Grace, Frank

Description

Disciplinary tickets: "Tickets are used to the keep the slave in his place. Tickets are the masters mental whip." Racism in tickets and institutions: "You have guards in prison who are dead up racist, chauvinist pigs. They are a sick, ignorant, fearful lot who puts all their sickness on the weakest, in this case the black prisoners. Then even amongst the black prisoners the admin/guards use the divide & conquer tactic. Amongst the black prisoner there's the scapegoat..." Disciplined for allegedly taking on onion from the chow hall; other tickets and guard harassment; racism and the racist reaction to a smart black man. Raised a Catholic and still a believer: "What I'm saying is that I believe there was a dude people call Jesus. In my eyes he was a revolutionary or one crazy dude. He was attacked by the then-existing government. He hung around with the lumpen and talked good of them. He protecting the[m] in word and deed. Che Guevara did the same... I go to all the services, Catholic, Protestant, and muslim... I'm not spooked and believe in ghost and spirits and shit like that. I'm a dude who believes in materialism also...". Poem included with letter.

Record Contributed By

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Record Harvested From

Digital Commonwealth