MN Locks Up More Black Folk Than Any Place In the World.
In the Fire Next Time, James Baldwin wrote: And If the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.
With love I tell all those I have known and met in Minnesota that the looting you are experiencing, the uprising you are witnessing is the result of those you have ignored for too long. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that a riot is the language of the unheard. Then looting is the dialect of the ignored.
With love I tell you that in no time in the history of humankind has a state or country ever had a worst racial disparity in the incarceration of people than Minnesota.
During the 1980s and the 1990s Minnesota maintained an incarceration disparity rate of 20 to 1. For every twenty black people sent to prison one white person went.
Let me say that again: Minnesota had a 20 to 1 black white incarceration disparity rate.
Not even during the Civil Rights Era did Georgia boast such a disparity.
Not even when the boot of Jim Crow was stomping on the necks of black folk in Alabama did it come anywhere close to this appalling number.
In love I tell you that even while the oppressive blanket of Apartheid was wrapped around South Africa, they could not reach a 20 to 1 racial disparity, like Minnesota achieved.
Currently, Minnesota still leads the world in racial disparity with an incarceration rate of 12 to 1 (tied with Iowa).
Now to hold all to account. How did you allow this to happen? Better yet, did you even know that you live in the state with the worst racial disparity in the history of humankind?
I know some of you are frustrated and your friends, spouses, co-workers, family members are all expressing anger and disapproval of the looting and destruction of property. Yet, have they or have you ever expressed that you are complicit in the worst racial disparity in human history? Have you ever thought how the depravation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness could be impacted by such a racist incarceration policy? Have you ever wondered what could be the kindling for riots and looting and death and entropy.
Target will be fine.
Autozone will be fine.
The Dollartree will be fine.
My question is why did you ignore the pleas of black people for so long. Why did you tolerate such an unjust prison disparity to exist for so long. Why have you failed to hold anyone to account for this collective sin, including yourselves? And what are you going to do about it now that you have been confronted, in love, with this reality?
With love,
Garrick Arvin McFadden, Esq.
