This important newsletter reminds me of Ava DuVernay’s movie called The 13th. One can feel and visualize Meek Mill’s description of how he was treated by the system through his lyrics.
Do you think people should hear Meek Mill’s story? A big resounding yes because we are still living and fighting the same fight from previous generations.
Your examples are one of many. Through volunteer work, I have heard countless stories like these. The "clients" I deal with are by a large percentage, people of color, economic disadvantage, various sexual orientation, etc. Many of them are party to all three examples. Whether as a pharmacist or volunteer, I have learned my listening skills are invaluable. I gain their trust. The vast majority have lived our unbalanced set of "freedoms". When they question me why should they finish their education, learn a trade, etc as they cannot see what good it does them because the system is askewed against them, I always tell them by not giving up and working hard to change the system, they can work to re-balance our freedoms, inch by inch if necessary. . We discuss Booker T Washington, Frederick Douglas, Rosa Parks , endless etc. With my GED students, this is always followed with a reading of one of these heros and a book report... to their dismay.
We all know that justice delayed is not justice. One cannot ever get that time back; it is gone from one's life forever, obliterated. This is unfortunately a fine example of injustice due to skin color and says nothing about what the person is.
Wow!!! What a wonderful essay!!! I remember Meek Mill's story from Wendy Williams. She was so passionate about how his prison sentence was so unfair. This story is only one of thousands that affect communities throughout the country. No answers as to why this is still happening. These judges are only looking at the color of their skin, and automatically assume they are dealing drugs.
Our country is so broken, and no one is making a sincere effort to fix it. Yes, they say they are working to make a change, but it seems the majority of lawmakers just don't care.
A few weeks ago I saw a documentary on the Battle of Fort McHenry. I never knew the story of how the Star Spangled Banner was written. It will touch your heart, and appreciate our freedom.
Thanks Ari, please keep doing what you do to keep us so well informed. Have a blessed week!!!🙏
Absolutely---it is sad that music reflects the sign of the times!! I believe that! I also believe the justice system hasn't been honest and truthful with how it handles the African American community!! It's as if they are bound and determined in one form or another to keep African-Americans as slaves so to speak. I'm half Italian, part native American, import European and I think the so-called white people are guilty of some of the egregious atrocities in American's history,--they say Hitler was bad but what about us as Americans???? Are we not just as guilty????? It's disheartening!! Instead of the justice system being the solution they have become part of the problem that still exists from the very beginning of the history of the United States!! All I can say is this our HOPE lies in the younger generation stepping up to the plate to right the wrongs from history and the wrongsthat still exist today. I say this:"if we want to know what's really going on, listen to the music"
Meek Mill is just one of the many Black men who are incarcerated at rate five times that of white. Presumed guilty in a systematic racist society. The justice system reflects this fact. I am glad he bounced back and sees freedom and change is something we can all work for.
HI Ari. I remember when you did your interview with him and showed them picking him up in the helicopter etc. He sure got a bad deal. Our court system is very unfair. The city I live in is just getting horrible. We've got youngsters stealing cars 30-40 a nite, steeling and just tearing around the city, then either crash em, set em on fire. Then we have other young darlings shooting up houses at nite. It's so it's not safe to go out at nite, (and I'm not saying what colors they are or might be) But I wish the cops would get off their butts and do something. But it's like catch and release. But those who are being jailed for long sentences for things that are minor like Mills is just wrong. Another article to make us think for some solutions. Thanks QT
I'm a 70-yr-old white Senior who lives 6 blocks from George Floyd's murder. When I read things like this, Ari, I cry. We're so far from racial and social justice in this country, we can't even separate fiction from fact in our conversations. Are our courts ready to defend voter rights in our local communities so we can determine what and who is important to us?
There is so much that can be written on what constitutes freedom.
Once a black male who has been falsely charged (as Meek Mills has described in interviews) and is imprisoned, he can be in the court and probation pipeline for their adult life. Upon release, those who were incarcerated can be denied basic civil and human rights, such as the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury and the right to be free from discrimination in employment and housing.
The U.S. criminal justice system can be viewed as a system of racialized social control that has broken families of color for generations.
Meek Mills has a successful musical career and Henry Louis Gates is a professor at Harvard University. However, as successful black men, there are limits to their freedom, one to have been on supervised probation for his entire adult life and the other as a resident of Cambridge, MA for being hand cuffed by a police officer for trying to enter his own home when he forgot his keys. Both men from different generations are viewed as threats by some to the community at large.
Mills has attempted to address the inequities of the criminal justice system through his work on the Reform Alliance movement. Professor Gates is a journalist and filmmaker as well as host of the public television program, “Finding Your Roots,” that has been running for eight seasons.
What a perfect example of how conditional and transactional freedom really exists for black and brown citizens as opposed to white citizens. Systemic judicial racism does seem to be the new upgraded form of enslavement. I love Meek Mills lyrics but I really love the paradox of his name - Meek. I like that you never let social injustice fall by the wayside. Thanks
I've never addressed you formally but thank you Ari for your insightfulness, and truthfulness!!!! I appreciate your thought-provoking articles--or essays whatever you want to call them!! I finally have an outlet (at 78 years old) to express my thoughts and ideas and perspectives
I do think people need to hear Meek's story. His work is so important, as he is telling his story and the story of so many others. I'm struck by his recognition that the justice system's views of him have not evolved with him. How can the system's views evolve, when it seems that honest critical dialogue about racial injustice and freedom is not happening at that level.
I am currently reading "Shifting Cultural Power" by Hope Mohr, which delves very deeply into the needed shift of power and decision making from white dancers and choreographers to their historically oppressed peers. It's this kind of very hard work that is needed across so many systems, including our justice system if we're going to see meaningful change.
This makes me weep. I was very active in civil rights and anti war work during the 60s. I was so hopeful. I am so disappointed and disgusted with the way so many of my cocitizens think. I am glad I am old.
This important newsletter reminds me of Ava DuVernay’s movie called The 13th. One can feel and visualize Meek Mill’s description of how he was treated by the system through his lyrics.
Do you think people should hear Meek Mill’s story? A big resounding yes because we are still living and fighting the same fight from previous generations.
Your examples are one of many. Through volunteer work, I have heard countless stories like these. The "clients" I deal with are by a large percentage, people of color, economic disadvantage, various sexual orientation, etc. Many of them are party to all three examples. Whether as a pharmacist or volunteer, I have learned my listening skills are invaluable. I gain their trust. The vast majority have lived our unbalanced set of "freedoms". When they question me why should they finish their education, learn a trade, etc as they cannot see what good it does them because the system is askewed against them, I always tell them by not giving up and working hard to change the system, they can work to re-balance our freedoms, inch by inch if necessary. . We discuss Booker T Washington, Frederick Douglas, Rosa Parks , endless etc. With my GED students, this is always followed with a reading of one of these heros and a book report... to their dismay.
We all know that justice delayed is not justice. One cannot ever get that time back; it is gone from one's life forever, obliterated. This is unfortunately a fine example of injustice due to skin color and says nothing about what the person is.
Wow!!! What a wonderful essay!!! I remember Meek Mill's story from Wendy Williams. She was so passionate about how his prison sentence was so unfair. This story is only one of thousands that affect communities throughout the country. No answers as to why this is still happening. These judges are only looking at the color of their skin, and automatically assume they are dealing drugs.
Our country is so broken, and no one is making a sincere effort to fix it. Yes, they say they are working to make a change, but it seems the majority of lawmakers just don't care.
A few weeks ago I saw a documentary on the Battle of Fort McHenry. I never knew the story of how the Star Spangled Banner was written. It will touch your heart, and appreciate our freedom.
Thanks Ari, please keep doing what you do to keep us so well informed. Have a blessed week!!!🙏
Absolutely---it is sad that music reflects the sign of the times!! I believe that! I also believe the justice system hasn't been honest and truthful with how it handles the African American community!! It's as if they are bound and determined in one form or another to keep African-Americans as slaves so to speak. I'm half Italian, part native American, import European and I think the so-called white people are guilty of some of the egregious atrocities in American's history,--they say Hitler was bad but what about us as Americans???? Are we not just as guilty????? It's disheartening!! Instead of the justice system being the solution they have become part of the problem that still exists from the very beginning of the history of the United States!! All I can say is this our HOPE lies in the younger generation stepping up to the plate to right the wrongs from history and the wrongsthat still exist today. I say this:"if we want to know what's really going on, listen to the music"
Meek Mill is just one of the many Black men who are incarcerated at rate five times that of white. Presumed guilty in a systematic racist society. The justice system reflects this fact. I am glad he bounced back and sees freedom and change is something we can all work for.
HI Ari. I remember when you did your interview with him and showed them picking him up in the helicopter etc. He sure got a bad deal. Our court system is very unfair. The city I live in is just getting horrible. We've got youngsters stealing cars 30-40 a nite, steeling and just tearing around the city, then either crash em, set em on fire. Then we have other young darlings shooting up houses at nite. It's so it's not safe to go out at nite, (and I'm not saying what colors they are or might be) But I wish the cops would get off their butts and do something. But it's like catch and release. But those who are being jailed for long sentences for things that are minor like Mills is just wrong. Another article to make us think for some solutions. Thanks QT
I'm a 70-yr-old white Senior who lives 6 blocks from George Floyd's murder. When I read things like this, Ari, I cry. We're so far from racial and social justice in this country, we can't even separate fiction from fact in our conversations. Are our courts ready to defend voter rights in our local communities so we can determine what and who is important to us?
There is so much that can be written on what constitutes freedom.
Once a black male who has been falsely charged (as Meek Mills has described in interviews) and is imprisoned, he can be in the court and probation pipeline for their adult life. Upon release, those who were incarcerated can be denied basic civil and human rights, such as the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury and the right to be free from discrimination in employment and housing.
The U.S. criminal justice system can be viewed as a system of racialized social control that has broken families of color for generations.
Meek Mills has a successful musical career and Henry Louis Gates is a professor at Harvard University. However, as successful black men, there are limits to their freedom, one to have been on supervised probation for his entire adult life and the other as a resident of Cambridge, MA for being hand cuffed by a police officer for trying to enter his own home when he forgot his keys. Both men from different generations are viewed as threats by some to the community at large.
Mills has attempted to address the inequities of the criminal justice system through his work on the Reform Alliance movement. Professor Gates is a journalist and filmmaker as well as host of the public television program, “Finding Your Roots,” that has been running for eight seasons.
What a perfect example of how conditional and transactional freedom really exists for black and brown citizens as opposed to white citizens. Systemic judicial racism does seem to be the new upgraded form of enslavement. I love Meek Mills lyrics but I really love the paradox of his name - Meek. I like that you never let social injustice fall by the wayside. Thanks
Thank you for this very important article. And Happy Birthday, Ari! Mine is in April, too! Keep writing about the important stuff!
I've never addressed you formally but thank you Ari for your insightfulness, and truthfulness!!!! I appreciate your thought-provoking articles--or essays whatever you want to call them!! I finally have an outlet (at 78 years old) to express my thoughts and ideas and perspectives
Definitely would read more like this! The New Jim Crow is a MUST! READ!
I do think people need to hear Meek's story. His work is so important, as he is telling his story and the story of so many others. I'm struck by his recognition that the justice system's views of him have not evolved with him. How can the system's views evolve, when it seems that honest critical dialogue about racial injustice and freedom is not happening at that level.
I am currently reading "Shifting Cultural Power" by Hope Mohr, which delves very deeply into the needed shift of power and decision making from white dancers and choreographers to their historically oppressed peers. It's this kind of very hard work that is needed across so many systems, including our justice system if we're going to see meaningful change.
Beautiful article, Ari. Thank you so much.
I'd read about "whats beef".
This makes me weep. I was very active in civil rights and anti war work during the 60s. I was so hopeful. I am so disappointed and disgusted with the way so many of my cocitizens think. I am glad I am old.