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How Do You Fight an Unjust Racist System?
Dontie Mitchell
How do you fight an unjust and racist system? Definitely not by being their good nigga. How do you find an unjust and racist system that uses the power of the state to grind people… Full Transcript
Wealth and Change
Dontie Mitchell
The problem is that rich keep getting richer while the rest of us barely make ends meet. People must work two, three jobs just to live the American Dream. Many of you will have to… Full Transcript
When Good People Do Nothing, Tyranny Reigns
Dontie Mitchell
When good people do nothing, tyranny reigns. Let us analyze why people are looting and rioting in the wake of George Floyd’s death. It’s because people lose respect for law when the very people responsible… Full Transcript
George Floyd: What Do You Expect To Happen
Dontie Mitchell
George Floyd and state power: what do you expect to happen? The death of George Floyd is on a long list of unarmed black people murdered by the police. His death is sad and tragic.… Full Transcript
Hypocrisy of DOCCS
Dontie Mitchell
It seems to me that prison officials don’t want to accept responsibility for their own conduct. However, they will punish those of us who are behind these walls for the things that we do wrong. … Full Transcript
Phone Wars 4: Organizing Against Mass Incarceration
Dontie Mitchell
Organizing against mass incarceration. I was reading the interview of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, who I never heard of until now. She wrote a book entitled “Golden Gulag,” which analyzes the buildup of the California prison… Full Transcript
Phone Wars 3
Dontie Mitchell
I was in the prison yard this morning, trying to get my young [] together to have a discussion about their future, when two of them were pulled away by guys from their town to… Full Transcript
How I’m Weathering COVID-19
Dontie Mitchell
It’s stressful because, uh, you know, trying to get in contact with family members and being worried about them is not the easiest thing in light of the phone situation, the fact that the superintendent… Full Transcript
Phone Wars Part 2
Dontie Mitchell
This past Monday night, April 27th, I was sitting on the crowded bleachers in the prison yard here at Great Meadow, waiting in the cold rain to get on the phone line, when another prisoner… Full Transcript
The Fight to Staying Alive
Dontie Mitchell
There are those who think I should give up my fight for UFD, and I should just accept the fact that these people who run the New York state prison system don’t want UFD to… Full Transcript
I Will Live With Dignity and Respect
Dontie Mitchell
I have this one life to live, and I tend to live it with dignity and self-respect. Yesterday, April 21st, 2020, I was released from solitary confinement and it didn’t take long for the facility… Full Transcript
Without Pain, Risk or Sacrifice, Change is impossible
Dontie Mitchell
Economics is a very powerful motive towards driving mass incarceration. A lot of people are eating off of the arrest, prosecution, and the imprisonment of people in this country. If mass incarceration wasn’t practical do… Full Transcript
A Message to Black, Brown, and Poor People in Age of COVID-19
Dontie Mitchell
A message to Black, Hispanic, and poor people in this age of COVID-19 from Mfalme Sikivu, Executive Minister of UFD. Here we are, in 2020, still faced with the reality of racism and classism. The… Full Transcript
In The Box Part 3
Dontie Mitchell
I want to make something abundantly clear about solitary confinement, to why I was placed in here. I said before and I say now, again, that solitary confinement is torture and negatively impacts the mental… Full Transcript
In The Box Part 2
Dontie Mitchell
New York state governor, Andrew M Cuomo, gave a press conference on Monday, March 30th. In which he discussed the need for New Yorkers to practice social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is… Full Transcript
In The Box
Dontie Mitchell
I want to make something abundantly clear about solitary confinement, to why I was placed in here. I said before and I say now, again, that solitary confinement is torture and negatively impacts the mental… Full Transcript
My New Message to No New Jails
Dontie Mitchell
My new message to No New Jails. I did a previous commentary about the organization called No New Jails, NYC, which is a grassroots campaign committed to closing Rikers Island. Now, without building new jails… Full Transcript
Violence and Hypocrisy: As American as Apple Pie
Dontie Mitchell
Violence and hypocrisy: as American as apple pie. I was watching the house of managers giving their closing arguments during the impeachment trial. I couldn’t help but sit and wonder about how corrupt our political… Full Transcript
A Question of Leadership
Dontie Mitchell
“A Question of Leadership.” So, let me tell you all what I’ve been dealing with for the last week or so. I was finally allowed to run for the ILC, which is the Inmate Liaison… Full Transcript
I want to tell you a quick story about a young man who does eleven years in prison from the time he’s 18. While in prison, he really doesn’t learn how to be an adult… Full Transcript