LOOK INTO MY OWL

This week Jermaine Rogers is releasing a pair of art prints that touch on important social themes. The ideas presented in these images are not revelations. We have known the facts for some time without initiating systemic change. These prints remind us that acknowledging a problem doesn’t make it go away.

Here is what Jermaine has to say about “Little Animals Grow … (Teach Your Children)” (above).
“It’s interesting how our society provides several ways of teaching a child to get very comfortable with the feel of a pistol in his hand.”

And an excerpt from Rogers’ description of “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” (below).
“…I believe that there is an equal amount of the ‘criminal element’ in every race in America. Thing is, if you’re a young black man, you’re WAY more likely to be arrested and convicted. In fact, governmental agencies actually rely on these trends, and have worked increasingly larger amounts of funds into the budgets for urban and low-income arrests and state and federal prison building. They’ve got ‘plans’ for 1 of every 4 little black boys in America (1 in 4 U.S. black men in their twenties is either in jail or under legal supervision).”

I’ve included the entire text that accompanies the above print after the jump. READ IT.

Both prints will be available at this link on Thursday, March 19th at a random time between Noon & 3PM MST.

‘To Be Young, Gifted and Black’
This 7-color screenprint measures approx. 20×20 inches and is printed on gallery stock. Concerning the imagery, Jermaine says,
‘Excuse my indulgence in a few statistics for a moment. Note the following numbers from the US Dept. Of Justice, complied in an article that I read recently:

Among men, blacks (28.5%) are about six times more likely than whites (4.4%) to be admitted to prison during their life.

Based on current rates of incarceration, an estimated 7.9% of black males compared to 0.7% of white males will enter State of Federal prison by the time they are age 20 and 21.4% of black males versus 1.4% of white males will be incarcerated by age 30.

There are more black men are in prison in America than are in college.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse estimated that while 12 percent of drug users are black, they make up nearly 50 percent of all drug possession arrests in the U.S.

In six California counties independently surveyed in 1995, 100% of those individuals sent to trial on drug charges were minorities, while the drug-using population in those same counties was more than 60% white.

A CNN article in 1996 cited U.S. government figures that show more than 90 percent of all federal prosecutions for crack cocaine in 1995 were of African American defendants. In addition, unlike convictions for powered cocaine and other drugs (which wealthy, Caucasian defendants are more likely to use), a conviction for selling crack cocaine can carry a lengthy prison term without benefit of parole. 60% of the cases involved drug values of less than $50, so we aren’t talking about drug dealers, here.

What about figures for other types of crimes? According to the U.S. Department on Justice, property and drug offenses account for 76.4 % and 56.4% respectively. So, most minority criminal convictions are NOT for violent crimes…as you might have been led to believe by the media, your friends, or your family.

Interesting, isn’t it? Of course, I’m not implying that black men don’t commit crimes at all. As the aforementioned article later pointed out, I believe that there is an equal amount of the ‘criminal element’ in every race in America. Thing is, if you’re a young black man, you’re WAY more likely to be arrested and convicted. In fact, governmental agencies actually rely on these trends, and have worked increasingly larger amounts of funds into the budgets for urban and low-income arrests and state and federal prison building. They’ve got ‘plans’ for 1 of every 4 little black boys in America (1 in 4 U.S. black men in their twenties is either in jail or under legal supervision).

The title of this print was taken from a song called ‘To Be Young, Gifted, & Black’, written by Nina Simone during the civil rights movement. There’s a line in the song that says:

We must begin to tell our young
Theres a world waiting for you.

Obviously, there’s many sides of the issue and a whole lot of supplemental factors to think about. Look at those statistics again. Ask yourself, ‘Why?”