AN OPEN LETTER TO WARDEN BRIAN EMIG, JAMES T. VAUGHN CORRECTIONAL CENTER, SMYRNA, DE 19977
Dear Warden Emig:
I am writing to you about the culture of racism and discrimination that engulfs the legal administration of this prison, especially among the all-white paralegal staff.
My initial impression of you was that you are not a part of the Good Old Boy racist network that has infected this prison Sir before I arrived here 49 years ago.
The staff paralegals have become quite comfortable in their racist acts of yelling and screaming at Black people as if the men (and sometimes women) they target are subhuman. This level of comfort in racist behavior is fortified by the institutional racism in hiring that has gone on in this prison since its inception and has increased in the last decade.
If there were Black paralegals working here I doubt the white ones would be so relaxed in their discriminatory treatment of Blacks. Out of the 7 men and women who currently work for the Legal Affairs Administration, zero are Black.
In the entire history of this prison there have only been three Blacks employed as paralegals and two of them were quickly chased out of here by the abusive and racist treatment they received from their white colleagues.
Of the 20 people who have worked in legal affairs since this prison opened, 17 of them were white. This means that 85% of the people hired as paralegals have been white.
The discriminatory treatment of whites over Blacks isn't. Limited to the people who access the law library seeking to access the courts.
Unfortunately, racist attitudes and behaviors are also directed toward the two Black men who work for the law library as opposed to the "oh you're one of us" treatment extended to white inmate workers.
For example, two days ago a young man named Terrance Jackson was speaking to me about his research and must have lost track of time. His time was up and he had apparently overstayed his welcome by a few minutes.
There were no other prisoners scheduled for that day in the law library. Instead of professionally reminding him that his time was up, Paralegal Jessica Johnson walked past an angrily yelled that "you guys" had to leave because we were "way past the time." I guess in her fury she forgot that one of "you guys" was where he was supposed to be.
Both Terrance and I were shocked. She would never have screamed with such rage and disrespect at any white prisoner and certainly not at any of the privileged white inmates who work here at the law library.
To Terrance and me the "you guys" phrase was dangerously close to the words "you people" that Black people find so offensive when they are used by white people to address them. We gave each other a knowing look, a look that said "the slave master's whip is cracking again" and then he left.
Frankly, I don't believe most white racists are even conscious of their racism because it has become so much a part of their reality similar to bowfish in the ocean probably cannot taste the salt.
But that is why there is a dire need for JTVCC to hire an equal number of Black paralegals as there are white paralegals, even if some of the unqualified white paralegals have to be reassigned to other positions. Frankly, it appears that some were assigned to the paralegal positions after faring not so spectacularly in their prior state positions.
Very few of them possessed the skills required for paralegal jobs by Human Resources. They arrived with next to no knowledge about legal resources, court rules, shepardizing, brief writing, what motions are, what interrogatories and depositions are or how to even draft a complaint for court.
What they learned largely came from inmates teaching them, sometimes the very Black inmates they now demean and
disrespect. It's clear to me that "white privilege" alone was what got them hired to the paralegal positions they now hold.
I have never spoken to any of my supervisors with disrespect. Yet I am often subjected to disrespect from my supervisors. If my white coworkers were subjected to the same dehumanizing treatment I could conclude that the abuse was rooted in anti-inmate bias instead of racial bias.
But I'd be lying if I said that was even remotely the case.
In fact, one of the Black women who worked here not long ago had heavy keys thrown at her and suffered other abuses simply because she was Black and failed to sufficiently kiss the posterior of a white man who felt his inherent "white privilege" entitled him to near endless deference.
My hope is that you are the change agent people say you are and that you will not ignore the blatant racism, Jim Crow treatment and paralegal apartheid that is running rampant in your institution.
Sincerely,
Amir Fatir
Dear Warden Emig:
I am writing to you about the culture of racism and discrimination that engulfs the legal administration of this prison, especially among the all-white paralegal staff.
My initial impression of you was that you are not a part of the Good Old Boy racist network that has infected this prison Sir before I arrived here 49 years ago.
The staff paralegals have become quite comfortable in their racist acts of yelling and screaming at Black people as if the men (and sometimes women) they target are subhuman. This level of comfort in racist behavior is fortified by the institutional racism in hiring that has gone on in this prison since its inception and has increased in the last decade.
If there were Black paralegals working here I doubt the white ones would be so relaxed in their discriminatory treatment of Blacks. Out of the 7 men and women who currently work for the Legal Affairs Administration, zero are Black.
In the entire history of this prison there have only been three Blacks employed as paralegals and two of them were quickly chased out of here by the abusive and racist treatment they received from their white colleagues.
Of the 20 people who have worked in legal affairs since this prison opened, 17 of them were white. This means that 85% of the people hired as paralegals have been white.
The discriminatory treatment of whites over Blacks isn't. Limited to the people who access the law library seeking to access the courts.
Unfortunately, racist attitudes and behaviors are also directed toward the two Black men who work for the law library as opposed to the "oh you're one of us" treatment extended to white inmate workers.
For example, two days ago a young man named Terrance Jackson was speaking to me about his research and must have lost track of time. His time was up and he had apparently overstayed his welcome by a few minutes.
There were no other prisoners scheduled for that day in the law library. Instead of professionally reminding him that his time was up, Paralegal Jessica Johnson walked past an angrily yelled that "you guys" had to leave because we were "way past the time." I guess in her fury she forgot that one of "you guys" was where he was supposed to be.
Both Terrance and I were shocked. She would never have screamed with such rage and disrespect at any white prisoner and certainly not at any of the privileged white inmates who work here at the law library.
To Terrance and me the "you guys" phrase was dangerously close to the words "you people" that Black people find so offensive when they are used by white people to address them. We gave each other a knowing look, a look that said "the slave master's whip is cracking again" and then he left.
Frankly, I don't believe most white racists are even conscious of their racism because it has become so much a part of their reality similar to bowfish in the ocean probably cannot taste the salt.
But that is why there is a dire need for JTVCC to hire an equal number of Black paralegals as there are white paralegals, even if some of the unqualified white paralegals have to be reassigned to other positions. Frankly, it appears that some were assigned to the paralegal positions after faring not so spectacularly in their prior state positions.
Very few of them possessed the skills required for paralegal jobs by Human Resources. They arrived with next to no knowledge about legal resources, court rules, shepardizing, brief writing, what motions are, what interrogatories and depositions are or how to even draft a complaint for court.
What they learned largely came from inmates teaching them, sometimes the very Black inmates they now demean and
disrespect. It's clear to me that "white privilege" alone was what got them hired to the paralegal positions they now hold.
I have never spoken to any of my supervisors with disrespect. Yet I am often subjected to disrespect from my supervisors. If my white coworkers were subjected to the same dehumanizing treatment I could conclude that the abuse was rooted in anti-inmate bias instead of racial bias.
But I'd be lying if I said that was even remotely the case.
In fact, one of the Black women who worked here not long ago had heavy keys thrown at her and suffered other abuses simply because she was Black and failed to sufficiently kiss the posterior of a white man who felt his inherent "white privilege" entitled him to near endless deference.
My hope is that you are the change agent people say you are and that you will not ignore the blatant racism, Jim Crow treatment and paralegal apartheid that is running rampant in your institution.
Sincerely,
Amir Fatir
