Invisible Men: A Contemporary Slave Narrative in the Era of Mass Incarceration
A essay collection by Flores A Forbes that uses Invisible men to explore deinstitutionalization and african american men, with criminals in view.
Work Information
A story where deinstitutionalization meets african american men.
Flores A Forbes's essay collection Invisible men centers on deinstitutionalization and african american men while extending into criminals and prisoners.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Skyhorse Publishing
- Published
- 2016-10-11
- Pages
- 208 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 2.03 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781510711709
- ISBN-10
- 1510711708
- Price
- 4069 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Politics & Social Sciences/Politics & Government/International & World Politics/Asian
Winner of the 2017 American Book Award Flores Forbes, a former leader in the Black Panther Party, has been free from prison for twenty-five years. Unfortunately that makes him part of a group of black men without constituency who are all but invisible in society. That is, the invisible” group of black men in America who have served their time and not gone back to prison. Today the recidivism rate is around 65%. Almost never mentioned in the media or scholarly attention is the plight of the 35% who don’t go back, especially black men. A few of them are hiding in Ivy League schools’ prison education programsthey don’t want to be knownbut most of them are recruited by the one billion dollar industry reentry employee programs that allow the US to profit from their life and labor. Whereas, African Americans consist of only 12% of the population in the US, black males are incarcerated at much higher rates. The chances of these formerly convicted men to succeed after prisonto matriculate as leading members of societyare increasingly slim. The doors are closed to them. Invisible Men is a book that will crack the code on the stigma of incarceration. When Flores Forbes was released from prison, he made a plan to re-invent himself but found it impossible. His involvement in a plan to kill a witness who was testifying against Huey P. Newton, the founder of the Black Panther Party, had led to his incarceration. While in prison he earned a college degree using a Pell Grant, with hope this would get him on the right track and a chance at a normal life. He was released but that’s where his story and most invisible men’s stories begin. This book will weave Flores’ knowledge, wisdom, and experience with incarceration, sentencing reform, judicial inequity, hiding and re-entry into society, and the issue of increasing struggles and inequality for formerly incarcerated men into a collection of poignant essays that finally give invisible men a voice and face in society.
Flores A. Forbes: Flores Forbes is the associate vice president of strategy policy & program implementation at Columbia University and the author of Will You Die With Me?
Reviews
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The truth about so called legal incarceration in the United States
With a forcefulness rarely seen in books that deal with the american prison/industrial complex and using examples from his own life experience Flores Forbes eviscerates one of our most basic (and for some cherished) assumptions: that slavery in America ended with the Civil War. He painstakingly lays out the evidence that the practice persists today in our country masked as legal incarceration and enshrined in the exception clause of the 13th amendment.. Forbes describes how men and women (many of them convicted of minor crimes) are forced into industrial servitude, bound by chains, faced with subhuman living conditions and subjected to physical torture if they refuse to comply. He then documents the effect that being "formerly incarcerated" has had on not just him but also on those who seek to regain full citizenship free from the stain of imprisonment. The book implores those of us who are aware of this immoral practice to not sit idly by while it takes place but to get involved in efforts to amend the 13th amendments exception clause so that once a person has paid their debt to society a path to full restoration of their rights as citizens should await them when they are released. I found Invisible Men :A Contemporary Slave Narrative in the era of Mass Incarceration to be one of the most compelling books 'Ive ever read and I would encourage those who recognize slavery as a crime of moral turpitude and who also care about the plight of those who are imprisoned to read it as well.
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Invisible Men
The author with honesty and clarity describes his prison experiences and the difficult and long path that he took to educate himself and integrate himself into society to become a valued employee. Along the way he learned through books and caring mentors the steep steps that former incarcerated people have to climb.
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Five Stars
Good reading
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Thought Provoking
Full disclosure. I am acquainted with this author, and I intend to facilitate a study of this book and the 13th Amendment. I believe there are better written books on the subjects of incarceration, the formerly incarcerated, and the 13th Amendment. However, I have watched Flores. I watched him with a side eye and I watched him up close. So, I recognize the authenticity of his words. I know he is not put off by differing viewpoints, and Invisible Men invites discussion, struggle, disagreements, and hopefully progress towards understanding and solutions. My hope is that more people will read Invisible Men and question his experience and the experience of others. Then, maybe we can do the work to create a more perfect union. As many of us recognize, the other difference between me and him is that I was never caught in my wrong doing. And there but for the grace of God go I. If either of those statements ring true for you, we need to find a way to read Invisible Men and more importantly, we must see and hear them.
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Four Stars
It was very informative.