front of the defense of those incarcerated. It’s there, and you need to care.
The BLM movements center around police homicides and brutality, mass incarceration, racist policing, unfair legal representation, and overall a broken criminal justice system. It’s the New Jim Crow and it doesn’t only affect our African-American brothers and sisters. 1 out of 5 of our Latino carnales is in jail. It’s more than likely for mota and not because they are the only ones using it exclusively, or at a higher rate than White males, but because law enforcement through the “Drug War” has targeted our barrios at higher rates than the White neighborhoods. This goes for the “Black” neighborhoods as well. Law enforcement justifies patrolling in Black/Latino hoods and barrios with reports on higher arrests, and other inflated statistics that don’t describe the problem of crime.
The truth is, it’s despicable and is just a piece of the Prison Industrial Complex where private prisons reap profits for the more inmates they have. The New Jim Crow describes the rise of the police state, the private prison-building industry, and of its capitalist connection to private interests. Overall, the New Jim Crow and Mass Incarceration of people of color, namely Blacks & Latinos, is unwarranted and propelled by racial profiling, in addition to racist policing that has escalated the criminalization of people of color creating the age of Mass Incarceration since the 1980s. Since then, the American prison population has quadrupled from roughly 500,000 to 2.3 million people, while the US represents 5% of the World population yet has 25% of world prisoners.” That’s definitely something to take in.
As Medellin alludes to in the film Sicario, we aren’t truly free anymore, “…this is the Land of Wolves”.
Pero juntos, African Americans and Latinxs comprise 59% of all prisoners in 2010, even though African Americans and Latinos only make up approximately one quarter of the US population. For Latinos, we represent 16% of the US population and 19% of the US prison population. For our mujeres, it’s even worse, and that’s not good. Latina.com reports that “Latinas make up one of the fastest-growing groups imprisoned” and a “majority of these mujeres are locked up for nonviolent drug offenses.” Damn sister. No voy a mentir, that’s rough, fam. In Texas, the numbers are similar. This is disproportionate, skewed, and it’s not cool. It’s like…¡no mames, guey!
Why should we care that so many people of color, our Xicanx hermanos y hermanas, are locked up? Aren’t they criminals? Shouldn’t criminals pay for their crimes and mistakes? Pues…si y no. If our criminal justice system was fair, then possibly. But even then, the idea of “doing time”/ “paying your dues to society” in a criminal justice prison system, should mean, that once your time is done, you’re back in the game, aka civil society. But that isn’t the case. With the alarming incarceration of people of color, the majority of these arrests are for drug offenses, mostly marijuana as alluded to. The President and the Department of Justice are basically ready to legalize marijuana, many states (Colorado, Washington, Montana, etc.) have already legalized/decriminalized weed, and a movement is growing to pardon nonviolent drug offenders, ridding the prison system of needed space for actual violent offending criminals. How are carnales in Tejas getting booked for dope, when white boys in Colorado ski towns like Breckenridge, are getting rich and high legally and without worry or risk? Chale, homie.
The problem with the New Jim Crow, the Drug War, and the Age of Mass Incarceration is that our people of color are getting jailed/imprisoned at higher, disproportionate rates and the effects after incarceration are long lasting. The effects on family, on economy, to the community, on one’s citizenship are impactful. Once a felon, you’re basically a second class citizen with limited afforded rights and opportunities: can’t vote, can’t get financial aid for school, can’t get social assistance (housing, etc.), can’t get a decent paying job with a living wage, and are stigmatized as a “criminal” for life, even after “doing the time”. Chinga, if that’s the case, it’s no wonder, carnales can’t get out of the trap game. Entiendes, Mendes? Instead of rehabilitating the inmate, our criminal justice system only punishes our brothers and sisters, negatively reinforcing the downward spiral of living in the barrio, surviving the punk police, and the capitalist economy that favors the white and the rich, who can apparently get away with a lot of jale, pun intended vato.
We’re “taught” at a young age, to respect the Law, but the Law doesn’t respect us, and never has. We’ve never been treated equally. Even after the victories of the Chicano movement, we’re largely invisible in society, in the media, and in the discussion of Mass Incarceration. This contributes to the idea that it’s a black/white thing, and to the idea in the communidad that the people in jail are up to no good, and deserve what they get. But, no mames, that’s not the case, especially when our brothers and sisters are racially profiled, with higher patrol rates in our ‘hoods/barrios, traffic stops, etc. We need to know that Latinxs, Xicanxs, and our African-American brothers and sisters are not treated fairly by the law, and it’s because of fear. Fear of THE FUTURE. Fear of the OTHER. Fear of the so-called “minority”. Its fear that the “White” status quo way of life will fade away, and become Brown. Y sabes que, it will.
The 2040s. Wait if for it, as the Third Root, el Tercer Raiz, grows to potential. Let’s hope that by then, sometime between 2040 & 2045, the US isn’t a complete right-wing, corporate-fascist prison State, and that democracy still exists. Para mi pueblo. The 2040s, the era of the New Majority—the age when the Black and Brown collectively become the majority of US population. It’s fair to say that we live in a racist nation. Just look at Trump and his followers, and the rest of the GOP. Pinches racistas, they want to imprison Mexicanos and Muslims. ¡A la _________! But by 2045, when the white population is the actual collective minority, and we will have had our first Latina president, and many other “firsts” (a sad reflection of our inequality, by the way), it’ll be Black and Brown that should be represented in every facet of society: education, commerce, politics, art, technology, etc.--not just in prison.
To get there, we need to organize, we need to realize that the Black and Brown are one, and have always been one. We need to realize that the punk police are racist, and they need to be taught how to protect and serve our communities. We need to wake up to the New Jim Crow, and fight the legalization & decriminalization legal battles; and also, protest, organize, innovate for the end of Mass Incarceration WITH our Black brothers and sisters, from the ground up. But if we don’t, we stand by, watch, and allow for our people of color to be imprisoned and limited.
The criminal justice system needs fixing. As the Drug Policy Alliance recommends, here’s a start I’m down with, and it’s only the beginning: Decriminalize drug possession, eliminate policies that result in disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates by changing police practices, and end policies that exclude former incarcerated from key rights and opportunities. Another US criminal justice system is possible. It’s about truth, knowledge, justice, and equality.
End Mass Incarceration and the New Jim Crow. Solidarity!/¡Solidaridad!