Thread by @JoshuaBHoe

Dear @JoeNBC

WE ARE NOT FELONS
WE ARE NOT FELONS

We may have committed or been sentenced to felonies but stop reducing us to, and defining us exclusively by our worst moments

HUMAN BEINGS who committed crimes, people not "felons"

#MorningJoe

Also, Dexter Filkins could not possibly have explained the situation in Florida worse (not everyone was disenfranchised and it is murder and sex offenses excluded...also, it is criminal justice debt, FINES AND FEES which prevent voting now)

Maybe, you could invite experts like @desmondmeade and @Volzie who were responsible for organizing Amendment 4 and who have raised OVER 3 MILLION DOLLARS to pay down those fines and fees so that formerly incarcerated human beings convicted of felonies CAN VOTE @FLRightsRestore

They have received help from Michael Jordan and @KingJames and YOU could help promote the cause on #MorningJoe, it is really an amazing story

Or, you could continue using reductive & pejorative terms and instrumentalizing formerly incarcerated people in the service of politics

Also @kasie

We are NOT FELONS

We are PEOPLE and should never be entirely reduced ONLY to our crimes. Please use people-first language, otherwise you are being reductive and defining human beings by ONLY their worst moments

I am so tired of MSNBC refusing to listen and grow...Why do you always use exclusively law enforcement professionals to talk about crime (instead of criminologists, defense lawyers, and formerly incarcerated or impacted people)?

If you want to know about voting rights in Florida, why wouldn't you go to the two formerly incarcerated people who actually made it happen, instead of an author who explained the details almost entirely wrong (book could be great, but it wasn't about Amendment 4)

And last (but not least), it is fair game to mention the crimes we committed, it is not cool to ONLY refer to use as our crimes (calling us felons)

It is part of our lives, it is not our entire lives.

Let me give you an example, that I hope will be illustrative

A few years ago, there was a riot in a South Carolina prison (Lee)...when the paper reported the 8 men who died in that riot they did not mention ONE thing about the men who died aside from a resuscitation of their crimes

Nobody talked to people that knew them, nobody talked to their families, nobody talked to their friends....even in death they were reduced to ONLY their crimes

@JoeNBC, that is what you just did on your show...you reduced every person with a felony background to ONLY the felony

If you want to be a part of changing the narrative, to moving away from TOUGH ON CRIME and really refuting President Trump...tell an entirely different story, stop playing the TOUGH ON CRIME language games that define people only and entirely by their crimes