”This is war, man, this is war.”<\/p>\n
Oakland, California. It’s a sunny day late in September, just a few weeks before the 2016 presidential election. I’m traveling the country – thanks to a Holbrooke-Grant by the International Journalists\u2019 Programmes – to meet politically active African Americans and find out what, if anything, has changed for them during the past eight years, and what they are fighting for.<\/p>\n
On this sunny afternoon, hundreds of formerly incarcerated and convicted people, about two thirds of whom are black, meet at an airport hotel in Oakland, CA to unite their initiatives against mass incarceration and for the rights of ex-prisoners. They plan to create a national movement. The discussion revolves around rehabilitation, re-entry programs, and the legalization of marihuana. After lunch, a small group of activists assembles in front of a television camera.\u00a0 A woman, her hair dyed blond, says she is \u201crebellious to the system”. A thin young man wearing a Keffiyeh says there\u2019s a “genocide” of black Americans and a six foot guy yells: \u201cThere is no hope!\u201d His voice cracks.<\/p>\n