Freedom Requires Something Much Bigger

We all understand sexism, classism, homophobia, bigotry, and racism. We know
people are imperfect and that power can corrupt. Greed, status, fear, insecurity, and the
desire for belonging can cause people to harm others simply to elevate themselves.

Sometimes people attempt to destroy another person just to feel better about who they
are. They create a fantasy in which degrading someone else allows them to ignore their
own flaws. And sometimes the degradation does not even have to be true. If the lie
protects their status, reinforces their worldview, or gives them someone to look down
on, the truth becomes secondary.

But our problem is bigger than individual behavior.

We live within institutions shaped by histories of white supremacy, racism, sexism,
classism, homophobia, and other forms of exclusion. Those histories did not simply
disappear because laws changed or society adopted new language. Their influence can
still be seen in who gets policed, who gets believed, who receives the benefit of the
doubt, who can afford quality representation, who is punished most severely, and who is
given an opportunity to recover from a mistake—or even from a false accusation.

For Black, Brown, poor, queer, immigrant, and other marginalized communities, an
encounter with the criminal legal system can consume years or even decades of a
person’s life. And innocence alone does not guarantee protection from that machinery.

We say we understand that the justice system is not always equal or fair. We talk about
systemic racism. We discuss inequality. We acknowledge disparities.

But something strange happens when an actual person survives the very system we
claim is broken.

Suddenly, the conversation changes.

Instead of examining what the system did, we examine what the individual should
have done differently.

We tell the formerly incarcerated person to make better choices. Stay out of trouble.
Change their behavior. Get a job. Follow the rules. Don’t go back.

Personal accountability certainly matters. But personal accountability cannot become an
excuse for institutional irresponsibility.

If racism contributed to the injustice, telling the victim to behave differently does not
eliminate racism.

If poverty affected someone’s ability to defend themselves, telling them to make better
choices does not eliminate classism.

If sexism, homophobia, bigotry, or immigration status influenced how someone was
treated, demanding that the impacted person change does nothing to correct the
institution that harmed them.

Too often, when discussing incarceration, we place nearly all responsibility for change
on the person who experienced the system while demanding almost no transformation
from the system itself.

That is not systemic reform.
You cannot claim to oppose oppression while demanding that oppressed people simply
become better at surviving it.

You cannot tell someone trapped inside an unjust structure that freedom depends
entirely upon their ability to conform to the expectations of the structure holding them
down.

That is the equivalent of telling the enslaved person that the path out of slavery is simply
to become more acceptable to the master.

Freedom requires something much bigger.

Yes, individuals should grow. People should learn from their mistakes. People should
take responsibility when they cause harm. Rehabilitation and personal transformation
matter.

But systems must also be held accountable.

Courts can make mistakes.

Police can make mistakes.

Prosecutors can make mistakes.

Defense attorneys can fail people.

Witnesses can lie.

Evidence can be misunderstood.

Bias can influence decisions.

Poverty can determine the quality of someone’s defense.

And racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, bigotry, and xenophobia can influence
outcomes long before someone ever stands before a judge.

If we truly believe systems are capable of producing injustice, then we must stop
behaving as though every person harmed by those systems simply failed to behave
correctly.

There must be individual accountability and systemic accountability.

And when the system itself produces injustice, the system must be required to change.

If we are serious about freeing the masses, we cannot simply teach people how to
survive oppression. We must dismantle the conditions that continue producing it.

We must confront racism.

We must confront sexism.

We must confront classism.

We must confront homophobia.

We must confront bigotry and xenophobia.

And we must confront the ways those forces continue operating through our criminal
legal system and other institutions.

Because liberation will never come from teaching people how to become more
comfortable inside an unjust system.

Liberation comes when we develop the courage to change the system itself.

There are no solutions to change the mindsets of the ignorant outside of bringing
awareness and education.

Written By: RoShawn C. Evans

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