The recent fight to abolish Louisiana’s Jim Crow 10/2 law and free all those who were wrongfully convicted under it, has uncovered injustice that goes far beyond Louisiana.
Contrary to what we’ve all been taught, the 13th amendment did not end slavery, but permits it as a result of criminal conviction. Slavery was thus shifted from the plantation to the penitentiary, from the South to nationwide, with new slave masters to replace the old, i.e.; the U.S. government and Wall Street corporations. It has spawned a century and a half of propaganda painting African Americans as criminals and the number one target of the criminal justice system.
This racism allows corporations like McDonald’s, Exxon, Victoria’s Secret, United Airlines, Walmart, Target, and more than 50 others to make super profits by exploiting slave labor and then extending that exploitation over the rest of the working class. It’s not about crime, it’s about profit. No matter what color you are, if you are a convict you are a slave.
All this is hidden out in the open, in plain sight of everyone, virtually unchallenged because of the stigma of crime. It is proof of the fact that, “Race is how America does class,” and that America has never done away with slavery, as well as why deep racism persists.
The people of Louisiana have challenged that racism and slavery by voting out the 10/2 Law in last November’s election. The 10/2 law allowed a jury to convict someone with only 10 votes out of 12. Louisiana’s ruling class has responded by calling for a Constitutional Convention in 2020. Their intent is undoubtedly to reinstate the 10/2 law in a form that can’t be voted out by the people. 2000 plus incarcerated citizens weren’t grandfathered into the change requiring 12 jurors to convict. Hence the struggle continues as “Unanimous Is Not Enough.”
We the American people, must support the people of Louisiana in this fight for freedom and bring the innocent home.
Contact Belinda Parker Brown of Louisiana United International/Unanimous Is Not Enough at 269.369.4751.
