The only news most people ever hear about the inner city comes from grim headlines; the only residents they can name are characters on 'The Wire.' Of course, ignorance of a community doesn't stop outsiders from having opinions about it or passing laws that govern it.
Interpretation
Media representation shapes public perceptions of communities, often leading to misunderstandings and misguided governance.
This quote by James Forman, Jr. highlights how the media's portrayal of inner cities, primarily through negative headlines and fictional representations, contributes to a lack of understanding among outsiders. It emphasizes that these misconceptions do not prevent uninformed individuals from forming opinions or enacting policies that affect the very communities they misunderstand, leading to a cycle of ignorance and misgovernance.
In practice
During a discussion about urban policy, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for informed perspectives on inner city issues.
In court, judges tell people that their conviction carries a sentence of years, or probation. The truth is far more terrible. People convicted of crimes often become social outcasts for life, finding it difficult or impossible to rent an apartment, get a job, adopt children, access public benefits, serve on juries, or vote.
While mass incarceration is a national crisis, it was built locally.
African-Americans have always viewed the protection of black lives as a civil rights issue, whether the threat comes from police officers or street criminals. Far from ignoring the issue of crime by blacks against other blacks, African-American officials and their constituents have been consumed by it.
A black man of my generation born in the late 1960s is more than twice as likely to go to prison in his lifetime then a black man of my father's generation. I was born after the Voting Rights Act, after the Civil Rights Act, after the Fair Housing Act.
Mass incarceration and its never-ending human toll will be with us until we come to see that no crime justifies permanent civic death.
We need to hire more black police officers in this country because these are good jobs, and African Americans should have their fair share of good jobs. But we shouldn't do it because we think that's going to change policing. We have to push for police reform in other ways.
You meet folks who are funny and really smart and persistent and loving that are confronting this thing we call poverty, which is just a shorthand for this way of life that holds you underwater. And you just wonder what our country would be if we allowed these people to flourish and reach their full potential.
The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.
Child labor perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and other social problems.
I wanted to have a body of work behind me before I wrote about racism.
Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them.
When I was confronted with just the bare facts of poverty and inequality in America, it always disturbed and confused me.
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