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“We thus think about imprisonment as a fate reserved for others, a fate reserved for the "evildoers," to use a term recently popularized by George W. Bush. Because of the persistent power of racism, "criminals" and "evildoers" are, in the collective imagination, fantasized as people of color. The prison therefore functions ideologically as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited, relieving us of the responsibility of thinking about the real issues afflicting those communities from which prisoners are drawn in such disproportionate numbers.”
― Are Prisons Obsolete?
― Are Prisons Obsolete?
“Early in the journey you wonder how long the journey will take and whether you will make it in this lifetime. Later you will see that where you are going is HERE and you will arrive NOW...so you stop asking.”
― Be Here Now
― Be Here Now
“You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts because if you write with someone looking over you shoulder, you'll never write.”
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“Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge. Yet all too often, guilt is just another name for impotence, for defensiveness destructive of communication; it becomes a device to protect ignorance and the continuation of things the way they are, the ultimate protection for changelessness.”
― Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
― Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
“The prison has become a black hole into which the detritus of contemporary capitalism is deposited. Mass imprisonment generates profits as it devours social wealth, and thus it tends to reproduce the very conditions that lead people to prison. There are thus real and often quite complicated connections between the deindustrialization of the economy—a process that reached its peak during the 1980s—and the rise of mass imprisonment, which also began to spiral during the Reagan-Bush era. However, the demand for more prisons was represented to the public in simplistic terms. More prisons were needed because there was more crime. Yet many scholars have demonstrated that by the time the prison construction boom began, official crime statistics were already falling.”
― Are Prisons Obsolete?
― Are Prisons Obsolete?
Janessa’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Janessa’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
306 books
|
61 friends
1,176 books
|
93 friends
32 books
|
11 friends
277 books
|
14 friends
239 books
|
28 friends
663 books
|
6 friends
405 books
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23 friends
210 books
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218 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Classics, Fantasy, Fiction, History, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry, Science fiction, Self help, and Spirituality
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