JemarTisby.Substack.com. Profile picture
Dec 5, 2019 13 tweets 6 min read Read on X
The Making and Unmaking Mass Incarceration (@MUMI_2019) conference is underway! Follow along for insights from today’s leading thinkers and activists on this important topic.
#MUMI2019 ImageImage
Vardaman Hall at the University of Mississippi, named after Mississippi Senator James K. Vardaman (1861-1930). He ran on the slogan, “A vote for Vardaman is a vote for white supremacy.” @garrett_felber opening remarks
#MUMI2019 Image
'There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.' ~ Audre Lorde
#MUMI2019
In 1876 Mississippi legislators passed “pig laws.”
“The new law lowered the dollar threshold for what constituted grand larceny, an offense punishable by up to five years in prison, from twenty-five dollars to ten dollars.” Dionne Bailey
mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/pig-la…
#MUMI2019 Image
“Studying how we got here [in terms of mass incarceration] implies the political responsibility to do something about it.” ~ Max Mishler
#MUMI2019
There is such a thing as an “anti-slavery white supremacist.” Historian Walter Johnson discussing imperialism, racism, and capitalism in the nation’s past.
#MUMI2019 Image
“Our role as activists is to uplift the activism that is happening in the inside.” ~ Amani Sawari speaking of solidarity with incarcerated people Image
"The black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is, rather, forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws: racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. It is exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society. ~ MLK
"Why pre-compromise yourself?...We have so much fear in us when it comes to policy." ~ Mariame Kaba on demanding the "impossible"
#MUMI2019
This is precisely why we need conferences like Making and Unmaking Mass Incarceration.
#MUMI2019 @MUMI_2019
washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/12…
We heard this morning from a man named, Antoine, who is incarcerated at a prison in Alabama. He called in to the #MUMI conference. We could barely hear him (symbolic in and of itself) but he said clearly. "We are human beings."
We often think in terms of "What is crime?" and "Who is a criminal?" A more expansive framing asks, "What is harm?" and "Who is harmed?" and "Who is doing the harming?"
@MUMI_2019 #MUMI2019
An important moment here at the #MUMI2019 conference as Dr. Patrick Alexander and Dr. @OtisWPickett are honored for their pioneering work founding the Prison To College Pipeline Program. Learn more: ptcpp.olemiss.edu Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with JemarTisby.Substack.com.

JemarTisby.Substack.com. Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JemarTisby

May 1, 2023
I never set out to write these stories of professors at Christian universities getting fired for teaching about racial justice, but they are becoming increasingly common and they are ominous harbingers of increasingly repressive cultures in Christian institutions. Image
It’s also becoming apparent that uniformed opinions of my work, especially The Color of Compromise, also tend to figure into these firings. While I lament that Christian administrators are firing their own professors for citing my work, I stand by it and the professors do, too. Image
These two professors who have both lost their jobs for teaching racial justice are calling the CCCU to condemn the actions of these universities and any other member institutions that fail to honor academic freedom and target professors for teaching about race. Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 11, 2023
Organizers behind the “He Gets Us” campaign are set to spend $20 million in Super Bowl ads alone and $1 BILLION over the next three years. Let’s talk about the (mis)uses of a Christian/evangelical money.
apnews.com/article/religi…
Of course these multi-million dollar funds could go to support individuals and organizations already doing good work on a local or national scale. We started The Witness Fellows program to fund Black social entrepreneurs at $100K (‼️) each over two years. thewitnessfoundation.co/fellowship
But let’s say you wanted to use media and marketing to highlight Jesus for a generation who increasingly identify as having no particular religious affiliation. There are better ways to do it than what “He Gets Us” is doing.
Read 8 tweets
Jan 14, 2023
This is the book Coretta Scott sent to MLK while he was in seminary and before they were married. In a letter he wrote to her:
“By the way (to turn to something more intellectual) I have just completed Bellamy's Looking Backward. It was both stimulating and facinating.”
In the letter MLK goes hints at his ideas about an economic agenda for uplift.
“I welcomed the book because much of its content is in line with my basic ideas. I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic.”
But MLK had his critiques of Bellamy’s book:
“On the negative side of the picture Bellamy falls victim to the same error that most writers of Utopian societies fall victim to, viz., idealism not tempered with realism.” kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/do…
Read 5 tweets
Aug 15, 2022
The tip-toeing, the coddling, the deliberateness…NO OTHER racial or ethnic group, much less Black people, would be afforded the kind of delicateness authorities and politicians are using with white people who threaten and enact violence against the government.
White supremacy doesn’t only look like people marching in robes and hoods (or polo shirts and tiki torches,). It is the privilege, the deference, the innocence with which white people are treated that gives them leeway that no other racial or ethnic group has in this country.
Racism is such a normal part of the fabric of the U.S. that white people storming the Capitol, attacking FBI agents, openly spreading lies and stoking violence in the name of white power and white people is treated as behavior to discuss rather than the existential threat it is.
Read 4 tweets
Aug 14, 2022
The erasure of the Black church tradition and Black Christians in the current public discourse around religion is *strong*. White Christians in the U.S. and their issues do not comprise the whole of Christianity. A 🧵...
For instance, how might the conversation about white Christian Nationalism be changed, shifted, or enhanced by analyzing and learning from a Christian tradition that has explicitly promoted and fought for antiracism and multiracial democracy for centuries?
What if we took people like Fannie Lou Hamer and initiatives such as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as starting points for examining Christian engagement in public life and the interaction between faith and politics?
Read 8 tweets
Jul 8, 2022
I was discussing films like "The Help" and "The Blindside" (white savior stories) with some folks and one of the reasons some people love these films is they offer a narrative of redemption, a way out of this racial morass in our nation. Bu there's more...
The redemption narrative of these movies ("Green Book", "The Best of Enemies" + more) is highly individualistic and interpersonal--the friendship between two people, the benevolence of a white person. No analysis of systems or circumstances that lead to widespread injustice.
Stories that have "white savior" narratives let viewers off the hook for actually changing and taking action. If I, as the viewer, identify with the white protagonist who is doing "good" things, then I'm not racist. I'm not the one with the problem and I don't have to change.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(