School to Prison Pipeline & Biden/Harris in Talk Radio
- Aug. 12, 2020, 4:37 a.m.
- |
- Public
I’ve been rebellious as long as I can remember. My problems with the system (in general) root in the school system in particular.
(to skip my personal story, scroll right past the line break)
I started my rebellion flip-flopping. I wanted to comply and avoid punishment. After my peak rage, I’d beg for more chances and forgiveness. I’d make promises to get homework done that I couldn’t keep. I thought of myself as a genius and the behavior issues a temporary embarrassment, but I never got past them. My intelligence and grasp of the material was never in doubt (even when it should have been) so everybody thought I should be acing my classes.
It was not learning they wanted. I didn’t want to break my promises, but procrastination and suicidality compounded my failures. While pressured by them, they told me I had total control over a situation when I was actually captive. To this very day, that is still a situation that leads to me turning on authorities & partners I had been trying to please.
I gave up on the school workload and went full rebellion & truancy somewhere between 7th and 8th grade. The school threatened my truancy problem could lead to my parents going to jail. As a private school, they actually protected me from the public system, but they said they’d do something different. Probably hoped that threatening to put my Mom in prison when she had done nothing wrong could scare me straight. They didn’t want me to “fall through the cracks.”
More millennials are stuck in those cracks than any other generation has been, but at a time we didn’t know that would happen to so many, I was of particular concern.
If the school made good on these threats to jail my parents, I could have been a Midwestern example of the “school to prison pipeline”. This is what Kamala is famous for in California. She got working class people on things like truancy and possession at a time & place when small amounts of marijuana was a felony. A Californian prototype of the prosecution that puts so many POC behind bars. If they are captured alive.
Although Kamala herself slammed Biden on his old timey support of segregation.... a hollow appearance of racial progress without any follow through is a reason picking her as his running mate is tactically sound. Both Kamala & Biden are actually natural allies on policy– Both ran “tough on crime” 90s campaigns aimed at swinging Reaganites. Public support for the draconian anti-crime measures depend on racism and white supremacy.
The Clintons also did this. They have admitted the codes used, resentment of super-predators, thugs and welfare queens, were a mistake. Clintons have been consistent with their apology for this in recent years; Biden flip-flops as if he’s just caving to pressure.
During the health insurance debates, we saw Biden pander to liberals who are afraid of change. Ironically, these people he panders to are nostalgic for the Obama admin– remember “hope” and “change”?
Kamala’s biggest contribution to the ticket will be her quick wit and powerful stage presence. If they do it right, this should make goofy Biden look better. (It could backfire and make him look worse, which racists will capitalize on when they release racist propaganda.)
The working class is too suppressed to vote in a leftist president. Despite a great demand. Being overworked & underpaid (thus little time/planning to get to polls), gerrymandering, voter ID, suppresses democratic process. If the DNC were not so biased toward the status quo and open to reform we may have made Bernie happen.
I think this election is going to come down to GWB era republicans who are grossed out by Trump’s extremism and superficiality. Polling shows that Republicans are very supportive of Trump as a group. It’s going to be a tough ask to bring Repubs alienated by their party out to the polls, but if there are enough of them Biden will win.
Despite my complaints I’m voting for Biden/Harris. But the reason for the complaints are that the odds are stacked against this ticket. Trump is more likely to win. He has a very strong base who truly love him. Whereas democrats are conflicted & tone deaf. Like Romney in 2012, we have a candidate so very bland at best, nobody is going to bother voting except the people who always vote.
I hope I’m wrong. But I’m getting my tubes tied before Trump continues to attack health care & planned parenthood.
Stumble Bee 🐝 ⋅ August 12, 2020
I’m trying to look past the blathering tendencies to not control himself on social media, to actual actions. So far, regarding the Middle East I’ve agreed with the way he left treaties. They were bogus anyway. And we were wasting our resources on it. I also agree with how he actually steps up for poc not just talk about it. I actually expected Obama to do that more, but it was trump who did more on that account. I’m not exactly worried about Supreme Court picks because in general, justices have said they aren’t political or pick sides, they render the law, its public who believe in the taking sides nonsense. And I think we’ve seen that play out in the way they tend to flip to different sides. They’re risk-takers. I don’t pay much attention to negative media, it doesn’t matter what the man does, they’ll spin it negatively. I think Biden-Harris isn’t giving me enough to flip. I thought about it many times in moments the president was saying something dumb, but then I thought about real action. There’s no way I can teach in Latino and black communities and support someone whose job it was to criminalize in the way you also explained. And while I’m not distracted by the Biden Ukraine issues, he’s pretty bland to me. He seems unsure of his stance on some other issues.
Mr. Mofo ⋅ August 12, 2020
I had to look up what GWB stood for.