It's Okay to Hate Felons...Right?

Discrimination is a bad word. The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people based on race, age or sex is a cultural no-no and will surely be met, even from relativists who profess no faith, by the severest of judgments. And rightly so. Discrimination is a bad word – it is sin. To treat any person unjustly is an affront to the Lord, whose image all men and women bear. Because we are all ontologically equal, it is wrong to believe, express and/or practice ontological superiority over another human being.

Unless, of course, they deserve it. 

Because discrimination against equals is unjust, we, as a society, must find some way to justly degrade those against whom we desire to discriminate. We must find a way to become “unequals.” And at the end of this process, we are allowed to be on top – they on bottom. This, biblically speaking, is sinful man’s top priority in life, to make a name for himself, everyone subject to him through personal superiority and domination.

This, Alexander argues, is a way our current racial caste system is being created. The mass incarceration of African Americans is the acceptable means by which this segment of our population becomes an object of discrimination. Criminals are “bad,” and deserve all the misfortune they experience. If a black man (or any man for that matter really) is going through tough times due to his label as a felon, we say things like, “He should have stayed off of those drugs.” Or, “That’s the bed he made…”

The author states it this way: “Criminals...are the one social group in America we have permission to hate. In “colorblind” America, criminals are the new whipping boys. They are entitled to no respect and little moral concern. Like the “coloreds” in the years following emancipation, criminals today are deemed a characterless and purposeless people, deserving of our collective scorn and contempt. When we say someone was “treated like a criminal,” what we mean to say is that he or she was treated as less than human, like a shameful creature.”

As it turns out, prison is the least of a convicts worries. The lifetime label he or she receives for being convicted of a crime throws the person “under the noses” of the rest of society. Not only are felons denied fundamental democratic rights like voting and serving on a jury, they are barred from being like the rest of us “good folk” who have our act together and “deserve” jobs, housing, and other civil liberties and privileges. In other words, felons who have served their time, haven’t really served their time. They will pay for the rest of their lives.

Ms. Alexander writes, “Once labeled a felon, the badge of inferiority remains with you for the rest of your life, relegating you to a permanent second-class status.”

This is a very complex issue, worthy of much prayer, consideration and repentance. Life for those who justly enter our criminal justice system is not as easy as serving their time and back to life as normal. For those of us who have not entered the system, we must not remain blind to such over simplistic illusions.

I have personally seen (not experienced) these things first hand. I work with dozens of African American men who have to “check the box” on every job application they turn in. These image bearers must constantly prove to society why they should be trusted, employed and given even a glimpse of a shot in life. These men must regularly place their hands on a police car, being subjected to random (and often arbitrary) searches as they are displayed in public as a person that everyone ought to look out for.

But if we are honest, should the authorities have the thoughts and intentions of our own hearts displayed before them, we too would be imprisoned and given the same hated title - felon. To discriminate against a felon is to deny the gospel. It is a direct insult to the Christ who sets prisoners free. 

(Note: This is a continuation of my review of Alexander's book The New Jim Crow)