Cellblock v. College

Hi Everyone,

While perusing through Tumblr tonight, the following story caught my attention:

More Black Men in College than in Prison

In 2009, the DOJ’s most recent year for data on prison populations, there were more than 150 percent more black males in college than incarcerated. Given the declining prison presence of African Americans—incarceration rates fell sharply between 2000 and 2009, and remain on a downward slope—and the growing presence of blacks in higher education, the difference between the two populations is likely larger.

 The first thing that came to my mind was: YESSSS!!! Then I read the article..

While I am happy the numbers are there, the reality is so much more dismal and to see a pure lack of understanding for that in this piece is disheartening. Don't let the facts get in the way of the truth.

The way the author disregards the fact that black males are still disproportionately represented in community colleges and alternative higher education due to a lack of opportunity in public elementary and secondary education (which the research article he wrote this piece on acknowledges) is a disrespect to many who are working towards building up those systems.

For instance, at the University of Michigan, where I am currently an undergraduate, there are more International students enrolled than African American students, with one of the most African American populated cities (my hometown of Detroit) less than 50 miles away.

And this is not to say, of course, that those institutions can not serve those students well. But there is a definite lack of opportunity when compared to schools like Harvard, Berkley, or Michigan, further disenfranchising this community. 

Another fact that I believe should be included in the research and should have been a apart of his analysis is the fact that the research article implied that many schools did not report to the 2001-2002 data, which could mean that there has not been that great of a change, while the number of African American males incarcerated seems to have remained stagnant. This implies that nothing has changed, we still incarcerate many black males who are victims of a failing system instead of righting their path to truly see these two data sets become inversely proportional. That complacency is saddening.

I will say, however, the fact that more Black males are seeking higher education of any kind is elevating as a Black male to hear, but to say that this number makes everything ok, which is the sense I got from the article (especially the last line), shows true ignorance on the part of the author and anyone who doesn't ask for a deeper understanding of this complex issue.

I don't profess to have all the answers but as someone who is a part of these numbers and someone who will make it his life's work to change them for the better, that ignorance can not stand alone.
So That's Where I Stand.

No Less for Yourself- My Stance on Israeli Democracy and Justice

Today, I saw something on Tumblr that really spiked my interest in a topic that I had not actually thought to ever discuss. However, as someone who wants to try to always do what's right, it can't mean just right to me, or even what is right to my part of the world. It's about that notion of what's right that so many scholars before me held up that I now take on as my own.

Being 'right' is made to be very subjective in today's world. However, I believe 'right' is not subjective but objective; it is not something we each define on our own but is a notion, a higher notion, of respect for life and humanity that should come as natural to us as breathing but at times leaves our minds as quickly as breath leaves our lungs. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere*, after all, and we should all be astounded and offended by injustice, NOT complacent because of it's prevalence. I hold true the fact that there are things 'right' for each of us as individuals. But I also challenge the idea that what we hold as unrighteousness in one domain should be considered okay in another. We should not be hypocrites to ourselves.

In light of that idea I quote Judith Butler, speaking at Brooklyn college 2 days ago on the topic of the Israeli democracy.


Judith Butler

“If Israel is to be considered a democracy, the non-Jewish population deserves equal rights under the law, as do the Mizrachim (Arab Jews) who represent over 30 percent of the population. Presently, there are at least twenty laws that privilege Jews over Arabs within the Israeli legal system. The 1950 Law of Return grants automatic citizenship rights to Jews from anywhere in the world upon request, while denying that same right to Palestinians who were forcibly dispossessed of their homes in 1948 or subsequently as the result of illegal settlements and redrawn borders. Human Rights Watch has compiled an extensive study of Israel’s policy of “separate, not equal” schools for Palestinian children. Moreover, as many as 100 Palestinian villages in Israel are still not recognized by the Israeli government, lacking basic services (water, electricity, sanitation, roads, etc.) from the government. Palestinians are barred from military service, and yet access to housing and education still largely depends on military status. Families are divided by the separation wall between the West Bank and Israel, with few forms of legal recourse to rights of visitation and reunification. The Knesset debates the “transfer” of the Palestinian population to the West Bank, and the new loyalty oath requires that anyone who wishes to become a citizen pledge allegiance to Israel as Jewish and democratic, thus eliding once again the non-Jewish population and binding the full population to a specific and controversial, if not contradictory, version of democracy.”
           

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Judith Butler Butler, in addition to her rather impressive academic credentials, is a Jewish woman who has been criticized for supporting the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement. She made the following response to her critics back in August: "I am a scholar who gained an introduction to philosophy through Jewish thought, and I understand myself as defending and continuing a Jewish ethical tradition that includes figures such as Martin Buber and Hannah Arendt. I received a Jewish education in Cleveland, Ohio at The Temple under the tutelage of Rabbi Daniel Silver where I developed strong ethical views on the basis of Jewish philosophical thought. I learned, and came to accept, that we are called upon by others, and by ourselves, to respond to suffering and to call for its alleviation. But to do this, we have to hear the call, find the resources by which to respond, and sometimes suffer the consequences for speaking out as we do. I was taught at every step in my Jewish education that it is not acceptable to stay silent in the face of injustice. Such an injunction is a difficult one, since it does not tell us exactly when and how to speak, or how to speak in a way that does not produce a new injustice, or how to speak in a way that will be heard and registered in the right way. My actual position is not heard by these detractors, and … [i]t is untrue, absurd, and painful for anyone to argue that those who formulate a criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitic or, if Jewish, self-hating."  Humanity, then, is not a subjective thought or a fleeting feeling. It is helping your fellow man and affording them those respects and rights you would expect no less of for yourself.     I would expect no less, then, for the Palestinians who are struggling against Israel.   If you have something you would like to add to try and change my opinion, please let me know! I do claim a lot of ignorance to of the history behind this struggle and even how it plays outs currently and would like to know more from both sides. You can comment here or email me at mlchrzan@outlook.com   But for now...   This is Where I Stand. *Quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.