Black Incarcerated Males
For the past two decades, the criminal justice system in the United States has been undergoing a tremendous expansion. There are now more than one million black men in jail and that one out of every four black males will go on prison in there lifetime. Knowing these statistics it put a burden on the black community because many families are left with single family home, the unemployment rate for black male go up, they can not vote and now they make jail seem like it is fun to go to.
Black men in Jail are having drastic effects upon the black community. The first and arguably most important effect is that it intensifies the problem of single parent households within the black community. When these men are sentenced to prison, they, many times, leave behind a wife/girlfriend and/or children. If they have already have had children, that child must spend multiple years of his/her early life without a primary father figure. In addition, that male's absence is even more prominently felt when the woman has to handle all of the financial responsibilities on her own. This poses even more problems since women are underpaid relative to men in the workforce, childcare costs must be considered, and many of these women do not have the necessary skills to obtain a job, which would pay a living wage, which could support her and the children. Black male incarceration has done much to ensure that black female-headed households are now equal with poverty.
Black male imprisonment also has much to do with rising black male unemployment rates.
As these men re-enter the workforce they now likely have less skills than when they first entered prison. There are few, if any, programs, which train these men to effectively re-enter society. As jobs continue to move out further and further into the suburbs, these males, who are from the inner city, are left with few living wage employment options. The rates that convicts go back to jail are so high not because these men want to return to a life of crime but since few employment options are available, they tend to utilize their limited skills to get the money they need to survive. If more efforts do not make additional training available to these males that are realistically designed to help them obtain a living wage job, the rates that convicts go back to jail and black male unemployment will continue to increase.
M butterfly a play by David Henry Hwang has captivated audiences for many years! I love story with many twist and turns M butterfly describes an affair between a Chinese “women” and a French diplomat that caries on for 20 years only to discover that the Women was actually a man. A spy for the communist party sent to get information on the Vietnam war, but Gillard was to stubborn to see it until Liling the Chinese opera singer is sent to France where she is found to be a man in court. Through this we can see the relationship between Gender, capitalism and ethnicity/ nationality and sexuality.
Throughout the play, it is clearly shown that fate has a huge role in the “star-crossed lovers” dire downfall. This is written in the prologue to foreshadow the ending. The prologue provides the audience with Romeos thought provoking promotion further warming the reader of the omnipresent force of fate which is looking over him, “Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars.” Here Shakespeare use literary techniques such as a metaphor to demonstrates that there is a deathly consequence written in fate for Romeo. Overall this provides the reader with the knowledge of what Romeo is thinking and foreshadows the end of the story. Shakespeare uses clever diction to imply that Juliet’s death is inevitable, "If all else fail, myself have power to die.” This clearly illustrates that fate is involved in the upcoming disaster. Not only have the lovers realized that there is a greater fore involved, but Friar Lawrence has too realized, “a greater power than we can contradict, hath thwarted our intents.” This shows that fate is a subjugate factor in the lover’s untimely
Gallimard’s supposed ignorance of Song’s sex in M. Butterfly illustrates how an individual’s desire for something or someone can create a fantasy that masks the truth. Ignorance is bliss. Desire allows an individual to create their own truth which can, in turn, be damaging. The theme of desire in the play is seen through Song and Gallimard’s relationship. Gallimard longs to be desired. He associates being desired with power and masculinity, and this desire to be desired makes him ignorant of Song’s true identity. He experiments in testing Song’s desire for him throughout the play. Because Gallimard associated women desiring him as “power”, he did not see through Song’s feminine mask, or perhaps he did not want to. Desire allows Gallimard to believe he is the masculine form dominating a relationship when, in fact, he is being dominated by his own desire which Song is using against him. Gallimard is unaware, or chooses to remain unaware of Song’s masculinity, looking at the world through rose colored glasses of desire. In the final scene of M. Butterfly, we see Gallimard succumb to his own desire. He realizes what he desired was a lie and refuses to accept the truth.
When I was introduced to this dichotomy between the two sections, the readings for that week included Donziger’s “Women in the Criminal Justice System.” This article shed more light on why the women in the jail might be hostile toward my classmates by suggesting that a high portion of the women might be incarcerated because of non-violent offenses, and odds are that the majority of them are mothers who have been separated from their children. Donziger states that “78 percent of the women in prison have children”...
Who is stronger? The East or the West? Do the Oriental people truly succumb to the threats of the western white man? Based on the views of the non-oriental people, the Oriental people secretly want to get dominated by a stronger force, comparing them to a woman, or just simply calling their race feminine. The show M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang is able to express different issues regarding the theory of Orientalism by hiding it amongst several conversations between characters. The play can be seen as highly political because of topics it chooses to discuss despite the fact that the lead character is a diplomat. Though somewhat unrelated; M. Butterfly can even have a certain Brecht-esque quality to it. Because it contains several moments that can make the audience member question what is going on and the story itself, Brecht would be happy. The show can confuse the audience and make them think. Gallimard and Song also talk to the audience directly at certain points which in a way can distance them from the story because it can make it known that they are, indeed watching a play. M. Butterfly holds many political and Brechtian qualities that prove many issues that go on today. Seeing these representations of foreign races views on one another can hopefully help to get the countries to realize their harsh judgments.
The definition of mass incarceration is a term used by social activists to describe the significant increase in the number of incarcerated people in United States ' prisons over the past forty years, from 1970 to 2005 the number of inmates has risen 700%. Lawrence (2011) has stated that more than 2.3 million people in America are in jail or prison and sixty percent are African American and Latino. In this paper, I will present information on mass incarceration of black males, the development of a racial injustice due to rising of incarceration rates, and the financial standing that the prison system has, due to its massive expansion.
According to the Oxford Index, “whether called mass incarceration, mass imprisonment, the prison boom, or hyper incarceration, this phenomenon refers to the current American experiment in incarceration, which is defined by comparatively and historically extreme rates of imprisonment and by the concentration of imprisonment among young, African American men living in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage.” It should be noted that there is much ambiguity in the scholarly definition of the newly controversial social welfare issue as well as a specific determination in regards to the causes and consequences to American society. While some pro arguments cry act as a crime prevention technique, especially in the scope of the “war on drugs’.
But when Song challenges Gallimard in the final scenes of the play, he is removed from their fantasy. Gallimard takes on the role as the submissive oriental woman, because he has become so invested in his fantasy that he is willing to die for it to continue. He explains “I once loved, and was loved, by the Perfect Woman” (Page 66). When Song begins dominating Gallimard he tries to convince her, “You have to do what I say! I’m conjuring you up in my mind!” (Page 58). But, their relationship was merely a fantasy, in which Gallimard was “a man who loved a woman created by a man” (Page 66). Song accurately describes the Western mindset as “Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes” (Page 62) and “The West thinks of itself as masculine- big guns, big industry, big money- so the East is feminine- weak, delicate, poor…” (Page 62). These stereotypes allow each character to attain a certain level of satisfaction. When Song provokes Gallimard into believing everything can continue, Song becomes upset and explains he will “never put on those robes again” (Page 67) and that he will be sorry. Gallimard’s response is indicative of his transformation into Butterfly. He expresses he is “Exactly sorry…as a Butterfly” (Page 67). He reveals he has searched for an alternative ending, but he has “looked in the wrong place” (Page 68). He has a vision of the Orient woman, slender, clothed in kimonos, and most importantly would “die for
The number of convicted African American men far exceed the number of Caucasian men. The ones who are found to be innocent by the court are released without any job training or any idea on how to get back on their own two feet. Once released, they still have a felony on their records which make it nearly impossible to find a job. Moreover, if they have been in prison for a long period of time, they might not understand the little things that differ in everyday life so it could be harder to adjust. Because of this, they might purposely try to come back to prison just for the benefits. To avoid this, training programs need to be situated. The problem is, these programs cost an exorbitant amount of money which is why most of the people don’t get out of
The play begins in the present 1988 with Rene Gallimard sitting in a Paris prison. Gallimard declares himself as a celebrity, and relishes that his “fame has spread to Amsterdam, London, New York” (Hwang). Outside of his cell is the first encounter of other presences, the two men and woman chat about Gallimard and his crime vaguely, and they toast and laugh at its idiocy. Gallimard believes these toasts and laughs to be recognition towards his accomplishment. Gallimard then proclaims “...they should be scratching at my door, begging to learn my secrets! For I, Rene Gallimard, you see. I have known, and been loved by…the Perfect Woman” (Hwang).
Hwang effectively uses the opera Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini as a framework to mold the main character, Rene Gallimard. Gallimard longs to be like the hero in Madame Butterfly, Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, who dominates and possesses a beautiful Asian woman. Within the drama Gallimard concedes that he is not very attractive and that he hasn't always been popular amongst the ladies. Gallimard states "We, who are not handsome, nor brave, nor powerful, yet somehow believe like Pinkerton, that we deserve a Butterfly"(747). Obviously Gallimard is not happy with himself or his life so he goes in search for his Butterfly or more importantly a new identity.
The challenges of children who grow up with parents whom were incarcerated at some point in their childhood can have a major effect on their life. The incarceration of parents can at times begin to affect the child even at birth. Now with prison nurseries the impregnated mother can keep her baby during her time in jail. With the loss of their parent the child can begin to develop behavioral problems with being obedient, temper tantrums, and the loss of simple social skills. Never learning to live in a society they are deprived of a normal social life. “The enormous increase incarceration led to a parallel, but far less documented, increase in the proportion of children who grew up with a parent incarcerated during their childhood” (Johnson 2007). This means the consequences of the children of the incarcerated parents receive no attention from the media, or academic research. The academic research done in this paper is to strengthen the research already worked by many other people. The impact of the parent’s incarceration on these children can at times be both positive and negative. The incarceration of a parent can be the upshot to the change of child’s everyday life, behavioral problems, and depriving them a normal social life.
At the end of the play M. Butterfly, a jailed French diplomat turned spy named Gallimard says, "There is a vision of the Orient that I have" (Hwang 3.3.7). In that moment he is implying that there are still beautiful women, as he thought his "Butterfly" was. This is suggestive of the colonial appeal. Colonization is made possible by one society characterizing another in a way that makes it seem like a good idea. The characterization of these cultures, such as the Orient or Africa, is carried out through literature, works of art, and drama. Certainly, plays, poems, books, and stories are only a few of the ways used to convince the masses of a modern nation of the justification to colonize. If one wants to rebel against colonization, one would need to place corruption upon the colonizer so to support the liberation. This approach looks to be accepted in drama, where there are two excellent illustrations of postcolonial literature, M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang, and A Tempest by Aime Cesaire. Both plays are re-worked versions of and Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly and Shakespeare's The Tempest, and retain similar characters and basic plots. Shakespeare's and Puccini's works created symbols of other cultures. Caliban is the black devil, and Cio-Cio San is the timid and beautiful "Butterfly." These symbols have become stereotypes in Western culture, and formed, the justification for colonization.
For example, in Act 1, Scene 1 of “Trifles”, when Mrs. Wright is being held accountable for her husband’s death and she worries over the state of her jars of jam, Mr. Hale makes the observation, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Act 1, Scene 1). In this excerpt, we determine this play portrays women as their stereotypical stay-at-home figure whose significant worries in life are mere trifles, hence the play’s name. Moreover, in comparison to “Trifles”, the women in “M. Butterfly” are portrayed as tractable females in the eyes of a man. For example, in Act I, Scene X, Gallimard assures himself of Song’s involuntary infatuation for him by stating, “She is outwardly bold and outspoken, yet her heart is shy and afraid. It is the Oriental in her at war with her Western education.” (Act 1, Scene X). Gallimard perfectly outlines the stereotypical feminine attribute: timidness. Here, Gallimard is asserting the attributes of shyness and fear are reminiscent of Oriental’s; a cultural stereotype Gallimard believes due to the perceived submissiveness of his Oriental mistress:
The issue of cultural stereotypes and misconceptions thematically runs throughout David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly. The play is inspired by a 1986 newspaper story about a former French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer, who turns out to be a spy and a man. Hwang used the newspaper story and deconstructed it into Madame Butterfly to help breakdown the stereotypes that are present between the East and the West. Hwang’s play overall breaks down the sexist and racist clichés that the East-West have against each other that reaffirm the Western male culture ideas. The stereotypes presented in the play revolve around the two main characters, Gallimard and Song. The play itself begins in the present with Gallimard, a French diplomat who has been incarcerated in a Beijing prison. He relives his fantasies for the past with his perfect woman and shares his experience with the readers throughout the remainder of the play. Upon Gallimard’s arrival in China, he attends the opera and meets Song, and Gallimard immediately describes Song as his “butterfly”. Gallimard falls in love with the “delicate Oriental woman” that Song portrays (22). He then buys into the Western male stereotype that Eastern women need protection by strong, masculine Western men. Gallimard ends up falling in love with Song and has an affair with her to fulfill the stereotypical idea of a dominant Western male controlling an Eastern woman. Throughout Gallimard’s relationship with Song, the readers discover that Song is in reality a male spy for the Chinese government. Song had manipulated his looks and actions to mirror those of the ideal Chinese woman in order to earn Gallimard’s affection. M. Butterfly’s main issue arises from the cultural stereotypes of the masculin...