Saturday, March 16, 2013

Jim Crow Must Go - The Prison Industrial Complex

The Internet Archive is an excellent place to cruise around for information. There is so much going on there, that you just never know what's going to turn up. Videos, radio and TV programs, old public domain images and texts are among the things I've found. Now I'm going to share a little treat I came upon with you. Would you believe "The New Jim Crow"? Yup it's in there. If you haven't read it yet then fire up your iPod/Pad and get crackin'.


M. Alexander's The New Jim Crow
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Michelle Alexander argues that mass incarceration of people of color in the US constitutes the newest structure of racialized social control, replacing slavery and Jim Crow to create an African American undercaste. She argues that the vastly disproportionate imprisonment (and the resultant disenfranchisement and exclusion from numerous aspects of mainstream society such as education and employment) of African Americans constitutes the single most important impediment to equality and civil rights..


Listen or Download below.

The New Jim Crow: Introduction

The New Jim Crow: Chapter One - "The Rebirth of Caste" Part 1
The New Jim Crow: Chapter One - Part 2

The New Jim Crow: Chapter Two - "The Lockdown" Part 1
The New Jim Crow: Chapter Two - Part 2

Monday, March 11, 2013

Environment - Dudley Street Community Land Trust

(Dudley Street Neighborhod Initiative)

Greg Watson tells the story of an urban community that came together to reshape its destiny. Starting with shovels and garbage bags to clean up abandoned lots, residents formed the Dudley Street Community Land Trust to acquire lots which now support hundreds of units of renovated owner-occupied homes, a productive greenhouse, locally-owned businesses, and reinvigorated neighborhood pride. In telling the story of Dudley Street, Greg Watson recounts his own story as an African American growing up in Cleveland in the sixties. Seeing the ecological degradation surrounding him, he grew to become a leader in the environmental movement, and then later returned to the urban landscape with a richer understanding of the complex issues needed to build sustainable communities.