Thought + Action = ?: Part 1, System

White people love talking about how they are not racist, but hate doing the work needed to disrupt the institutionalized racism that benefits them.

There are some who may think that jokes or cultural appropriation do not matter. But social cues underlie decisions about how the community should function. Biases incarcerate people of color at disturbing rates using criminalization to dehumanize them.

Sometimes humor is used as a coping mechanism to deal with the realities of a situation. Or something is just funny because it is relatable. Other times kidding around normalizes social acceptance of certain perspectives.

People of high income (predominantly white cis men) have created a system over the years to make a living off of taking away the rights and profiting off of lower income families (mostly Black and Latinx).

Addressing the history of privilege to suppress marginalized groups with a society based on a white supremacist patriarchy is a constant struggle of the tolerance paradox.

People who are passive about or pro mass incarceration often expect to be treated with respect while being disrespectful themselves. However, society did not standardize imprisonment based on pleasantries.

Thought + Action = ? is inspired by the TV show Dear White People

Links for Thought + Action = ?, Parts 1 - 4:

1. New Orleans Police Appear to Use Surveillance to Initiate Investigations

2. The Truth About Juvenile Crime in New Orleans

3. Letters: Plan to experiment on Louisiana inmates is disturbing; implants not approved by FDA

4. Is ‘Abolish Prisons’ the Next Frontier in Criminal Justice?

5. Dozens of ICE Detainees Were Pepper-Sprayed by Guards for Protesting at a Louisiana Jail

6. Breaking: Immigrants Pepper Sprayed and Possible Beatings Inside ICE Bossier Parish Detention Facility

7. Asylum Seekers Housed at Louisiana Private Prison Named in Abuse Scandal

8. People Are Trying To Donate To Detained Migrants. Border Patrol Won't Accept It

9. Hundreds of Louisiana inmates held in isolation, called 'torture,' for more than a year, reform group says

10. A firsthand report of ‘inhumane conditions’ at a migrant children’s detention facility

11. ‘There Is a Stench’: Soiled Clothes and No Baths for Migrant Children at a Texas Center

12. Leaked photo shows mass trial with 37 accused unauthorized immigrants — shackled hand and foot — being processed all at once

13. Lawyers say children are going weeks without adequate food and sanitation at border detention site

14. Multiple Health Crises Break Out Among ICE Detention Centers

15. Trump Administration Argues Detained Migrant Children Don’t Need Toothbrushes, Soap

16. US opens new mass facility in Texas for migrant children

17. Trump Administration to Hold Migrant Children at Base That Served as WWII Japanese Internment Camp

18. Camp is Always a Bad Idea: An Op-Ed

19. Bank of America Will Stop Financing Private Prisons and Immigrant Detention Companies

20. 4 Arizona Women Convicted for Leaving Water for Migrants

21. Federal prisons must now provide free tampons and pads to incarcerated women

22. South Florida felons owe a billion dollars in fines — and that will affect their ability to vote

23. How a 1992 Rent-A-Center contract and an outdated warrant landed a man in the Orleans jail

24. Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years In Massive Juvenile Justice Bribery Scandal

25. Criminal Justice Facts

26. How Mass Incarceration Takes a Toll on the Environment

27. The Connection Between Mass Incarceration and Environmental Justice