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TURNER’S TWO CENTS: Gangsta style helps high incarceration rates
*By now we’ve all seen the disturbing statistics on America’s incarceration rates. The Pew Center on the States reported last week that more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison.
That’s over 2.3 million people! The U.S. now has more people on lockdown (numerically and as a percentage of the total population) than any other nation on Earth. The figures are particularly grim for black folks.
1 in 9 African-American men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars. 1 in 100 African-American women age 35 to 39 is incarcerated (compare that with 1 in 355 white women in the same age group).
Racism and biased laws are obvious factors here. We’ve known for decades that black defendants generally get tougher sentences than whites convicted of the same crimes. Racial profiling is practiced by many of our courts as well as cops.
We also know that blacks are disproportionately impacted by laws mandating incarceration and longer sentences for crimes (including possession) involving crack cocaine (as opposed to coke in its powder form).
These institutional inequities must be challenged vigorously and continuously, but we’ve also got to put serious energy into fighting social trends within our own community which are also fueling the incarceration.
Hip hop’s “gangsta” culture has made criminals appear cool and has bestowed hero status upon the dope dealer, gang-banger and pimp -- predators who are driving the sociological and literal genocide of our people. Gangsta culture (driven by music, videos and the thuggish behavior of entertainers and sports stars) pressures our African-American youth to scoff at education, intellectual achievement, self-control, respect for others (including elders and women) and the concepts of hard work delayed gratification. Gangsta is deliberately dishonest, rude, undisciplined, self-centered and short-tempered. Those attitudes are luring countless black men away from their historic role as responsible builders, protectors and nurturers of family and community and leading them, instead, to the penitentiary and the graveyard.
Ever since the first of our ancestors arrived in America in 1619, evil forces have been trying to dominate and destroy us. By embracing the gangsta culture, we are helping them finish the job.
I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents. Give me yours by speaking out on the message board or dropping an e-mail to TurnersTwoCents@aol.com
THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!
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