No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. With a sprawling labor system that dates back more than 150 years — including the brutal convict leasing era that replaced slavery — it has constructed a template for the commercialization of mass incarceration.
Most jobs are inside facilities, where the state’s inmates — who are disproportionately Black — can be sentenced to hard labor and forced to work for free doing everything from mopping floors to laundry. But more than 10,000 inmates have logged a combined 17 million work hours outside Alabama’s prison walls since 2018, for entities like city and county governments and businesses that range from major car-part manufacturers and meat-processing plants to distribution centers for major retailers like Walmart, the AP determined.
Ok, so many things to unpack here. First, it's important to remember that these kinds of issues are very much systematic. You can't point your finger at one person or even one state and say that they are the issue. The issue here is deep seated racism in the United States, legalized slavery that is literally written into the US constitution. And Alabama being a poor state filled with uneducated people is not those people's fault. It again comes back to racism and other huge issues of inequality. It's best to have some curiosity. Why is Alabama full of these issues? Is it because people are different there? Probably not, it's not like evolution works that fast on a geographic area that isn't isolated. So you have to ask why, and look for the self perpetuating power dynamics. Second, insulting one group of people by referencing another group using a slur damages both groups. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are vulnerable to discrimination and exploitation. Let's not try to solve the problem of racism by deepening the problem of ableism. We have to work on it all at the same time. Power structures arise because one group exploits vulnerabilities in another. When you put down a whole group of people, it is likely because you feel that lack of powerlessness that comes with being in a hierarchy, and you're acquiring power for yourself by rendering others less powerful than you. This isnt a moral failing on your part, instead, I would say that it's an ineffective strategy that only serves to further entrench the hierarchy and your place in it. Instead, let's work to equalize everyone, lifting up everyone to the same height.
OK thanks for listening.
Oh, you want to lecture me huh? Alright, well I guess it's easy to take the moral high ground when you aren't the one trapped in a small town where everybody is playing a game of telephone and you're the target. I'm well aware of the systemic issues and it only makes me hate them even more knowing that the vast majority of them perpetuate the injustices that I am now a victim of. When I see these people smiling and laughing with their families I know that just beneath that there is a viciousness that could just as easily be pointed in my direction depending on the context. They have no empathy or awareness for the collateral damage their insular "society" inflicts on me, just insults and mockery. Absolute vileness. These people make my life a living hell every time I leave the house. They are like a bottomless well of venom and malice and they always have a way of making it known to me in the subtlest and most passive- aggressive ways. Let me tell you, I did not know the meaning of hate before I came here. I do now. They taught me very well.
And you know what? Trump will give them everything they deserve. I think I'm starting to warm up to the guy for that reason alone. 30 days, assholes. Tick tock.
You think Trump is going to do anything other than enable and empower racists? Why do you think the proud boys love him?
Yeah people say 'Oh poor racists, they are just uneducated and don't know any better.', like there aren't racists running around with a Harvard degree. It's really easy to condemned open racism and then pat yourself on the back for doing the right thing. Real racism is quiet, for a racist to pretend that their not, is easy, because the payoff is that they can do way more damage behind the scenes. It's like a cancer. You can't just put a bandaid on it and call it a day. Cut it out or kill it and then check regularly if it hasn't come back, don't let is spread over a whole state. Pouring money into education will only give you educated racists, which is arguably even worse.
I'm so sick of this 'wining the battle losing the war' kind of bullshit. It's always the same - racism, nazis the bourgeoisie. There's always blood but then a few 'not so bad ones' are spared and that shit grows back like ivy and becomes more systematic with every step. You know how many times I've watched the news and thought 'Ah shit, looks like the Nazis won at the end anyway.'? How many people died in wars just for little Timothy still be gunned down in the streets for a parking ticket. How many people died to see people still waving swastikas in the streets. How many people threw themselves against castle walls under hunger and disease for people to say 'Yes daddy Elon, you did everything by yourself and your workers shouldn't deserve any pay, you're the king.' Each time you think we are done with this shit it comes back.