4-26-98
Imagine this. . .
Your arms and legs are chained together as several men armed with guns drag you out of your home along with several other Black men and women who were with you. Outside, you are all forced into a large bus with bars over the doors and steel grating over the windows. They stuff you all inside where you are driven to a remote location far from any large city. There, you are all removed from the bus. Money exchanges hands and you and your guests are given to more men who escort you to the cages which will be your new home.
That narrative might seem like an account from the slave trade of the 1800's. Unfortunately, it was derived from a 1997 news report. Instead of slave drivers, this time it is police officers, and instead of money being exchanged between slave catchers and plantation owners, the money is being exchanged between government and private prison owners. Locking up African Americans is becoming big business all over again. Maybe it always was. More and more individuals (some Black, but most white) are making money by keeping Black people in their own personal prisons.
The government's justification for this is that there has to be more space to store criminals so they won't be loose on the streets.
There are obvious problems with people getting paid to keep other people locked
up. As long as people are locked up, the prison owners make money.
If the people go free, the prison owners stop making money. This gives
prison owners a huge incentive to keep people locked up, whether
they deserve it or not. This is an example of the new face of slavery.
Everything that was done to us in the original face of slavery is still being
done to us, in a new form to suit new laws.
Commercial prisons are not the only way our people are being treated as property. Other methods are used throughout various commercial markets. The most blatant are involved with entertainment. As Black people, we face financial hardship and a lack respect from others, that are more intense for us than for others due to people's negative feelings toward us. These conditions make our lives more stressful and more difficult. Many people see a career in entertainment as a fast, and possibly the only escape from these conditions. Therefore, many of us choose to enter into agreements with white entertainment executives. They work hard, and their minds, bodies, and voices are exhibited for the pleasure of others in exchange for money Even though large amounts of money are acquired through the work of Black people, too many artists and athletes find that most or all of their money ends up in the hands of their white contractors and they end up with nothing more than a more recognizable face. Thus, the talent and beauty of our Black people are being sold by white people as if they own it.
Some people would say that the people who are exploited in this way are exploited by choice. They make claims that these people don't have to sign contracts and enter into deals that will cause people to make money through them. This is a claim made from the limited viewpoint of individuals who don't have to face the same situation of the people they criticize. They don't see the struggle and the difficulty of living with severely inadequate resources. They don't understand that not all of have an economic base already provided for us.
When a person is forced to use money to survive and provided with no other means of acquiring it other than to be exploited, the person is no longer choosing freely, but is being coerced into an agreement to be exploited. Also, many artists and athletes are deceived with promises that are never meant to materialize, and left in financial ruin as their contractor finds another Black victim to use and abandon.
Black people are aware of this problem, and making efforts to resolve it. Today, more and more Black musical artists are making efforts to have more control of their careers. Artists like Puff Daddy and Master P, and Jermaine Dupri are good examples, as they are their own producers, and get to decide how their talents are used. They also control the flow of the profits from their work.
Athletes are now venturing into other careers so that their financial stability does not depend solely on their popularity as an athlete. Shaquille O'neal is a good example of this. He has used his status in the NBA to acquire a career in music, as well as an acting career. Lisa Leslie has used her popularity as an athlete to acquire a modeling career. Neil Smith and Michael Jordan both own their own restaurants. There are many others, but still not enough.
Hopefully, as Black people become more aware of our power to control our careers, more and more of us will be able to acquire financial stability without dependence on people who do not have our best interest in mind, and we will be able to use it to maintain power in a world corrupted by the love of money.
Website: African American Culture
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