Post #10

This week I’m going to write about the Lomax readings that deal with prisons and Doc Reese’s story. First, I found the piece about prisons to be really horrible. It reminded me of the movie Shawshank Redemption and how the prison guards were corrupt and abused (and even killed) prisoners without consequence. To think that this really happened (and not too long ago) surprised me not only because it happened but also because I had never heard of this. It still amazes me about all the corruption that happens and that the media never get wind of. For instance, over the weekend I saw American Gangster, based on a true story, which portrayed the incredible corruption of the NYC police department that was widespread enough to result in the conviction of 75 percent of police officers after it was finally realized. I guess one of the things that saddened me about this chapter was the fact that prison abuse could still be going on today and we could not even know about it because most prisoners wouldn’t have access to the media and even if they could tell someone about abuse they might not be believed or more likely they would be silenced.

It’s kind of hard to believe that these people had any incentive to live; I mean their lives were so terrible I don’t know if I would have been able to wake up in the morning. It makes me mad because you only have one life to live and its so unfair that these poor men were put in jail arbitrarily and subjected to some of the worst treatment possible—especially since they were basically under the control of lower-class, racist, power hungry whites. One thing I noticed in the Doc Reese chapter was the really degrading terms the guards used to describe the blacks: “god damn your black soul…old nigger…you sorry blue-black ape.” And then when Cold Blood kills Lew I was wondering how a person can witness that sort of raw violence and then keep working. Either they become so immune to violence that they can’t even conceptualize it or they just allow their anger and resentment to fester inside themselves. It would interesting to examine the psychological aspects of people that allow them to withstand such dire conditions. There must be some human adaptation that allows people to deal with these situations. Overall, this seems to be just one more instance of terrible violence that isn’t really remembered in history books or by most teachers for that matter. Maybe if more people knew that this went on then they would be more interested in helping blacks today (for instance with affirmative action or city reform etc.).