Headlines of the Week (Or Whatever)

These are things that exist in the world.

Prison Wife Apparel

Slideshow: Sad Dads at One Direction

Hillbilly Beatboxing is a real thing in the world.

Headlines of the Week (Or Whatever)

Death Penalty and Race: Race of Homicide Victims in Cases Resulting in an Execution since 1976

Economic harassment and the Ferguson crisis

Why I Don’t Call the Police: Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Debra Harrell. And that’s just the latest.

White Privilege: An Insidious Virus that’s Eating America from Within

What I've Learned from Two Years Collecting Data on Police Killings

What Militarization Has Done to Our Police Departments: A few facts you might have missed about the flow of military equipment and tactics to local law enforcement.

Whitewashing and the Problem With the Ice Bucket Challenge

James Kenneth Embry

James Kenneth Embry had a mental illness. James Kenneth Embry was a drug addict. James Kenneth Embry went to prison for drugs. James Kenneth Embry was denied medication for his mental illness in prison. James Kenneth Embry died of starvation in an American prison.

James Kenneth Embry was a human being. James Kenneth Embry deserved care on the streets of Murka and James Kenneth Embry deserved care in a cage in Murka.

Dammit, Murka. I'd bet $20 that this man took drugs because he had a mental illness. Instead of treating him, we imprison him and then instead of treating him, we kill him.

I don't have really anything else to say, except that we are not even close to the great country on Earth.

On Privilege

From my Honors Colloquium II term paper:

“What the advocates of our dangerous and deepening social amnesia don’t understand is how deeply the past holds the future in its grip—even, and perhaps especially, when it remains unacknowledged.” ~Timothy B. Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name

In our society, we are taught that racism, sexism, and classism, inasmuch as they still exist in our modern society, are things that put others at a disadvantage. The interesting corollary to this is for every person put at a disadvantage, someone has an advantage. In an essay on the topic, entitled “The Breeze at My Back”, Dr. Michael Kimmel, esteemed sociologist and author, compared privilege to running in the wind, stating:

“To walk or run with that same wind at your back is to float, to sail effortlessly, expending virtually no energy. You do not feel the wind; it feels you. You do not feel how it pushes you along; you feel only the effortlessness of your movements. You feel like you could go on forever. It is only when you turn around and face that wind that you realize its strength. Being white, or male, or heterosexual in this culture is like running with the wind at your back. It feels like just plain running, and we rarely if ever get a chance to see how we are sustained, supported, and even propelled by that wind.”

Prison Reform Rant

To everyone who dismisses the idea of prison reform because 'prison isn't supposed to be nice'. Or easy, or fun, or whatever adjective you like.

Do you like paying to incarcerate people with a treatable condition? To then pass on the financial burden of intergenerational incarceration to your children and your children's children? Is finding ways to help your fellow men, women and children to succeed so hard to swallow? Personally, I rather like the idea of a win win situation.

I care if my fellow Americans suffer. I understand that many of them are there for BS 'crimes' drummed up and criminalized in order to make money for the prisons. I understand that every American commits, on average, of three felonies a day and I don't spend my time looking down on regular people when I'm a regular person myself.

I understand that treatment is less expensive than incarceration, and I'm pissed that our lawmakers would rather waste my money on incarceration than spend it actually helping people. I understand that many of these people came out of homes with incarcerated parents and foster care with less than basic reading skills and can't get a job. (You know, just as an aside, there simply aren't jobs for 1 out of 5 people whom are currently unemployed, and people in prison don't even count towards that number!)

I understand that incarceration doesn't just affect the prisoner. It affects their whole family, and the entire community. I understand that as an Oklahoman, an American, and a freaking human being, I am a part of this community, and I want my money spent on things that help other people. Otherwise, it's a waste of money and lives.

And if you think that Oklahoma's prisons are a vacation, then you obviously haven't been sexually assaulted in one, as three out of five Oklahoma prisoners are. Do you think that rape is an acceptable punishment for a childless woman in possession of marijuana, or for leaking a music track onto the Internet without permission?

I don't.

Then again, I'm a human being.