Rally With Angela Davis

As a requirement my Junior year of highschool I chose to go to the National Forum on Police Crimes hosted by the University of Chicago at their International House. I arrived punctually at 7:00pm at the posted location, but soon found out that the event was being held at Trinity Church by 95th street. I arrived twenty minutes later with a friend, hoping they would still let us in. As we walked in I prepared myself for a panel of speakers including policemen. After we took our seats in a row to the side of the podium, I saw that there was only one speaker at a time. Each speaker introduced the next, every person was more well known than the previous speaker. As the speakers progressed I realized that the forum was not specifically about police crimes in Chicago. The forum enlarged into a gathering about the structural implications that can be made by looking at the biases in the United States justice system.

After an incredible poem about Women’s strength by LYRIC, the next to speak was the president of the Texas NAACP chapter named Nelson Linder. He helped me understand that the structural problem that i’ve seen within parker and within Chicago is also a national problem. A lot of the work that the NAACP does is assist criminal cases that are a direct cause of the racially conscious justice system in America. Once Nelson Linder finished his speech he introduced the keynote speaker, Angela Davis. Angela Davis was a powerful speaker who brought out flaws in this country’s and this city’s invisible framework. Much of what she said I could relate to my American Literature class with Mrs. Gibson and my SSDP community connections group. Her wise words solidified my belief that the democratic society we are advertised to live in actually limits the power given to its people. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the structure of this country gives the least amount of its power to poor people of color and the most to rich white people. An example of the outrageous injustices that this country’s structure provides its society with is the prison system in America. She pointed out that privatized prison systems have a two tier profit system for its owners, who are typically center magin people. The other injustice in the prison system is that people of color are the target of incarceration. Once in a prison, prisons induce violence, which perpetuates a criminal lifestyle in people of color.

This public event solidified my understanding of institutional racism and helped develop what I know of structural racism. Social justice will continue to be a problem if the racist structure that this country was built on is not uprooted. Cases of social injustices are just blossomed flowers of an unequal structure. This experience angered me because I have to face this structure at school and I will have to face this structure when I leave Parker. This experience has brought clarity to many issues at Parker and in Chicago. I’ve already become tired of living in such a structure and hope I can find the energy to fight it.