Don E Peavy Sr, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Don E Peavy Sr
Why I Am Not Marching in the Street 12/9/2008 8:57:24 PM
First published March 5, 2007 In an article published in UHURU in November 1998, Angela Davis raised the question, “Why isn’t there marching in the streets?” Presumably, Prof. Davis believes that prisons represent an “inherent injustice” and that the American citizenry should be marching in the streets to dramatize our opposition to this injustice.
It seems that the heart of Prof. Davis’ argument is that “70% of incarcerated individuals in the United States are persons of color.” Thus, one can understand her concern for prison reform given that she is African-American and is herself a one-time “victim” of America’s prison system. What I cannot understand; however, is precisely what it is that Prof. Davis would have us to do about crime and the persons who commit it.
While I agree with Prof. Davis that our prison system has failed miserably at rehabilitation, I do not see this failure as justification for a lessening of the prison population. In fact, what Prof. Davis fails to point out is that our prisons of today are reflective of the historical efforts in this country at prison reform. Perhaps she has forgotten that early on during the nineteenth century, the women’s movement in this country got its initial impetus by demonstrating for prison reform. She also seems unmindful of those legal precedents from the 1970s and 1980s which placed most of America’s prison systems under the management of the federal courts. And thus, many Americans today, myself included, believe that prisons have swung to the opposite extreme--instead of being inhumane they have become mere camps for wayward adults.
Another circumstance arguing against Prof. Davis and which keeps me from marching in the streets is the high recidivism rate among incarcerated persons. If prisons were as inhumane as Prof. Davis suggests, then how do we explain the willingness with which those who were formerly incarcerated seek to return? Hence, states like California have sought to implement so-called “three strikes” and similar laws. And yet, such laws have proven insufficient to stem the tide of repeat offenders are are sentenced to imprisonment. There seems to be something in human nature which allows it to continuously engage in conduct which risks the loss of its freedom. What is that something?
I contend it is the cult of victimization which has invaded the shores of this country which once treasured individual responsibility. We have made being a victim a high calling in this country to such an extent that it is easier and oftentimes more glorious to fail than to succeed. We have seen this in spousal abuse cases where we have invented the “abuse syndrome” to explain why abused spouses don’t leave or otherwise take responsibility for the choices they’ve made in getting into and remaining in an abusive relationship. We have seen it in our treatment of drug addicts where we give them a prescription drug to replace the illicit drug they are taking and blame their environment for their need for drugs. We also see it in the many cases where parents are being blamed for all kinds of misdeeds by their children.
All of these examples have one thing in common--they all make people who fail or refuse to exercise individual responsibility victims of one thing or another. A student refuses to study, choosing instead to “kick it” and is expelled from school. The student becomes a victim of racism or some other ism. Two boys murder their parents and plead for the mercy of the court because they are victims of being orphans. And then, there are the haunting words of O.J. Simpson in a recent interview that if he killed Nicole Brown Simpson it would have been because he was a victim of love!
While I agree with Prof. Davis that something needs to be done about our burgeoning prison population, I do not believe that marching in the streets is a suitable strategy. On the contrary, I believe that the first step is for each of us to become and to exhibit more personal responsibility and to demand that others do the same. I believe this first step will go a long ways toward eradicating our present cult of victimization and this will no doubt reduce those instances in which victims of crime must support victims of an “inhumane” prison system.
