Marable and Blackmon Articles

Globalization and Racialisation Article/ Zinn


This article was a great supplement to the continual Zinn reading and our class discussions. 


I want to start out with a quote from the article.


"From the vantagepoint of the most oppressed U.S. populations, the New Racial Domain rests on an unholy trinity, or deadly triad, of structural barriers to a decent life. These oppressive structures are mass unemployment, mass incarceration, and mass disfranchisement. Each factor directly feeds and accelerates the others, creating an ever-widening circle of social disadvantage, poverty, and civil death, touching the lives of tens of millions of U.S. people," (Marable, p. 4).


I did an interview with someone from the Housing Authority yesterday, and part of our conversation was around how felons can't live in government subsidized housing. She told me that when people are released from jail and they put one of their (government) housing units as their address (because their family lives there), the whole family will be displaced. How do we expect people to excel in life if we don't allow them any public assistance? (Especially if we aren't rehabilitating them when they are in prison.) We send them out with no place to live and no job.


I also had another conversation yesterday that relates to this. My boyfriend was taking me out to dinner, and when we pulled up we saw lines around both sides of a Foot Locker. We wondered what kind of shoe they were releasing. When we had been sitting down in the restaurant for a few minutes he said, "Those must be a rerelease that people want, because most of the people outside had on old Adidas." (This is his subculture interest.) He then explained to me two things: one was why they only let one person in the store at a time, and the other is why the hell people would wait outside in the rain for a pair of sneakers. Apparently in the past when a shoe has been released, people rush a store, grab what they can, and run out. Additionally, people want to buy as many pairs of that shoe as they can, because they can sell them for way more money on the internet. He told me about a shoe release in New York where the police had to intervene. When they cleared the area they found brass knuckles and baseball bats. 


I obviously inquired what the big deal was. He said something along the lines of, "if you didn't have anything, wouldn't you want to take someone's sneakers that you could sell for a thousand dollars?"


If I had been living with nothing for an extended period of time, I assume I would. And back to the cycle of being unemployed and being re-incarcerated. (Please don't mistake me for saying that all ex-felons are violent thieves. I'm just saying that this is something that actually happens in our society. Is it just that someone will pay a thousand dollars for some shoes when we have a chronic problem of homelessness and hunger?)




"Mass unemployment inevitably feeds mass incarceration. About one-third of all prisoners were unemployed at the time of their arrests, and others averaged less than $20,000 annual incomes in the year prior to their incarceration," (Marable, p. 6).



Assistance to ex-felons has been taken away, and without help many are doomed to reoffend to make ends meet.



With all of our reading, I am understanding violent rebellions. (Because in school these were taught in a negative light, and without proper explanation of the plight, for example, of blacks, unemployed people, or underpaid people). 




Voter restrictions were also discussed in this article. I don't understand the rationale of taking away someone's right to vote, or voter ID laws (also taking away rights to vote). I've attached a funny Colbert clip on voter ID laws, and also an NPR report on private prisons in Texas to wrap up this section of my blog.


Colbert Report Clip on Voter ID Laws


NPR: Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns in Trouble


Blackmon Reading


This makes me crazy! A U.S. Steel executive said, "Is it fair in fact to punish people are living today, who have certain assets they might have inherited from others, or corporate assets that have been passed on? You can get to a situation where there is such a passage of time that it simply doesn't make sense and is not fair," (p. 390).


Of course trust fund babies and corporate moguls don't want their fortunes taken away. Of course there is not someone to "properly punish," because they are all dead. But on the flip side, I think decedents of slaves could say the same thing, "You can get to a situation where is such a passage of time that it simply doesn't make sense and is not fair." 150 years later and there is still a huge wealth gap between blacks and (majority white male) CEOs. Is it fair that this population has yet to receive justice after the fruits of their labor produced the wealth these white men still hold? 


It seems Wachovia made some strides after simply acknowledging grave injustices, but I still don't know if that is what Americans should settle with. 


Well, these were the two articles I wanted to touch on this week. I look forward to your posts! Have a great weekend. Visit my personal blog!