“Fight Power With Power.”
I’ve been watching the BET series Finding Justice, and it brought up a recurrent theme in my mind about the lack of true Black power. How is it that Black people are still contending with things like being disproportionately incarcerated, being shot and murdered by white police officers and vigilantes, having our vote suppressed, or having our children criminalized in school?
I’m from Albany, New York and recently white police officers there were caught on video brutalizing Black men on March 16th, 2019 over a noise complaint. One officer kicked the door in of the residence and dragged out one occupant. Then the situation escalated with officers kicking and beating him. Then one officer just started going after another guy. Punching him, throwing him to the ground, and busting his head open with a Baton.
Black people are still under assault in this country on several fronts. I’ve been arguing this for years. I can use my own situation as an example. My good friend, Paul [inaudible] wrote a letter to the Greenville Pioneer Newspaper that appeared in that paper on February 15th, 2019. He pointed out how 42-year-old Gary Pitt, who has a criminal history dating back more than 20 years, was sentenced to only 13 years in prison for armed robbery of a bank. But I am serving a maximum of 50 years in prison for robberies I committed at 17 years old, with no criminal record prior to then. My life of crime spanned only 10 months in my young life. The difference between Gary and I is that I’m Black and he is white.
But I wonder why, in 2019, it seems that Black people still suffer from so much racial discrimination. I believe it has much to do with our lack of true Black power. Black protest has been at the forefront of the struggle for social justice in this country since slavery, yet it seems we haven’t been effective at doing nothing more than making surface changes, aside from ending slavery and Jim Crow. But not necessarily ending the legacy of white supremacy, which seems to only disguise itself. Yet it rears its ugly head in areas such as mass incarceration, police brutality, Stand Your Ground laws, voter suppression, the school to prison pipeline, and immigration.
The world is changing, and Black people need to adjust. The problem with racial discrimination has never just been a moral black-or-white issue. It’s fundamentally an issue of power. And power in this country is rooted in economics. Think about it. What runs this country: money or morality? Donald Trump isn’t the president because he was the moral choice, not even the popular choice. He represents powerful money interests of mostly rich white people who play on the ignorance and fears of middle America.
Black protest needs to be backed by economic strength to counter this. This is one of the main reasons I create UFD to focus on the economic empowerment of Black and disadvantaged people, regardless of race or color. We can do all the protesting and marching we want against social and racial injustice, but power respects power. Power yields to power. And wealth in America is power. Those without wealth are usually the ones who get abused and mistreated. Those with wealth are those who usually get away with doing wrong. So, it is my belief, the way to freedom, justice, and equality in America, is through the economic empowerment of the poor and people of color.
This is Dontie S. Mitchell, better known as Mfalme Sikivu, reporting to you from Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York. Follow me on Facebook @freeDontieMitchell. Thank you for listening, and God bless.
(Sound of a cell door closing.) These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
https://conta.cc/4ayDxlB](https://www.prisonradio.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)