Our Thinking

I was listening to an interview with Chris Hedges recently where he says that the students he teaches in New Jersey prisons are more brilliant than his students at Princeton. Because those in prison—mostly poor people of color—have a deeper understanding of how power works, how American history affects the here and now. The lives of these students have been devastated by neoliberal policies, many drafted by Democrats like Clinton, Obama and Biden who have made it clear they are “tough on crime” too. These policies have overwhelmingly impacted people who are not wealthy, white or middle-class. They have also contributed to making our society even more segregated than it was when Dr. King walked among us. 

In this split-screen society, I often hear how important it is to think for ourselves. Which is weird when most of us who grow up in the sunlight of opportunity do not see the devastation on the other side of the tracks. Our thinking is shaped by sources, by the opinions of those in our algorithms, echo chambers of decent people often deceived or in denial about the dehumanizing outcomes of this indecent system. We the people protected by the system find comfort in corporate-sponsored narratives that convince us that we think for ourselves. The alternative is to intentionally think with those who have borne the brunt of the pain and oppression—to think with those who went to prison instead of those who went to Princeton.