Thread by @ClintSmithIII

When I was writing HOW THE WORD IS PASSED one of the most striking things I encountered was that Angola, a prison built on a plantation, had a gift shop. I couldn’t believe some of the things I saw there. I just looked online, and still can’t believe it:

angolamuseum.org/shop

If you prefer beer instead of liquor, there are also options for you. The Angola bottle koozie even comes with a design that has the silhouette of a watchtower surrounded by the words “ANGOLA: A Gated Community”

Or maybe you’d like that same design, but on a T-shirt instead, with all sorts of colors to choose from.

And what better way to get your daily reminder of the millions of people locked away behind bars, than to attach your car keys to…a handcuff keychain

There are few places that reveal what the scholar Saidiya Hartman refers to as “the afterlife of slavery” more explicitly than Angola. 75% of the people held there are black men, over 70% are serving life sentences. They work in fields of a former plantation for virtually no pay.

But the gift shop at Angola in particular, really shows the insidious relationship between racism and capitalism. A prison selling images making light of—or simply making a mockery of—the conditions of the (mostly Black) people behind its bars, demonstrates a profound callousness

What you see online is actually only a small selection of what’s in the physical gift shop. There are sweatshirts, stuffed animals, and hats among other things. I’m honestly surprised they have these items publicly available online, but I think that’s revealing in and of itself.