Shiva
Avatāra. Annihilator. Gone To The 5th Dimension.
"Youth of color have been affected by the decline of the welfare state and the expansion of the criminal justice system. As the youth attempted to deal with this social dislocation—this disorientation, where they could not expect any help or support from the government, where the government had become an abusive step-parent figure, beating its children, throwing them in a room with no windows nor doors—they began to lose hope in the government and in themselves. The youth felt that on an everyday level, their lives were being defined and controlled through discourses and practices of crime and policies related to crime even when they were not committing crime. As I continued to interview and observe them I realized that even if they did not want to commit crime, be seen as delinquent, or act like “thugs,” they were already rendered as suspects by many in the community. Because of this, they developed identities that they often wished they could renounce. They began to resist and as they resisted they began to embrace their own criminalization."
I'm doing some reading for a sociology class right now, and as someone who's grown up dealing with this, been locked up in the past, and saw lots of friends fukked up by the justice system, this spoke to me.
As an Asian dude my perspective is different on this issue, but I've never related to the whitewashed Asians cause I always felt like the white people I knew saw me as crazy and/or scum, because I refused to sit and be some kind of quiet emasculated minority bytch for the system. The way I see it, if you're not part of the white upper or middle class, you'll either be a second class citizen, or you'll have to fight your way to the top. And if you take the second road, the system will do everything in its power to break your pride and cut you down.
Sometimes it's difficult to have these discussions in real life, so I was wondering if anybody had any insight or solutions here. Any thoughts?
I'm doing some reading for a sociology class right now, and as someone who's grown up dealing with this, been locked up in the past, and saw lots of friends fukked up by the justice system, this spoke to me.
As an Asian dude my perspective is different on this issue, but I've never related to the whitewashed Asians cause I always felt like the white people I knew saw me as crazy and/or scum, because I refused to sit and be some kind of quiet emasculated minority bytch for the system. The way I see it, if you're not part of the white upper or middle class, you'll either be a second class citizen, or you'll have to fight your way to the top. And if you take the second road, the system will do everything in its power to break your pride and cut you down.
Sometimes it's difficult to have these discussions in real life, so I was wondering if anybody had any insight or solutions here. Any thoughts?