Indiana Daily Student
A4
idsnews.com 2022 Freshman Edition
BLACK VOICES
Editor Jaicey Bledsoe blackvoices@idsnews.com
DA’NASIA DID IT
Incarcerated people deserve human rights By Da’Nasia Pruitt
pruittd@iu.edu | @danasialp
According to The Guardian, Rikers Island is currently under dangerous and deadly conditions. There is a lack of toilets in the prison forcing inmates to relieve themselves in bags. There have been multiple counts of deaths in the prison and overcrowding. No one deserves to be treated inhumanely, not even prisoners. According to The Guardian, Rikers Island is one of the largest and most notorious prisons in the world, known for its inhumane conditions and high inmate numbers. Rikers Island is just one piece of the prison industrial complex and part of a bigger problem. People should think about other means of implementing safe ways in order to reduce harm besides captivity. The abolishment of slavery by the 13th Amendment was the catalyst to what we now call the “prison industrial complex.” The 13th Amendment only abolished slavery if you had never committed a crime. The origins of prisons and jails began in America as early as the 1700s. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, prisons were not originally intended for punishment. They were essentially detention centers where people would wait until they received a punishment, sometimes resulting in death. After slavery was abolished, the U.S. government made a loophole by ensuring Black people could still be slaves by putting them in prison. Other aspects that ensured the keeping of Black Americans in prison were Jim Crow laws and “The War on Drugs’’ which eventually led to mass incarceration. Decades later, people are still suffering from the effects of the three. People may think if criminals don’t go to jail, where
ILLUSTRATION BY DONYÁ COLLINS
will they go? How will they pay for their crimes? How will people be safe? Some may even think people go to jail to learn from their mistakes. While all of these are sound reasons, let’s take a look at reality. According to The U.S Department of Justice, 650,000 prisoners are released every year, and ⅔ of those prisoners will be rearrested within three years of release. There are also people in jails who have not committed a crime. Kalief Browder was 16
when he was accused of stealing a book bag but was never convicted. He was detained at Rikers Island as an adult for the next three years and couldn’t be released because he couldn’t afford bail. Browder spent two of those three years in solitary confinement. Two years after his release, he died by suicide after suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the horrors he experience within the Rikers Island cells. Prison affects you mentally and physically, and this physical and mental stress
often follows you even after you’ve left prison. This is not an isolated event specific to Rikers Island. This is what all prisons do to you, especially to Black and Brown people. IU sophomore Minnie Arthur is close with people who were involved with the prison system. Her brother’s dad was in prison for eight years and had an associate who waited several years before receiving an actual prison sentence. Arthur said she feels that people in prison should have basic human rights because their freedom being taken
away is more than enough punishment. “Society puts so much stress on people to punish them,” Arthur said. “It should be a place where they can recreate themselves and have the ability to actually better themselves.” The idea that people in prisons and jails deserve the treatment and conditions they are living in is disgusting. American prisons were not formed as a means to rehabilitate people; they were meant to keep people captive, produce labor and make capital.
Jails and prisons should not be places for people to be sent to pay for the harm they did only to be released and commit the same crime that got them there in the first place, nor should they be used for punishment in general. It’s time that people begin to think about other ways to reduce harm and keep people safe. It’s time to take the words “prison” and “jail” out of our vocabulary. This article was orginally published on Nov 5, 2021.
BLACK VOICES
The Modern Black American Family is healing 400-year-old trauma By Thursday Currence tcurrenc@iu.edu
In recent years in the United States, there has been a rise in the number of children being raised in two-parent households, across all demographics. In 1960, the percentage of children in a two-parent home was around 80%. The proportion of children under 18 living with two parents steadily declined from 88% in 1960 to just 66% in 2005. The number has now risen to 70% in 2020, the highest it has been in 30 years, according to the U.S. Census. Amongst all races, African Americans have seen the biggest increase in the number of children who are living in a two-parent household, regardless of the parents’ marital status. The structure of Black families has been jeopardized since slaves were brought to this country and torn away from their family members. This generational trauma has had long-lasting effects on the Black community and their family structure. Black people in the U.S. were not even allowed to be legally married until the 13th Amendment, which abol-
ished slavery, was passed in 1864. In 2016, a study done by the U.S. Census Bureau showed Black people had the lowest marriage rates amongst all races. The lack of resources Black people have had since they were forcefully brought to this country has also been detrimental to their family structure. Even now when poverty rates are historically low in the U.S., Black people are still more likely than any other race to live in poverty. Needless to say, these conditions are not ideal to raise a family. Despite the turmoil facing the Black family in the U.S., they have still managed to prosper. “They are trending now more rapidly than other families in the direction of family stability, which I think is both striking and encouraging,” Brad Wilcox, a sociologist at University of Virginia, said. Wilcox said there are many positive effects for Black children being raised in a home with two parents. “They are less likely to live in poverty, they are less likely to end up in prison and they’re markedly more likely to graduate from college when they’re raised in
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intact, two-parent families,” Wilcox said. Talia Clark, a Black mother of three, said raising her kids in a two-parent household has been extremely different from her upbringing with a single mother. “I can’t imagine having
to take sole responsibility for all of my children majority of the time. Clark said. “My husband and I do a pretty good job of sharing responsibilities with our children. My mother also had three children and she had to take on most of the responsibil-
ity and I applaud her for that. Parenting is a hard job but having a strong and reliable partner makes it much easier.” The increase of Black children being raised in a two-parent household is undeniably a win for the Black
community. Reaching this milestone is just the beginning of reversing the effects of the generations of destruction that have negatively impacted Black families. This article was orginally published on March 8, 2022.
BLACK VOICES
Jazmine Sullivan receives her Grammy for ‘Heaux Tales’ album By Amani Gates
amagates@iu.edu | @amani_gates
Singer and now two-time Grammy winner Jazmine Sullivan took home the Best R&B Album award for “Heaux Tales” and tied with Silk Sonic to win Best R&B Performance for “Pick Up Your Feelings” at the 2022 Grammy Awards. Sullivan previously earned 15 Grammy nominations over the last 10 years. This victory is well-deserved.
Sullivan kick-started her tour on Valentine’s Day and is touring all over North America. She continued the tour after having to cancel six of her shows due to various COVID-19 cases on her team. She also tested positive. She said in a tweet the circumstance was extremely disappointing, but nonetheless, they were going to figure it out. They did figure it out. After recovery, Sullivan and her team were able to get
back on tour doing what they loved. Her album “Heaux Tales” was released in January 2021, and she followed it up with a deluxe version in February 2022. “I just wanted to tell the untold stories of women,” Sullivan said in an NPR interview. “ I feel like society makes it seem like we have to be perfect and present ourselves a certain way to be considered a good woman.” “Heaux Tales” is a series
of personal and intimate stories told by Black women that includes the ups and downs of love, heartbreak, sex and dating. Dressed in a black and white tribal jumpsuit with black sunglasses, she accepted her Grammy from Billie Porter, in disbelief that she heard her name. “I think that I wrote this project to deal with my own shame and unforgiveness around some of the decisions that I made in my 20s
that weren’t favorable,” Sullivan said in her acceptance speech. “But what it ended up being was a safe space for Black women to tell their stories. For us to learn from each other, laugh with each other and not be exploited at the same time.” The album was made for Black women so they know they are not alone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a celebrity or not, we all go through the same struggles in love. And we shouldn’t feel ashamed of
the mistakes and heartbreak. It’s important we forgive ourselves and let go of some of the decisions we have made in the past because we are humans, and we’re constantly growing and changing. Seeing another Black woman finally win after being seen as an underdog makes you feel as though you won too. This article was orginally published on April 12, 2022.
