Colin Kaepernick has something to say about rapper Meek Mill getting 2-4 years in prison for a nonviolent probation violation, and our criminal (in) justice system.
Kaepernick, who has been named GQ’s ‘Citizen of the Year'(You can check that out HERE) took to social media Monday afternoon to share his thoughts.
America professes to be the land of the free, yet it has the world’s largest prison population.
This criminal (in)justice system, ripe with racial discrimination, stigmatizes, profiles, and targets young Black men for arrest at a young age, having its roots in their hyper-policed neighborhoods that they are raised in, and sadly extending into what should be a safe space—the classroom, via the school to prison pipeline.
Meek Mill is a victim of this systemic oppression, Kaepernick wrote.
Roughly 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, an increase of 1.9 million since 1972. America professes to be the land of the free, yet it has the world’s largest prison population – with one-quarter of the globes prisoners, and just 5% of the total population. Disproportionately America’s prisons are filled with Black bodies. This criminal (in)justice system, ripe with racial discrimination, stigmatizes, profiles, and targets young Black men for arrest at a young age, having its roots in their hyper-policed neighborhoods that they are raised in, and sadly extending into what should be a safe space—the classroom, via the school to prison pipeline. Meek Mill is a victim of this systemic oppression. Yes, there needs to be action surrounding sentencing reform, but there needs to also be action taken around abolishing the racialized norms of injustice that can lead to Meek Mill serving 2-4 years in prison for non-violent parole violations, and Brock Turner only serving 3 months in prison for three felony counts of sexual assault.
: @karlfergusonjr
A post shared by colin kaepernick (@kaepernick7) on Nov 13, 2017 at 1:53pm PST
