Activists Cornel West And Carl Dix Hold Mass Incarceration Dialogue In N.Y.C.

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from News One:

[font size="1"]Promo video for the dialogue[/font]


Freedom fighters Carl Dix (pictured above right) and Cornel West (pictured above center) held an intense dialogue about mass incarceration on the Upper West Side Monday evening. The event, “Mass Incarceration + Silence=Genocide,” served to challenge the sociopolitical forces herding a disproportionate number of Black and Hispanic men in to prisons. The Stop Mass Incarceration Network/ Revolution Books-sponsored event was tinged with revolutionary fire, which was-a testament to its keynote speakers.

Dix first set the tone by sharing a letter he got from a prisoner in California, describing his solitary confinement experience. “He’s held 22 and more hours each and every day in a small, windowless cell. Someday they let us (the prisoner) exercise, but all that means is he gets to go from that small cell to a small cage,” the Revolutionary Communist Party co-founder said.

“Visits from his family and his lawyers can be cut off at any time or denied for any reason or no reason at all. He’s denied human contact for weeks, months, and even years at a time. His cell is sound-proof, so he goes long periods of time without hearing any sound. In his rare visits, it hurts his ears to hear his mother’s voice.”

Dix noted a contradiction in America’s inmate treatment while chastising other countries. “These are the conditions forming solitary confinement, right here in the U.S.A. country whose rulers never tire of going around the world, lecturing other countries about human rights violations. We’re not talking about a few hard cases treated this way; we’re talking about more than 80,000 people held under these conditions.” ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://newsone.com/2467979/cornel-west-carl-dix-mass-incarceration/

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