Last class we got a taste of the reality of the New York criminal justice system. Since we focused on particular incidents, I feel that I should focus this blog on the two readings and incorporate with Thomas Giovanni’s visit.
I would like to first start with Glenn Loury’s article, “Obama, Gates and American Black Man.” He begins his Op-Ed story with a quote by General Eric Holder, which truly encompassed racial problems within America.
“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot,” Mr. Holder said, “in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”
I agree with General Eric Holder’s quote, we tend to just accept racial barriers and problems as being another hurdle in life. Of course there are those, like the NAACP, that focus all of their energy on ending these problems, but the point is when is it going to end? Loury compared the incident of Gates as an everyday issue that occurs to a black man in America, but because of his connection with Obama the incident was publicized. I fully agree with Loury’s article, we all in some way just live with these racial problems, and instead of taking them head on as a nation we sit on the sidelines like cowards.
Another point I found interesting was when Loury states, “However, such behavioral problems reflect failures elsewhere in our society — racial and class segregation in our cities; inadequate education for the poor; and the collapse of the family as an institution in some communities. Because of these failures, we have large numbers of under-socialized, undereducated and virtually unemployable young men in our cities and towns. (They are not all black, to be sure, but they are disproportionately so.) Domestic violence is a serious problem in many of our communities; drug trafficking and gang activity are important parts of the social economy of the inner city.” In other words, crime and violence in inner city neighborhoods is a representation of the systems failure to meet their needs. I have learned of a cycle called, Myrdals cycle, which entails that when a child from an inner city neighborhood drops out of school (the school happens to be the foundation of where that child will end up in life) they join gangs or contribute in violent actions, then this leads to a life in and out of the criminal justice system, and most likely drug consumption becomes a factor (most of these areas do not have good support systems.) It’s like a vicious circle that continues to occur, and its not a representation that a specific group isn’t “picking themselves up by their boot-straps,” but rather no one is giving them a chance to succeed.
This leads me to Paul Butlers book “Let Get Free.”
The use of rap and hip-hop has become an outlet, or more like an amplified voice, describing how these young individuals have faced the failures of the system. Paul Butler writes that the “Punishment should be the point of criminal justice, but it should be limited by the impact it has on the entire community.” (124) In other words, when someone is in and out of the system they bring back the burden and the attitude into their community. And the criminal justice system fails to see that they are not protecting New York, but breeding a dysfunctional mental state. Some say that there are vicious and murderous crimes that only people who act like animals commit, but you wonder if the criminal justice dehumanizes people, then what do they expect people to act like. So these artists take what they have seen and felt, and then they turn it into music so that others facing the same situation could understand that they are not alone. Rap can be seen as a minority’s political platform, their political outreach is in a different form, but the message is still there.
A famous activist and writer named Eric Dyson said that rap is a “subversive cultural didacticism aimed at addressing racism, classism, social neglect, and urban pain: the rap concert, where rappers are allowed to engage in ritualistic refusals of censored speech. The rap concert also creates space for cultural resistance and personal agency, loosing the strictures of tyrannizing surveillance and demoralizing condemnation of mainstream society and encouraging relatively autonomous, often enabling, forms of self-expression and cultural creativity.”(Michael Eric Dyson, Reader, pg. 403)
Many say that rap can lead to violent crimes. In my opinion, they are not imploring people to commit crimes but rather telling a story of how they started off in the criminal justice system and have risen up through the struggle and pain into someone successful. I think that rap shows that despite the evidence that the system wants us to fail, there is a way of fighting it and becoming something better.
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There is no doubt that racism is well and alive. History books are filled with recollections of hatred and heinous acts done to people because of a difference, whether it is a difference in skin color, religious and sexual preferences, social class, or just a different country, those in power have condemned those that are not simply because they are different. I would like to pose a question, is it human nature to be racist? To be against and intolerant towards something that is different than oneself? Is it Darwinism at its best? Are we, as people, so socially underdeveloped that we need to step onto another in order to rise up? It seems that the young African American male is incarcerated in order to keep the competition of jobs and high social standing clear.
The issues in the black community are obvious, yet “we the people” do absolutely nothing about it because it is convenient to keep “them” suppressed. In reference to Paul Butler’s article about hip hop, I agreed with it immensely. However not that I think about it and my dubious thoughts escalate, I wonder how much of hip hop is a crippling factor against the community? Sure Butler’s mentions the negative aspects that do exist in the genre, and he makes it more than clear that he is not saying that hip hop has created a concrete theory on criminal justice, but how much of the hip hop industry is truly controlled by “the enemy?” That is to say, how many of the people that control it are in fact white? This is not a conspiracy theory, but one can only wonder and come to the realization that the creation of this musical instrument that speaks of and in deed, shapes its culture might very well be detrimental to it since what it teaches its children to value does in fact maim the whole community and suppresses them even more.
Is it possible to reform society through a reformation of the criminal justice system?
As I remember going into central booking in Brooklyn and seeing all the young black faces of PEOPLE caught or accused with carrying small amounts of marijuana, or any other “offense,” I couldn’t help to be ashamed and enraged. These PEOPLE are not criminals. They have not been found guilty. They were simply going through the process of being fingerprinted, photographed and interviewed. Why were they behind bars in a tiny cage? Why were they handcuffed and why were they stigmatized and labeled a criminal? We do not follow the idiom of “innocent until proven guilty,” we practice “guilty until proven innocent” and that’s still very optimistic because that “criminal” record follows an individual everywhere. I believe Eric Holder forgot to mention that we are not just “a nation of cowards” but of hypocrites as well.
THE FOLLOWING IS A COMMENT BY NEETHU, WHO WAS HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES (THIS IS PART ONE OF TWO):
I also found the quote from Butler: “However, such behavioral problems reflect failures elsewhere in our society — racial and class segregation in our cities; inadequate education for the poor; and the collapse of the family as an institution in some communities. Because of these failures, we have large numbers of under-socialized, undereducated and virtually unemployable young men in our cities and towns,” to be very meaningful and true. The difference in education that black students and white students receive is shocking. The color of your skin and your zip code really does affect the standard of education you receive, the attention and care you’re given by teachers, and the potential for success you will have. I think the failure of the public education system to equally teach and instruct students in all schools is one of the main reasons for much of the troubles that blacks and latinos face. If you can’t do the basics like add or read properly, how far can you possibly get? This has been one of the hardest things for me to take at my internship—watching 16-20 year old students trying to get through a Dr. Seuss book. Not only are they not properly educated, but they are instilled with a belief that they are incapable of learning or going very far in life (this idea that college is certainly not for people like them). I don’t think it’s so farfetched to say that it is an institutional conspiracy because of course, if you can barely read or write, you will not learn or be able to read the many studies and articles that describe how the system fails you, how it keeps you down, and hopes that you don’t try to learn and pull yourself up. You will not read that selling on the corner, “settling beef”, or not going to college is exactly what those in power want you to do. You will not realize the extent to which you are being oppressed and being taught to oppress yourself. Failing to educate students properly leads to them failing in life and I think this is the greatest injustice taking place in terms of racial discrimination because it ensures a process in which minorities keep themselves down. Teachers and staff who don’t care about you teaches you that you’re worthless; not knowing how to read or do math teaches you that you are not intelligent and creates deep set insecurities; being unable to pass tests or classes teaches you that school is not for you and you need to find other things to do or other ways of surviving: selling drugs, fooling around, joining gangs where you feel like you belong, etc. Improving public education so it is equally beneficial for all students, regardless of their color, is one of the biggest steps that can be taken to improve the lives of minorities.
THIS IS PART TWO BY NEETHU:
While the students at CASES are often reluctant to show up to their GED class, so many of them come in just to get time in the newly built studio where they can create and record their own music. As Amanda said, “the use of rap and hip-hop has become an outlet describing how these young individuals have faced the failures of the system.”
“But as a shorty i looked up to the dopeman
Only adult man i knew that wasnt a broke man”
Kanye West, We Don’t Care
Some of the lyrics in rap and hip-hop music are a recognition of some of the injustices being dealt to minorities. I think these lyrics are important because they make people face that there is something wrong going on, and because it is on the radio and being sung by famous artists, you cannot ignore it. Even controversial lyrics, which talk about hating the police, are relevant because it speaks to the fact that cops often do target minorities or are quicker to be suspicious of someone who is dark skinned.
The first cop grabbed me, the other ripped my seat
They grabbed my homie and they threw him to the concrete
(Ay man.. aiyyo.. ay man just c'mon ?)
("What you doin man?") They tried to frame me
They tried to say I had some dope in the back seat
But I'm a rap fiend, not a crack fiend
My homie panicked ("I'm out") he tried to run
(Freeze nigga!) I heard a bullet fire from the cop's gun
Tupac, Violent
However, as Butler addresses a bit in his article, hip-hop music is often sexist and objectifies women.
Can you control your hoe? (You got a bitch that wont do what you say)
You can’t control your hoe? (She hardheaded, she just won’t obey)
Can you control your hoe? (You’ve got to know what to do, and what to say)
You’ve got to put that bitch in her place, even if it’s slapping her in her face.
Ya got to control your hoe. Can you control your hoe?
Snoop Dogg, Can U Control Yo Hoe
It is sometimes easy to forget that women are a minority group as well in terms of status and they face much discrimination and oppression too. Rap artists support the underdogs, but they do so while stepping on the backs of women who are underdogs too. It is difficult for me, as a woman, to support music which states that I exist only to please men, music that degrades me, objectifies me, and which calls me a bitch, a hoe, and a gold digger. So while I admit there is so much potential in rap and hip-hop music, I do not think it can be a truly powerful voice while trampling on another struggling group.
So many questions raised in just a few comments! I want to respond briefly to only one, namely Marling's question about racism and human nature. Given how hard it would be even to answer that question from one perspective let alone from all the perspectives that would be required to understand the phenomenon over time/across cultures, I would just offer these two examples. When we look at British imperial rule over India in the 19th and 20th centuries (until Indian Independence in 1947), it seems a classic example of institutionalized racism -- complicated structures that created and underscored the differences between people. However, during earlier contacts between the British and Indians (when England wasn't a governing power there but had significant commerical interests) there was more of a trend of English assimilating to Indian customs (dressing, intermarriage, language). Not that this is straightforward, either. This kind of mimicking, role-playing, "going native" involves its own very complicated identity politics to say the least. But it does suggest that they ways we interact with each other vis-a-vis race are not set in stone (or DNA).
My other example comes from ROBINSON CRUSOE, an 18th-century English novel, that is one of the first works to represent a sustained relationship between a white European (Crusoe) and a brown-skinned islander (Friday). For those of you who know the novel, you might be thinking "no duh, and Crusoe made Friday his slave" (so maybe racism is part of human nature). But I would submit that the novel suggests not that racism is part of human nature -- the reflections on race Crusoe makes are quite liberal, characteristic of a more open 18th century philosophy -- but that mastery is part of human nature and race has become one of the cultural expressions of that more basic extinct. Moreover, I'd suggest (as many critics have), that race is one of the ways in which we "naturalize" things that are actually cultural (because skin color or physical difference seems "natural" we think of it coming prior to the cultural construction of it; the same argument holds for gender difference -- it is a cultural difference that we construct as natural and therefore essential, that is coming before culture).
At our last meeting, Elias brought up a quote from Paul Butler’s “Let’s Get Free” which stated, “The person who has confidence in the American criminal justice system probably has an unfavorable view of blacks and Latinos, and a more positive view of whites” (pg 139). When asked to turn to that quote, I also had a question mark left beside that line when I first read the chapter. I found that statement to be too powerful and untrue in some sense. I am in favor of our criminal justice system and have confidence in it, but it does not mean that I believe that it’s 100% perfect. Yes, a majority of those locked up are blacks and minorities and that is something that needs to be looked at more carefully to examine why our system is gearing towards that population. The criminal justice system has been around for a very long time and many are afraid of change…it will take a much radical movement to change things.
Thomas Giovanni’s visit was quite intriguing. We learned a lot about the criminal justice system from the client’s standpoint. It also brought up a lot of memories for me when I interned with a few judges last summer in the Bronx. I interned with a judge at The Bronx Supreme Court but was also able to sit with a few criminal court judges in both misdemeanor and felony courts. My first couple of days I had to enter the criminal courthouse through the front entrance and the line was so long that it wrapped around the building and noticed that everyone that was going in were either Black or Latino. I was always the only Asian in the Bronx courthouse, so I stood out. As we all approached the metal detector, everyone went through without a question asked, but when it was my turn to go through the court officer asked, “Where are you heading? What are you here for?” I wondered why he asked me and not anyone else, but I soon realized that it was because I stood out… maybe because I didn’t seem like I belonged there.
I must say that decisions in court made by judges really depend on the judge that is at the bench. I sat with Judge Hong in felony court and recalled a time when a rape suspect was about to approach. Judge Hong and I reviewed the paperwork and he was sure that he was going to keep this guy locked up. The guy was accused of raping his girlfriend’s child, but as the defense attorney gave the judge his side of the story, it changed everything. It turned out that the girlfriend was arrested for stabbing the suspect in the neck a month ago and has made up this story about the rape. Judge Hong reviewed the facts and made sure that there was an open case with the girlfriend in regards to the stabbing and imposed bail for the suspect.
I would like to comment on Amanda’s comment – “Rap can be seen as a minority’s political platform, their political outreach is in a different form, but the message is still there.” I agree with your statement that rap can be seen as a political platform and it’s reaching out to the population that it is affecting and has much more meaning.
After reading Paul Butler's "A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice," I was bother by the fact that hip hop objectify and degrades women. If hip-hop is a movement that voices the injustices that male minorities suffer in our criminal justice system then why would they attack women or homosexuals? Like Neethu says, "It is difficult for me, as a woman, to support music which states that I exist only to please men, music that degrades me, objectifies me, and which calls me a bitch, a hoe, and a gold digger."I guess that for me to understand this phenomena I was forced to think about how racism and negative stereotypes affect the rationale of individuals?
Negative stereotypes function by stripping people of their identity. They focus on corporal characteristics and completely disregard their essence or spirit. In a way this process objectifies people because it makes them flat object without depth or richness. It makes us all the same. All black people are aggressive, all latinos are super sexual and all women are sex toys. This generalizations herd people together under a label that has nothing to do with who they are as individuals. And it is bewildering to think that the color of our skin or the shape of our eyes can dictate our position within society. When people are treated like objects with no rights to be unique they eventually tend to negate this rights to the other.If black, brown or poor males receive no respect within society, then why should they respect women rights? Do rights even exist? If a person feels that he or she have no rights then it is only a matter of time before they begin breaking social rules. Looking at the problem from this perspective I guess I understand why women are attacked by hip-hop.
I feel that society is stuck in vicious cycle, and our society's hypocrisy regarding racism is only making things worse. There's gotta to be something wrong with our criminal justice system if the majority of our inmates are minorities. To leave things alone is to accept and reinforced our own negative stereotypes. We need act by changing the way police pick up criminals or the way we assume from the get go that you are guilty until proven innocent. I mean in theory it should be that people are innocent until proven guilty, but I guess then it all depend on the color of your skin.
“Guilty until proven innocent” Marling, unfortunately it looks that way. Look at the recent incident at Hofstra. It was embarrassing to recall my thoughts on those five guys. The only information that I knew about them was what the media said, and it turned out that the female “victim” was just embarrassed about her Saturday night. She nearly ruined the reputation of 5 black and Hispanic college men in a 5 minute news clip.
I’ve been research for a project at CEO, scanning different states for the good, the bad and the ugly in criminal justice policy reform. I came across an article which reflected Thomas’s concern regarding public defenders overloaded caseloads. Financial strains have caused Michigan counties to “implement a flat-fee, low-bid contract system where the attorney agrees to accept all, or a fixed portion of public defense cases for a pre-determined fee.” This is a real problem, as it clearly creates a conflict of interest. It’s a lawyer’s ethical duty to competently defend each client, yet he or she also has financial self-interests “which require investing the least amount of time to each case to maximize profit.” ALWAYS CONNECT... Judges must make a decision based on the information these lawyers have gathered about their client. If local bar associations want to uphold credibility, they need to become more responsible in evaluating and monitoring these systems.
We spoke in length about the statistic on African American men in the legal system. I told everyone I met the past three days about it, until I realized I may be doing black men a disservice because those outside of class didn’t hear the reasons we discussed for why that statistic is what it is. We turned those numbers into real people. I continued to think about how else this ratio (1 in 3) could be, in light of the fact that criminals are made, not born (with the exception of psychopaths, that’s still up for investigation). Neethu brings up a very important piece of the puzzle: how true it is that your zip code determines the level education that you get. Although I’m weary of using the word conspiracy, it does sound like a scheme to lead underprivileged youth away from a solid foundation from which self-efficacy builds. In elementary school, children’s minds are extreme pliable. It’s the time where teachers begin to shape the minds of children, in terms of work ethic and overall interest in learning. If there is a plot to keep black, brown and poor undereducated so they turn to lives of antisocial behaviors, we would have to believe that the institutions only want teachers who don’t care very much about giving children the proper education. However, poor teachers, like criminals, aren’t born, they’re made. Something as simple as the external environment of a school in a poor district may be frightening to new teacher, which could lead to faster burn-out and thus, the teacher may become less effective. The teachers in neighborhoods of poverty must be better trained in how to work with kids who have been brought up in broken homes, or leave school to an empty home because the parents work multiple jobs and can not afford a sitter. In more expensive school districts, parents of the children who attend often pay more money to keep the school in good shape, give money to sports so the children have something to do when class is finished, etc…. This not something affordable in low-income neighborhoods.
My mother told me that my CW Post College would give future teachers $4,000 per semester to go to school if they signed an agreement to teach in a poor neighborhood for x number of years. I don’t know the stats on how many people are taking these opportunities, but I know that my sister turned the option down. I only wondered why, I didn’t ask. Knowing my sister pretty well, I would guess, like Thomas Giovanni said, she would be a little scared. We hear stories about these poverty-stricken neighborhoods and the crime patterns that occur; this 5’2, 110lbs. girl would be walking around those areas every day? Most people don’t necessarily want to go down there and put themselves in that position. But if you just visited – as Thomas said lawyers should do to better understand their client as an individual: see his street, meet his mom, pass his church – we’d bridge the divide. Or at least humanize their situation. Stop letting our brains do all the schematic organizing and open up a little.
My older sister attends Touro College and she said Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem is coming to her school in mid-October to speak at an event. She told me that NDSH is the only organization to assemble a team immediately after a client calls with a legal problem. Whether or not this is true, I feel extremely fortunate to have been given the opportunity to pick the brain of a member of that team.
“is it human nature to be racist?”
In my view, it’s so important to be wary of finding explanation in “human nature.” Ultimately, the “human nature” argument (whether about “race” or about “war” or about any other horrific consequence of inequality), offers a way to avoid looking deeper for causes and it also offers justification for something unjust.
The anthropological record shows that human beings in nature have the capacity for cooperation as well as conflict, and that how humans choose to organize their relations and interactions that determines the consequences of “difference.” I’ve written about exactly this in pretty much all my work, including the book on women and poverty, and in a new book on war, so I appreciate that Marleng brought up the question since it gets right at the core of these critical issues.
To be “racist” depends on the human construction of race, which, as Professor Reitz points out, is variable cross-culturally (what constitutes the embodied “racial” difference? for it isn’t biology—there are no separate human “races” in the biological sense). Difference itself is not necessarily problematic, but it’s the uses to which difference is put that we need to study, to trace, to expose.
I believe that the explanation for social phenomena like racism lies in the relationship between social location (access to material resources and power) and particular consequences of difference. The more limited the access of a particular group to material resources and power, the greater the likelihood that difference will translate into harmful consequences for the group and its purported members. Edward Said wrote, “Difference can become an ideological infection.” Difference gets exaggerated, the other is born, objectified, perceived as exotic, strange, dangerous, frightening. As ideological infection, "difference" contributes to the kind of everyday oppression that several of you observed in the courtroom(the prisoner cages)--to the everyday oppression that Thomas Giovanni seeks to confront and overcome, one client at a time.
Thomas Giovanni brought home very powerfully that the demonization and dehumanization of “the other” is both human-made AND that it is not inevitable. His whole effort, and the efforts of NDS attest to this: he (and they) do not accept that this is just how it’s got to be, it’s just the ways things naturally are, so therefore these things can’t be changed.
Instead, if we can spend some time exposing the deep roots of racism, studying how racism works to serve “power’s” interests, figuring out what racism masks, how it functions to preserve the (however limited) privileges of those who dwell in the group that benefits from racism (the “in” group, the not-different group—after all, difference suggests difference from some “norm”—where did that norm come from—who decided “X” is the norm and “Y” is the one different?).
Also, there’s so much fantastic literature on this, including the work of historian Barbara Fields, and public intellectual Tim Wise. The American Anthropological Association has put together a very wonderful online and traveling exhibit called “Understanding Race” (http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html) that includes lots of additional information, including scholarly articles that offer really helpful explanations of how race works (http://www.understandingrace.org/resources/papers.html).
When it comes to duscussing the effectiveness and efficiency of the criminal justtice system, it is like discussing the logic of philosophy--many people have different point of views. On one hand, I believe that the criminal justice system needs a major reform, espcially in the corrections department. Many of the flaws and inefficiency of the corrections department lies in its prison guards. As it is true that almost every inmate that resides at a correctional facility may have committed a felony, misdemeabor, or violation against a extablished law, It is not true that these "people" are the worst parasites of the earth.
I say this because I have a close relative, who as of now is serving a long sentence for his actions. Although he committed certain actions that were against the law, he is not a criminal nor a parasite, like many of the guards address him as. I feel that if the criminal justice was reformed, beginning with the correctional facilities and extending to the police and finally to the courts.
Out of the many points that Thomas Geovanni brought out, I believe that he was right in many of his points. The legal system should not spend its time looking for people who do minor violations such as smoke weed. The legal system should go for the individuals who commit heinous crimes such as murder, rape, and/or kidnapping per se. The money and resources available would be better used in other areas such as establishing programs and institutions that would help these people rehabiliatate and keep away from contact with the legal system.
I used to have my freshman students line up from lightest to darkest (skin) and then ask where they would draw the line where white started. There isn't a better demonstration of the constructed nature of race. Still, even if we accept the contrived nature of racial difference, we must always ask: cui bono? Who benefits? In the post-slavery south, landowners diverted attention from their own exploitation of white tenant farmers by pitting them against former slaves who would have been their natural allies in union organization. In the criminal justice system, as long as we keep people more frightened of a black teenager, an Hispanic worker, or a Middle Eastern student than the chairman of Citibank who is charging them 30% interest of their credit cards, the more likely we are to maintain the power hierarchy and unequal distribution of wealth as it currently exists. Cui bono?
Rap and hip-hop music have put a human face on the suffering brought by the current system. Lyrics are compelling, evocative and sometimes political; those in the vanguard of the movement have not only hit a raw nerve but have spawned interest in remediating systemic injustice, particularly in the juvenile justice system. But many hip hop artists have abdicated their credibility when it comes to justice, as has been pointed out by a number of students on the blog. I want to raise two issues I felt were glossed over by Butler: 1) the unrepentant oppression of women and gays embedded in rap and hip hop and 2) the commodification of supposedly outlaw art which itself pays constant homage to capitalism, albeit the gangsta/gangster type popularized in T.V. and film.
Nareissa Smith has called attention to the intersection of capitialism and sexism in hip hop (the exploitation of women always sells, aferall) and likens today's video images of African American women in hip hop and rap to the performances of Saartjie Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus", who was paraded throughout Europe in the 19th century to exhibit her "peculiarly prominent" genitals and buttocks. The objectification of black women and the image of the black man as a macho money machine denigrates both. This, along with the promotion of prejudice against gays, exempts hip hop from claiming a justice orientation just yet.
Finally, hip-hop has become a multi-billion dollar industry, controlled for the most part by white record company executives and white merchandisers, although some African American entrepreneurs have also reaped profits. To think that hip hop music has escaped the usual commodification of race that African Americans have endured from Bessie Smith through Little Richard all the way to Kanye West is to disregard the real thread that connects them. Not only is the music largely white owned, its biggest consumers are white suburban kids. To ignore this is to think a political change has been effected when it has not. There are no easy answers.
Professor Stein: Your post was absolutely amazing. I think you need to publish it in a print medium that gets beyond our fantastic blog.
As I was speaking with my parents last night they said to me, “you should change your career to psychology or sociology; your heart is too soft to be a lawyer.” My dad believes that a good lawyer is a tough lawyer who follows the book by every period and semi colon, that the law is the law and punishment must be served for those who break it (even if it is filling jails and prisons with marijuana smokers who have a job and young people who crossed from project to project and now are missing school). But I thought to myself, well aside from all the theatricals that “makes a good lawyer,” perhaps we need people who actually care to make a difference. We need to “filter” out the issues like Giovanni said and apply our resources to the real problems, like “Mr. G” pointed out, and reform the system with employees that care, the officers the lawyers and the judges.
I also thought however, how can we reform the criminal justice system without demeaning it’s power to deter people from committing crimes?
I am a strong believer that the educational system is very much tied in with the correctional system, and this is where the reformation should begin. I found Danielle’s words particularly strong, “...poor teachers, like criminals, aren’t born, they’re made.” Schools are funded by the amount of money the residents of the community it serves makes, so a low income neighborhood will produce low revenues and resources for it’s school and poor education for it’s children, thus creating unemployable people who will keep the neighborhood poor. The government is supposed to close the gap between the wealthy schools and the poor schools by funding and reaching out to the poor schools. But it does quite the opposite. Is it a conspiracy?
Regarding Lisa’s post, “I must say that decisions in court made by judges really depend on the judge that is at the bench,” we know this is true, and I am sure most of us agree that judges (and lawyers) shouldn’t take their ‘jobs’ lightly. They are violating what they stand for, justice; the decisions they make and the motions they go through should not be based on their moods for that day; but we are just humans after all… is it too much ‘power’ to grant a human being?
Lastly, as it has already been stated, we need people who care, and my fellow
Vera fellows, we are those people who care. I just hope that as we descend on our careers we won’t engross ourselves on our routines and forget the passion within us today. I hope we make sure not to turn out to be “that lawyer” or ‘those officers and judges’ and people “stepping on others backs” to reach success.
I disagree with many of the points that Paul Butler makes in "A Hip Hop Theory of Justice". Most of the socially conscious rappers are not the ones influencing young people. Also, many of the rappers mentioned and quoted by Paul Butler advocate vigilante actions ending in violence (Eve, Tupac, Immortal Technique) or revolve their raps around boasts (Jay-Z, Kanye West). Though these artists do pose some credible arguments in some of their lyrics, teenagers and young people are not listening to the sorts of artists that truly aim to enlighten. Rather than listening to socially conscious artists such as De La Soul, Talib Kweli, or The Roots, teenagers are instead attracted to Lil Wayne rapping about running gang and drug money, or T.I. who was arrested for attempting to buy machine guns from an undercover detective. Socially conscious hip-hop is irrelevant in causing long term change because young people are not listening to it.
The hip hop that is forming young people's ideas about the world glorifies easy money, misogyny, and "respect" in the streets. Often this respect is earned by embracing prison culture (Butler alludes to young people wearing their shoes sans shoelaces), creating a culture of either shallow posers, or actual hardened criminals (since i feel that a reasonable person would leave prison culture behind once free). I do not mean to sound like some geriatric Republican, but i sincerely believe mainstream hip hop culture is ruining lives. Teenagers aspire to be these sorts of thugs as opposed achieving real success in life.
Thomas Giovanni's words really stuck with me. One of my supervisors at Esperanza was nice enough to take me to Brooklyn Family Court on Friday so I could observe court procedure and gain some familiarity with the system. Mr. Giovanni's comments came to life before my eyes as I saw young black and latino offenders rushed through their proceedings and trials and, most shockingly, the huge discrepancies between judges. These supposed agents of the law are less than impartial in how they conduct their business and how they rule their cases. The outcome of a trial can often be attributed to what judge is ruling on that trial.
Paul Butler’s article was one of great insight. His ability to tie our criminal justice system into the realm of hip hop culture was impressive. I agree with Manny in his statement that most kids don’t listen to the socially conscious rappers. However, I think that the inadequacies of our criminal justice system create a cyclical movement that inhibits these young people from even understanding a fraction of the message being sent. In his article Paul Butler speaks about the rapid rate in which black and Latino men are being incarcerated. This massive incarceration inevitably creates a subculture which young men and women start seeing jail as a rite of passage, sex as a path to adult hood, crime as the only way of survival. They aren’t able to see the other side. Punishment as butler touches on must be administered with caution so as it doesn’t become a way of life. Laws that are in place to house animals rather than treat people discourage kids who see their role models leave them for years and years. This creates a huge disparity in the ability the young men and women who struggle to distinguish what’s right from wrong who are the inherently bad, the traditional idea of right and wrong becomes inverted. The idea that hip hop is degrading to women is one I also totally agree with. Nevertheless I do also believe that hip hop receives the most criticisms because of the faces that spew these lyrics. How else can we explain the fact that hip hop receives less criticism than commercials, Play Boy, Girls gone wild, prestigious college fraternities who perform the same type of degradation to women but are turned a blind eye?
excellent points at the end Vaughan!
"This massive incarceration inevitably creates a subculture which young men and women start seeing jail as a rite of passage, sex as a path to adult hood, crime as the only way of survival."
The reflection of this reality in hip hop is more often than not glorified in mainstream rap. Kids and young people don't remove their shoelaces, shave lines into their eyebrows, or use prison terminology to show solidarity to those in prison. that's ridiculous in my opinion.
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