ALICIA BANKS
Radio Producer, Talk Show Host, DJ, Columnist

ELOQUENT FURY   

REVOLUTIONARY AFRICAN TRUTH    

EXPRESSLY FOR RADICAL INTELLECTUALS WHO SEEK KNOWLEDGE   

     (*******WARNING: HAZARDOUS TO NEOCON DELUSION*******)    



 THE OTHER PRISONERS

The New World Order is in progress. There are more African people imprisoned in America than anywhere else, in the history of the world. Male prisoners garner the most media attention, rally the most supporters, and get the most visitors. But, there are thousands of women who are locked in the same cages and rotting inside the same belly of The Beast.

Prisons have become America's new plantations. As downsizing and unemployment impoverish millions outside prison walls, prison labor is booming! Prisoners are producing furniture, electronics, and clothing.  They are also answering hotlines as customer service agents. Prisoners do free labor for major corporations like AT&T, TWA, Toys R Us, Eddie Bauer, Lockhart Technologies Inc., and many more. (For a glimpse of such slave labor on film, see "The Spitfire Grill".)

In a country where inmates are slaves, we Africans have proven our superior skills for over 300 years. As prisons house the new slaves, racist crack laws navigate the New Middle Passage. As always, female chattel suffer uniquely brutal abuses.

African female slaves have always suffered DOUBLY, for their race and gender. We were beaten and raped by the same white masters. As our own children were sold, we were forced to nurse the children of the sellers. Such gender specific abuses continue as female inmates are routinely raped by male prison guards.

Never do we hear of female guards sexually assaulting male prisoners. Yet, female prisoners are raped by male guards daily. In fact, being a prison guard is an ideal job for any rapist. What could be more vulnerable than a woman in a cage to a man who holds the key? What could be better than earning a salary and benefits for your lechery?

Medical care in most American prisons is so horrific that it undeniably constitutes torture. Women generally require more medical attention than men. Our organs are more complex and sensitive to stress. Yet, penal medical care is far worse or nonexistent for women.

The biological warfare of AIDS has intensified medical torture. Also, poverty and drug addictions are crimes. All combine to ensure a steady pool of miserable and meek prison laborers.

As poverty by design increases, so does survival by defiance. Those who are starving will eat by any means necessary. Those who cannot work to buy, will scheme to steal. The welfare bill is fueling abject poverty at a frenzied pace.

Stress-releasing casual sex is on the rise. Fatal sexually transmitted diseases escalate nationwide. The crime bill is selectively creating throngs of poor, Black, and female felons. Female prison labor pools are overflowing.

In the midst of all this misery, prison stock is booming for neocon investors. While racist politicians lie about genocidal cocaine laws and CIA drug dealers, the prison cages keep closing on our sisters. The Beast has a belly full of "belly warmers"; a vulgar term coined by slave catchers to describe the African women they raped as cargo during chilly nights at sea. This term is hauntingly prophetic as the icy winds of the New World Order blow record numbers of sisters into the iron bellies of The Beast.

EVERY ONE OF US CAN DO SOMETHING TO LESSEN THE MISERY OF THOSE WHO ARE IMPRISONED. Please find some time to do at least one of the following, as soon as you possibly can:

Volunteer your services to any prison outreach organization. There are many of them. They all desperately need your help. Check your local directories. Or, call one of these in my area for a reference for one in your own area:

  • CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR WOMEN PRISONERS

  • 100 McAllister
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    415-255-7036 (extension 313)
     
  • LEGAL SERVICES FOR WOMEN PRISONERS

  • 100 McAllister
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    415-255-7036 (extension 312)

  • FRIENDS OUTSIDE-OAKLAND

  • 1212 Broadway # 830
    Oakland, Caifornia 94612
     
  • CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTS

  • 714 West California Blvd.
    Pasadena, California  91105
  • FAMILIES WITH A FUTURE

  • 301 Henry St.
    Berkeley, California  94709
    510-527-9524
     
  • HIV/AIDS IN PRISON PROJECT

  • 433 Jefferson St.
    Oakland, California 94607
     
  • EQUAL JUSTICE USA -WEST

  • 558 Capp St.
    San Francisco, California  94110
    Write a long letter, buy a card, clip an interesting newspaper article, print a magazine feature or web page and send it to a prisoner. They are not all psycho demons as films portray. Prisoners are our extended family. They are everyday people who fell into the pathological pitfalls of poverty.

    Visit someone in prison. Sponsor a formal event inside a prison to educate or cheer those who are caged. Prisons are being designed to increase brutality daily. Soon, all visitors may be outlawed. So, VISIT NOW, while you still can.

    DEMAND AMNESTY FOR ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!!! Geronimo Ji Jaga left HUNDREDS of  framed fellow warriors behind. HUNDREDS more are in exile like shero Assata Shakur. Organize and protest our fascist, racist government's enforcement of COINTELPRO, which retroactively, covertly, and unapologetically CONTINUES to murder our revolutionary rebels!!!

    Send a gift to someone in prison. Send them a postal money order. Simple basic necessities and pleasures like toiletries and candy can be purchased in prison. Such little things can make such HUGE differences in levels of isolation and depression.

    Most churches are gaudy shrines/pseudo-christian club houses. Make your own church a superior exception to that rule. Urge your pastor to ask each member of your congregation to adopt a prisoner. Every church is near a prison. Every prisoner is a sibling in the family of God.

    The New World Order is in progress. Poverty is escalating by design. Martial law is intensifying by decree. When you are imprisoned, you will understand the horror and empathize with the hell that so many of our sisters now endure.
     


    For more information, see an additonal column herein:

    BOOK REVIEW: 8 BALL CHICKS - A YEAR IN THE VIOLENT WORLD OF GIRL GANGSTAS


    And, see these films:

    STRANGER INSIDE

    THE SPITFIRE GRILL

    BORN INNOCENT


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