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Teaching with American Prison Newspapers: Race/Ethnicity/Culture

An instructional guide to Reveal Digital's American Prison Newspapers 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

Introduction

Race and Ethnicity

This page consists of several informational resources for exploring the relationship between race, ethnicity, and life while imprisoned. Studying this relationship will yield new and/or deeper understandings about the factors that contribute to the racial and ethnic disparities in imprisonment as well as increase awareness  about the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities who are incarcerated. Instructional resources for this course correlation will move beyond the Black/White race dichotomy by also presenting materials for US Latino/a people, Indigenous American populations, and Asian-Americans. 

Guiding Questions: 

  1. Why do racial and ethnic disparities in crime and violence exist? How have these disparities changed over time?

  2. What is racial profiling? How is it measured/identified? 

  3. What is the difference between implicit and explicit racial bias? 

  4. What are the consequences of racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system? 

  5. To what extent has mass incarceration mitigated or exacerbated racial and ethnic inequality in the United States? 

  6. How do legal officials treat racial/ethnic minorities differently? What are their interactions in courts and prisons like? 

 

Harvard Implicit Bias Test, Project Implicit: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html 

Readings from the APN collection

  1. Minorities Hit Hard by Crisis - The Weekly Scene(Aug. 1974) 

  2. Lorenzo ‘Komboa’ Ervin - Anarchist Black Dragon (Sept. 1978)

  3. “Against Racism Smash Fascism! - Unity” - Anarchist Black Dragon (Dec. 1978)

  • warning: this piece mentions the n-word

  1. Fallacy of Color Conscious - The Weekly Scene (Apr. 1980) 

  2. Ramadan - Lino Ledger (Jul. 2015) 

  3. Buddhist Feast - Gold Rush Chronicle (Mar. 2017) 

  4. Native American Meal - The Focal Point (Jul. 2018)  

  5. Asatru Feast - The Focal Point (Jul. 2018)  

  6. Asian American Heritage Month - Gold Rush Chronicle- (May 2019) 

  1. Native American Women in Congress - The Prison Mirror (Nov. 2019) 

  • Native American Heritage Month 

  1. Native American Cultural Heritage Show - The Prison Mirror (Feb. 2020) 

Secondary Readings

  1. “Racial Profiling: Definition.” American Civil Liberties Union 

  2. American History, Race, and Prison (Reimagining Prison Web Report) by Ruth Delaney, Ram Subramanian, Alison Shames, and Nicholas Turner in Vera 

  3. Prison “Race Riots”: An Easy Case for Segregation by Sarah Spiegel (2007)

  4. The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons by Ashley Nellis, Ph.D in the Sentencing Project (2021)

  5. Updated charts provide insights on racial disparities, correctional control, jail suicides, and more by Mike Wesler in Prison Policy Initiative (2022) 

  6. Racial Disparities Persist in Many U.S. Jails by Pew, Public Safety Performance Project (2023)

  7. Federal Bureau of Prison Inmate Statistics (2023)

Secondary Viewings

  1. Racial Segregation in San Quentin Prisons - BBC Studios (2009) 

  2. American Prisons and Race by the Numbers - AJ+ (2014) 

  3. How do races interact in prison - Fresh Out (2016) 

  4. Asian Americans Learning Their Asian American Roots at San Quentin Prison - WETA National Productions (2020) 

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