#racsm

Anyone who likes Trump IS a Racist Asshole!  Period!

Since people are getting mad at me for dissing “Dear White People” (which is why I dissed it in the first place), I decided to make it up to them by trying to understand why the show was made in the first place.  So, Black people of Tumblr: Have any stories of when you experienced racIsm first hand?

Marlene Martin of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty reveals the invisible injustices of the prison system in this account of a visit to a downstate Illinois jail.

IT IS a wet dreary day in Chicago when a group of 35 people gather at Precious Blood Church on the Southwest Side of Chicago to make the long drive to Menard Correctional Center. The prison is at the southern end of the state, a six- or seven-hour drive from Chicago, depending on traffic.

Julie Anderson has made the trip, on her own, with a friend or with her husband, five times a month--the maximum number of visits a prisoner is allowed--every month for the past 20 years. Her son Eric was 15 when he was convicted of a double homicide and given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. "I never knew my life was going to be like this," Julie tells me. "What I once thought of the criminal justice system has completely changed. I used to believe in it--I don't anymore."

People have their bags, suitcases and blankets, and they're beginning to congregate in front of a large bus, donated by Northwestern University School of Law's Bluhm Legal Clinic. This is the fourth annual trip, coordinated to help family members visit their loved ones, many of whom were sentenced to life without parole when they were juveniles.

For some, this bus trip will be the only time this year that they will be able to get to Menard, since many don't drive and wouldn't be able to afford a hotel stay. Ray Joiner, whose son is incarcerated at Menard says, "They put these prisons so far away for a reason. It makes it so difficult for family to visit. That makes it hard on these guys, not getting to see your family. It's like they want to break you. And that's exactly what they do--they break you."

I said "Where were they FROM?"

And he said he didn't remember and I just looked at him with a straight face and said "Well then I guess it wasn't the Middle East."