Prisons preserve racist and misogynist practices society has nominally abandoned

Evidence

In the post-Civil War era, emancipated black men and women comprised an enormous reservoir of labor at a time when planters—and industrialists—could no longer rely on slavery, as they had done in the past. This labor became increasingly available for use by private agents precisely through the convict lease system, discussed earlier, and related systems such as debt peonage. Recall that in the aftermath of slavery, the penal population drastically shifted, so that in the South it rapidly became disproportionately black. This transition set the historical stage for the easy acceptance of disproportionately black prison populations today. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 253 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Another problem with financial reparations is that money cannot begin to address the deeply ingrained racist attitudes that are now so embedded in our society. The so-called ‘Windrush’ scandal, as well as the hostile environment that led to the expulsion of countless British Caribbean citizens who contributed to Britain’s post-war development, is a stark reminder that black people’s labour remains exploited and undervalued to this day. — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 427 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

South Africa’s participation in the prison industrial complex constitutes a major impediment to the creation of a democratic society. In the United States, we have already felt the insidious and socially damaging effects of prison expansion. The dominant social expectation is that young black, Latino, Native American, and Southeast Asian men— and increasingly women as well—will move naturally from the free world into prison, where, it is assumed, they belong. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 274 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Prisons preserve practices that society has largely abandoned as obsolete; Sexual abuse of prisoners is reframed as prisoner deviance; Racism and profit, not crime, drive prison expansion (+11 more)

Related

• Prison reform rhetoric reinforces the prison’s permanence. (similarity 0.84)
• Prison abolition has a long history but remains culturally unthinkable (similarity 0.84)
• Prisons stockpile obsolete ideas like racism and misogyny that society has rejected (similarity 0.83)
• The prison system is racism’s most reliable institutional refuge. (similarity 0.83)
• Prison expansion undermines democracy and normalizes incarceration for people of color (similarity 0.83)
• The prison boom was a way to concentrate and manage a capitalist human surplus (similarity 0.83)
• Prison is an ordinary life dimension in poor communities of color (similarity 0.81)
• Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system (similarity 0.81)
• Imprisonment converts bodies of color into profit sources that drain public welfare funding (similarity 0.81)
• Prison imagery in media makes incarceration seem natural and permanent (similarity 0.80)
• Prison expansion correlates with falling crime, exposing profit and racism as drivers (similarity 0.80)
• Alabama’s prison population flipped from ninety-nine percent white to majority black after emancipation (similarity 0.79)
• The prison disciplined convicts into an industrial labor force (similarity 0.79)
• Racism and profit, not crime, drive prison expansion (similarity 0.79)
• Black labor exploitation persisted in new forms beyond slavery’s legal end. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system #exemplifies (0.75) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 253
• Financial reparations fail to address embedded societal racism and ongoing exploitation #corroborates (0.70) — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 427
• Male prisons functioning as the punishment norm drives women’s conditions toward greater repression. #expands (0.60) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 204
• Prison expansion undermines democracy and normalizes incarceration for people of color #expands (0.60) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 274