(Snippets from the frontline)
COVID-19/BLM: Suppression by illiteracy
Picture yourself: A 28 year old person of color, with no education or skills. You can’t read or write adequately, barely surviving homelessness. There is nothing in your community to allow someone your age to re-start education.
Potential next stop: Prison.
Growing up in a neighborhood of color, we were fortunate education was emphasized, so no one I knew dropped out of school.
Statistically, 75% of those incarcerated can not read or write, yet we know there are programs to re-tool inmates to diminish recidivism.
BLM has many goals, but let me propose one: Let’s make sure when inmates are released from correctional institutes, they can read and write. Please don’t tell me it is already happening, because it is not working. Know this: One way to maintain suppression is to deny education.
For some in prison, proving proficiency might even be an incentive for early release.
Rehabilitation is mandatory, and providing reading and writing skills in prison, or in the community for anyone of any age, will make black lives matter.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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