Voices & Soul
“… Now these 7 men and women were innocent of any crimes; they were in prison because their skins were black… “ — Etheridge Knight “A Fable”
by Justice Putnam, Black Kos Editor
The Prison Industrial Complex insists that it is a growth industry; and it's hard to argue with that assessment. With the building of ever more prisons, both by Government and Private Industry, with mandatory sentencing and inflexible drug laws, with the wholesale purge of people of color right off the street in broad daylight by masked Gestapo thugs, the resonant cadences of chain gangs past can be heard echoing from sea to shining sea.
It is presumed that Drug Prohibition began with the Harrison Act of 1914, but California enacted the Nation's first anti-narcotics law in 1875 in response to anti-chinese sentiment. Ostensibly enacted to crack down on opium dens, the law was used to incarcerate or banish Chinese nationals deemed as unfair competition with white workers. When several boatloads of Punjabi Sikhs landed in San Francisco in 1910, it sparked an uproar of protest from Asian exclusionists, who pronounced them to be even more unfit for American civilization than the Chinese. Immigration authorities capped the influx at little more than 2,000 in the state, mostly in agricultural areas of the Central Valley. Even so, the Sikhs remained a popular target by racists of the times and were accused of many crimes, all while under the influence of hashish or marijuana, it was alleged. In the 1920's and 1940's, when Braceros and other workers from Mexico were no longer needed, even harsher laws were enacted to hasten their exodus. Anti-narcotics laws were also enacted in the South to intimidate the black population and used as an excuse to deny them the vote.
To ignore the racial animus that drives the Prison Industrial Complex, is to ignore the obvious, it is to ignore the history of our nation. And that is exactly the point the regime demands.
Divide and Conquer is a strategy used by military and political professionals alike. If people can be divided by culture and race, the job of the King, the Vichy General, or the MAGA Oligarch runs smoother. It runs smoother still, if the divisions extend within those very cultures and races, as well.
- JP
Once upon a today and yesterday and nevermore there were 7 men and women all locked / up in prison cells. Now these 7 men and women were innocent of any crimes; they were in prison because their skins were black. Day after day, the prisoners paced their cells, pining for their freedom. And the non-black jailers would laugh at the prisoners and beat them with sticks and throw their food on the floor. Finally, prisoner #1 said, “I will educate myself and emulate the non-colored people. That is the way to freedom—c’mon, you guys, and follow me.” “Hell, no,” said prisoner #2. “The only way to get free is to pray to my god and he will deliver you like he delivered Daniel from the lion’s den, so unite and follow me.” “Bullshit,” said prisoner #3. “The only way / out is thru this tunnel i’ve been quietly digging, so c’mon, and follow me.” “Uh-uh,” said prisoner #4, “that’s too risky. The only right / way is to follow all the rules and don’t make the non-colored people angry, so c’mon brothers and sisters and unite behind me.” “Fuck you!” said prisoner #5, “The only way / out is to shoot our way out, if all of you get / together behind me.” “No,” said prisoner #6, “all of you are incorrect; you have not analyzed the political situation by my scientific method and historical meemeejeebee. All we have to do is wait long enough and the bars will bend from their own inner rot. That is the only way.” “Are all of you crazy,” cried prisoner #7. “I’ll get out by myself, by ratting on the rest of you to the non-colored people. That is the way, that is the only way!” “No-no,” they / all cried, “come and follow me. I have the / way, the only way to freedom.” And so they argued, and to this day they are still arguing; and to this day they are still in their prison cells, their stomachs / trembling with fear.
- Etheridge Knight
"A Fable"
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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The Supreme Court spent Wednesday morning trying to figure out a way to legalize racial gerrymandering. While the justices didn’t coalesce around a single approach, they generally appeared to agree that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act must fall.
The high court’s conservative majority signaled during oral arguments in Louisiana v. Callais that it would likely strike down the VRA’s provisions that prohibit racial gerrymandering by state legislatures. In doing so, the justices appear ready to demolish what remains of one of the most important laws ever passed by Congress—and to upend the nation’s political landscape in the GOP’s favor.
If the Supreme Court sides with the anti-VRA forces, the impact will be monumental. A New York Times analysis found that if Republicans merely maximized their efforts to eliminate majority-minority districts in the South, they could flip about a dozen House seats to the safely Republican column in future elections. Some analyses by voting-rights groups are even more dire.
In a post-Section 2 world, that could require Democrats to win the national popular vote by 5 to 6 percentage points just to have a chance of flipping the chamber. But the true impact goes beyond election results. Gutting Section 2 would drastically reduce minority representation in Congress in general and largely wipe out Black congressional representation in the South at a scale unseen since the end of Reconstruction.
The case began with Louisiana’s response to the 2020 Census. The Constitution requires states to redraw their maps every ten years to account for population shifts and changes. Louisiana adopted a new, visibly gerrymandered map with five ultra-safe Republican seats and one ultra-safe Democratic seat. The Democratic seat, centered around New Orleans, incorporated most of the state’s Black communities and diluted their influence in other districts.
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A Black man was at his Chicago home when he heard an unexpected knock on his front door. It was around 10:30 p.m. on a typical Monday in September, but no one could’ve expected the trauma he would soon live through.
The unnamed man spoke to journalist Don Lemon after he allegedly had a run-in with ICE agents in the city. President Donald Trump has been revving up National Guard troops and immigration officers across the country. Chicago is one of the latest cities on Trump’s hit list.
The man knew about the rising Guard presence, but as a Black man and American citizen, he told Lemon he didn’t expected his treatment by the Guard to be worse than his time at the infamous Cook County Jail in Chicago.
“When I looked through the window, I could see people in [Army] uniform,” he said. That’s when he opened his front door to absolute chaos.
“They pushed their way in,” he continued, referring to the Guard officers, who allegedly told the man, “We want you to come with us.” The Black man tried to tell the officers that they were detaining the wrong person, but it didn’t work. “And I was told to shut up and just follow instructions,” he recalled. The man did exactly that.
Before being escorted out of his home, he allegedly grabbed his backpack, which conveniently held his birth certificate and state ID. The officers allegedly secured him with zip ties and put him in the back of a Budget rental truck. The man recalled at least 40 people already detained and placed inside the vehicle by the time he was taken. Then, they drove to the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago, where the man again tried to reason with the officers.
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Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are proposing a new congressional map that could make it harder for Democratic Rep. Don Davis — one of the state’s three Black members of Congress — to win reelection in the state’s only swing district. The Grio: North Carolina’s only swing district — and a Black congressman’s seat — targeted in GOP’s new map
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Republican legislators offered a redrawn U.S. House district map for North Carolina on Thursday, seeking to help President Donald Trump retain GOP control of Congress by attempting to thwart the reelection of the Democrat now in the state’s only swing seat.
State House and Senate GOP leaders unveiled the proposed boundaries in advance of next week’s General Assembly session, stepping into the national fray over mid-decade redistricting that has Democrats and Republicans battling to secure electoral advantages from coast to coast, including Texas and California. The Republicans announced earlier this week that legislators would return to Raleigh to debate and vote on a plan provided in response to Trump’s call to secure more GOP seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
An intensely competitive midterm election looms in which Democrats need to gain just three seats to take control of the House. The president’s party historically has lost seats in midterm elections, something Trump is trying to avoid.
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On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for a consequential voting rights case that could either solidify or dismantle the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965–which has protected Black voters from racial discrimination in the electoral process for six decades.
Janai Nelson, a longtime civil rights attorney, was the woman who argued on behalf of Black voters and what is left of the VRA in Louisiana v. Callais. It was Nelson’s first case before the Supreme Court, marking a historic day for the UCLA School of Law-educated lawyer.
The current president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund brought her decades of experience in civil rights law to defend the creation of a second majority-Black district in Louisiana, also known as an “opportunity district” under Section 2 of the VRA.
Attorneys representing a group of white voters, the United States government, and the state of Louisiana argue that Louisiana’s congressional map is essentially racial discrimination against the white plaintiffs and is political in nature.
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Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott puts her money where her mouth is when it comes to supporting HBCUs. And this time, she’s pouring her support into Morgan State University.
The billionaire philanthropist announced a jaw-dropping $63 million unrestricted gift to Morgan State, the school’s largest donation and her second major donation to the Baltimore HBCU in under five years. Add that to her historic $40 million contribution in 2020, and Scott’s $70 million donation to the UNCF’s effort to strengthen historically Black colleges and universities.
For Morgan State, now the third-largest historically Black college or university in the country, this isn’t just another line in a fundraising report. It’s a validation of years of intentional growth, bold leadership, and the kind of innovation that’s reimagining what Black higher education can look like in the 21st century.
“To receive one historic gift from Ms. Scott was an incredible honor; to receive two speaks volumes about the confidence she and her team have in our institution’s stewardship, leadership, and trajectory,” said David K. Wilson, president of Morgan State University, in a press release. “This is more than philanthropy—it’s a partnership in progress.”
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Relatives of two men from Trinidad believed to have been killed in a US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean have accused Donald Trump of “killing poor people” without due process and are demanding justice.
Chad “Charpo” Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, from the fishing village of Las Cuevas in northern Trinidad, are thought to be among six people killed in a US airstrike on a boat allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela.
Trump has described the six killed as “narcoterrorists”, claiming that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics”. But speaking to the Guardian at a wake for the two men, Joseph’s cousin La Toya, 42, said he was denied the basic right to due process and accused the Trinidad and Tobago government of giving up its sovereignty to the US.
“Everybody have a right to due process and due process wasn’t given. It don’t look like we running under our government no more when it comes to the waters – that’s not Trinidad waters,” she said, questioning why US officials decided to destroy the boat rather than detain and question its occupants.
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