“The Dysfunctional and the Disappearing: Democracy, Race and Imprisonment” highlights the industrial prison complex and how the prison system perpetuates a new form of modern slavery. The article delves into how the policing system purposely profiles and unfairly arrests and harshly imprisons black citizens to place them into the prison system at higher rates than white counterparts to use them as free labor. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano describes the experience of being enslaved in the narrator’s home country and traded to then being forced into the triangular slave trade. With that in mind, both texts compliment each other because the narrative establishes the abuses experienced by black people that have now morphed into the inequalities and abuses of the prison system. While the article and narrative do not exactly establish this the slave trade and prison system were strategic in limiting the power of black people while using there strength.The narrative was quite haunting because when Olaudah did not want to eat out of depression he was abused into submission and the living conditions he was placed in were so bad people were getting sick and dying. Similarly, the article mentioned how many prisoners were abused if they refused to work out of protest and were often tied up and left in inhumane weather conditions as a form of torture. I understood that the prison systems were unjust, however, I had no idea that the majority of people in prison are people of color and they are punished harsher for crimes than their white counterparts. Reading both pieces together really connects how slavery was never truly abolished but was just legalized and institutionalized into the governmental system. Furthermore, I did some research and found that almost half a billion is invested into prison systems but they can’t pay them more than a dollar and instead of investing into rehabilitation they are deteriorating the mental health of these people and killing them off with the death penalty. Lastly, I wanted to touch on the last part of the narrative, where he began to convict those who enforce slavery yet say they are “Christian” because the abuse they are enforcing is opposite of the theology within the Bible. He really knew his readers and I think pointed out their hypocrisy and how it ruined his life.
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