Like most Race Crits, I have long been focused on the severe racial inequities in the criminal justice system. We often think of the many systems of cultural perception and values that reinforce the status quo in this area as an example of the permanence of racism. Attention to this issue has greatly increased in recent years, especially since the publication of Michelle Alexander's call to action, "The New Jim Crow." But Khaled's post on the prison debaters who defeated Harvard reminded of something I've been noticing.
Some sympathy for those long dismissed as "convicted criminals" has started to emerge. As Khaled noted, the prison debate story got widespread distribution through social media, at least partly in approval of the prisoners (and partly in contempt of Harvard.) In the Supreme Court, advocates like Bryan Stevenson have been successful in slowly, finally, giving the Constitutional injunction against "cruel and unusual punishment" some real meaning. In Ohio, there have been small legal changes quietly enacted to remove barriers to housing and employment for persons with criminal convictions on their records. And in the U.S. Senate, a bipartisan sentencing reform bill of real significance appears likely to pass. Such unlikely partners as Charles Grassley, Corey Booker, and Rand Paul are on board.
Those self-reinforcing systems and stereotypes are still in place, but it seems worth noting: there's something happening here.