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So, my friend @spiceybinks asked me about prison gerrymandering. Which may seem like a kind of far-off issue...counting people *in prison* as "residents" of a district for the purpose of allocating representation.
But it's actually a factor perpetuating police violence.
But it's actually a factor perpetuating police violence.
As many have pointed out (including one of my favorite humans @Taniel) it goes like this:
Black and brown people are policed more aggressively
They get locked up in prison at dramatically higher rates
Prisons are often far away from their homes in conservative districts.
Black and brown people are policed more aggressively
They get locked up in prison at dramatically higher rates
Prisons are often far away from their homes in conservative districts.
So the result here is that very white, conservative districts are able to *increase their voting power* by incarcerating primarily BIPOC.
Think about that.
Think about that.
There's a really helpful overview on places where this is still happening, which I've provided here. But gerrymandering is just half the picture. https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/colorado-death-penalty-prison-gerrymandering/
People who are incarcerated are stripped of their voting power basically everywhere. Over 6 million people have lost the right to be heard in our society because of a criminal conviction. https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/felony-disenfranchisement-a-primer/
So here's where we're at: Black and brown people policed at higher rates, incarcerated at higher rates, stripped of their political voice at higher rates AND their population power given to whiter, more conservative districts.
Sheriffs are elected. City and county councilmembers who make decisions about policing...mayors...governors...prosecutors...they're elected.
But when you look at who is electing them, you have to remember how many people have been silenced.
But when you look at who is electing them, you have to remember how many people have been silenced.
All of which is to say, voting is vital and hugely important. But your vote--my vote--all of our votes are not enough if they only represent what we want for ourselves. It's vital to use your political power to vote on behalf of those who cannot, and work to restore their rights.
The only way we'll dismantle the structures of oppression is together. It's hard work. It means learning every fucking detail about your local DA even if you yourself are unlikely to ever engage with them.
And it also means having a heightened awareness of how the skewing of the basic institutions of democracy has preserved police violence and mass incarceration for so long.
Oh one more thing--if anyone tries to make you believe that the right to vote is somehow *traditionally* or normally tied to incarceration or wrongdoing...that's just not true. Want to know how we got felon disenfranchisement?
Slavery.
Slavery.
Not, like, sort of or metaphorically. After emancipation, slave-holding districts created "black codes," or criminal law designed to create reasons to arrest and jail Black people, and then lease their labor back to formerly slave-holding plantations. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/the-slave-power-behind-floridas-felon-disenfranchisement/552269/
Tying the right to vote to whether a person has a criminal record was *deliberately* developed to silence Black people once they got the right to vote.
So this is, in fact, a mechanism designed to suppress and marginalize the voices of a community that has perpetuated on and on.
So this is, in fact, a mechanism designed to suppress and marginalize the voices of a community that has perpetuated on and on.
OH AND ONE MORE THING!!! This is separate and apart from the structural racism perpetuating police violence.
Voting makes communities safer. Did you know that? I forgot I once did a thread on it, with links and research :) https://twitter.com/i/events/1106635355279765504
Voting makes communities safer. Did you know that? I forgot I once did a thread on it, with links and research :) https://twitter.com/i/events/1106635355279765504
And if you want an up-to-date overview of where Black votes are being given to prison towns, here you go... https://theappeal.org/political-report/prison-gerrymandering-states/
