Mass Incarceration + Silence=Genocide was the name of a panel that was apart the dialogue between Cornel West and Carl Dix as they held an intense discussion about mass incarceration. 2.3 million People are held in prisons across the country, almost 1 million of them Black and about another ½ million of them Latino.
Carl Dix argues that Mass imprisonment is part of a larger scheme for killing off people of color”. He says its, “A slow genocide has been more at work here in this country for quite sometime,” he said. “Grinding away, breaking the bodies, and crushing the spirit. The slow genocide can easily become a fast one, unless we act to stop it. This oppression is built in to the very fabric of this society. There ain’t gon’ be no savior coming down from Heaven or from the White House who can and would do anything about it.
“These days, anybody who musters the courage to tell the truth about the conditions: imperialism, capitalism, White supremacy, male supremacy, the system under which we live — you better be ready to die! These folks will kill you” says Cornell West.
According to West, true change can only come through Black struggle: “There will never be sentimental transformation in this country until Black rage is channeled through moral, political, and ideologically progressive venue. Because the fundamental threat to the status quo in this nation, it started with Black men. The way that this nation was founded [with] emergence and sustenance so tied to White supremacy that if you don’t hit it head on, you can have all the best ideas in the world, and you’ll never be able to have a truce in place.”
What do you think about the mass incarceration of black and brown people, is there away to stop it?
