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Thursday, June 11, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Mass incarceration and Black
American health
The criminal justice system is
one of the chief systems affect-
ing Black American health. The
country’s prison system and over-
policing strategy is not just a way
to keep criminals off the streets, it
is a large, for-profit institution that
gains strength by perpetuating an
endless cycle that is almost impos-
sible to break. The prison industrial
complex of this country is particu-
larly compelling as a challenge to
Black American wellness because
it so disproportionately and inten-
tionally affects Black people above
any other group. Especially now,
as there is a nationwide push to
abolish the police, it is crucial to
understand why police brutal-
ity and racism are public health
issues. Because the U.S. incarcer-
ates many more of its citizens than
other
developed
democracies,
many researchers have cited it as
partly responsible for the widening
gap between health of the U.S. and
other countries.
The ratio of white to Black
imprisonment rates is 1 to 7, largely
a result of the War on Drugs and its
targeting of young, disadvantaged,
inner-city members of minority
groups. Michael Tonry and Mat-
thew Melewski highlight the role
of racist crime control policies on
subjugating Black Americans in
their article, stating that had incar-
ceration rates remained at 1970
levels (around 130 per 100,000)
or at 1980 levels around 200 per
100,000], “fewer black men would
have suffered the pains of impris-
onment, resulting stigma, and
reduced employment prospects,”
and there would be “many fewer
broken black families, fewer nega-
tive role models for black boys,
more marriageable black men,”
and “less deterioration in poor
black communities.” The prison
industrial complex can be seen as
an extension of the plantation and
acts of racial violence, fostering
normalization of violence against
Black bodies, inhumane servitude
and normalization of Black deaths
.These are only a few of the effects
of mass incarceration on Black peo-
ple, Black men and boys in particu-
lar. While other young men are out
building their futures, Black men
are at odds with a racist system.
Prisons do not only affect the
individual, but families and com-
munities as a whole. Aside from
obvious health barriers includ-
ing lack of proper food, hygiene,
health care and the fact that pris-
ons and jails are overcrowded with
people in poor health receiving
inadequate care, being in such an
environment has the capacity to
breed extreme and irreversible
psychological damage. Nearly one
in three Black men will be impris-
oned in their life, and nearly half of
Black women have an immediate or
extended family member in prison.
Research has found very harm-
ful effects on physical and mental
health of inmates after release, as
well as negative health impacts on
the partners and children of incar-
cerated men. Incarceration con-
tributes to familial and community
fractures and gives no opportunity
for rehabilitation. Furthermore,
prominent health disparities faced
by Black Americans, including HIV
risk and preterm birth/maternal
health problems, can be linked to
mass incarceration, highlighting
not only the intersectionality but
also the pervasiveness of the issue.
A study on mass incarceration and
public health revealed a signifi-
cant positive association between
Louisiana jails’ Black individu-
als incarcerated and estimated
risk of preterm birth, suggesting
that mass incarceration may be an
underlying factor of the inequities
in reproductive health outcomes of
Black women in Louisiana.
In order to address the health
issues plaguing Black Americans
both inside prison and as a catalytic
effect of it...
The undocumented,
incarcerated and homeless
A new moment in history is
being lived in every community,
within every country; unlimited
to any age, race, socioeconomic
class or sex. It has canceled music
festivals and rallies, graduations
and weddings, a fun taco Tuesday
with friends or our beloved Skeeps
Saturdays. Within the blink of an
eye, life as we knew it was turned
upside down. Everything that made
months and years feel like seconds
disappeared, and space and time
have never felt slower. Throughout
the semester, prior understand-
ings of community, space, time
and history have been challenged
and unveiled, having various layers
and dimensions. Particularly with
time/history, years like 1991 have
become more than just a date. 1991
symbolized the new wave of Black
migration, the precursor to many of
the “hot summer riots,” the death
of Latasha Harlins and beating of
Rodney King, as well as the release
of A Tribe Called Quest’s second
album: “The Low End Theory.”
Multiple layers come with each
year and at times, what is realized
is that these layers not only reveal
multidimensional
plotlines,
but
could, potentially, serve as a means
of distraction from what is inher-
ently at risk and threatened.
COVID-19 serves as a distrac-
tion from the U.S.’s perception and
categorization of race and opportu-
nity. As universal as this virus has
been broadcasted to be, there is an
inherent racial disparity at play,
particularly seen within big cities
ELLIOTT BROOKS
MiC Guest Writer
and places of wealth gaps. The two
cities that may help to best under-
stand the relationship between
the virus and racial categorization
amongst the data are San Francis-
co and Seattle who were hit early
on by the virus and continue to be
affected and drastically changed
by its presence. Through the analy-
sis of the various measures taken
within these two cities, the percep-
tion of the virus as a universal phe-
nomenon may dissipate and instead
demonstrate another event in time
that has been taken as an opportu-
nity to disempower marginalized
communities and disguise biases
against the same demographics.
There are two moments of urban
crisis that have been acknowl-
edged. The first in the late 60s, fol-
lowing the civil rights movement
and joining alongside the Black
power movement. The second was
during the early 90s with the emer-
gence of riots and political unrest
amongst marginalized communi-
ties, particularly that of the Black
community. Currently, there seems
to be another period of urban crisis
that some may say is a continua-
tion from that of the 90s, but may
also be seen as something new. As
time has progressed, marginalized
communities have gotten better at
adjusting to what society “offers”
and extracting what they can from
it. In the 60s, it was rights, liberties
and more opportunity in the North
and West, thus the reason why
many families migrated across the
country.
Read more at michigandaily.com
MAYA MOKH
MiC Staff Writer
Read more at michigandaily.com
My skin is minacious
JEREMIAH BONNET
MiC Guest Writer
An American tradition
It’s been imprinted in our fate
Another Black man slain
Prematurely sent to Heaven’s
gates
Why?
Why is it they resent my dark
skin?
It seems this country deems my
complexion
As the most egregious sin
From Till to Floyd
And the hundreds in between
I often think to myself
The next could very well be me
Another statistic in the book,
right?
Another innocent life wrong-
fully taken away
Then we grieve, the pain fades
And we play the waiting game
It truly is a “hard knock’s life”
Jay said it best
Each day we walk
Not knowing if we’ll get to see
the next
Read more at michigandaily.com
Open letter from U-M alumni
SIDNEY ARRINGTON-ASHFORD
& TIMBERLEE WHITEUS
MiC Guest Writers
Dear Dean Massey, Dean
DeRue, Dean McCauley, Dean Gal-
limore, Dean Finholt, Dean West,
Dean Runge, Dean Gier, Dean
Hurn, Dean Dalton, Dean Bow-
man, Dean Videka,
As graduate students, it is dis-
heartening to write this because
it means little has changed. Some
may say at an educational insti-
tution such as the University of
Michigan, it is fair to assume
students share their experiences
when injustices occur, allowing
Read more at michigandaily.com
(but usually having to force by cre-
ating space in a room) other stu-
dents to learn our true narrative,
but when will you? When will you
realize students should not have
to be the first to address racial dis-
parities and injustices that occur
both on campus, and in the world?
I’m disappointed we pride
ourselves on being a top-ranked
public university, and yet the same
students you so happily market to
the world are suffering. We con-
tinue to devote our time, money
and health — physically, mentally
and emotionally — to an institution
which continues to fail us. We con-
tinue to commit to an institution
that our families believed would
aid us during this cycle of growth,
yet we’re left to empower and
curate spaces for ourselves, with
what feels like no support from
administration. This institution
has a history of privileging “white-
ness,” while other communities
are dismissed until we begin to
disturb the “peace” this University
has created. In a world where our
existence is deemed to be resis-
tance, that “peace” was not created
for our community. It is nothing
more than a lie to hide a system
that conforms to...
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