One Friday morning in April, I was teaching the preceding poem to a class that revolved around Literature, Science, and Technology. The unit for the week focused on literature about incarceration, theories about the carceral state, and writings from prisoners. It surprised me how well my students—a mixed group of upperclassmen who were not Humanities majors—took to reading Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. It seemed Foucault’s study of the “panopticon” and “panopticism” had worked its way into the popular culture, showing up in a variety of films, games, and online videos my students referenced. Even if they did not previously know the name Foucault, these references gave even the more reluctant students a starting point to discuss and debate his theories. Excerpts from the Black American poet and legal scholar Reginald Dwayne Betts proved equally fascinating. This group studied his background as an incarcerated teenager turned Yale Law School graduate with a fervor. His stories, spoken from interview rooms or podiums or in beautiful bound books, carried weight. They were eager to learn what Betts had to say about transitioning to a more “successful” life.
Yet the moment the conversation moved away from these approved and published academy authors, the moment my students encountered the raw, often sketchily edited poems of those currently incarcerated, they shut down. It was as if the story of someone currently behind bars was off-limits. One could not learn from the incarcerated until they were outside walking the streets or driving a car.
When I asked them what they thought about Bethel’s “our friends but maybe their slaves” I was met with silence. I pushed for someone to speak. One brave student relented, and I’ll repeat their words: None of us have been in prison, so we don’t know what it’s like.
This student felt a distance from the poem. Because he did not know incarceration first-hand, he shied away from discussing the poem’s merits, its ideas, or its author. Questions emerged. Why was Foucault’s theories about the prison and carceral state fine to discuss? Why was Reginald Dwayne Betts’ poetry alright to dissect and analyze? How could I, as their instructor, convince them to find something in the poem to connect with?
The student spoke out of compassion. They did not want to risk speaking about an experience and getting it wrong. Yet this student, a vocal and active member of the class, spoke like prison was alien. While they may have been correct—maybe the class was not familiar with incarceration directly or indirectly—it is also likely this student was inaccurate in his assessment. The Prison Policy Initiative reports about .7% of the U.S. population is currently incarcerated. The stat is a bit misleading, as such a number is high when we place it context to the world. One out of five prisoners in the world are in the United States. More surprising is the claim that 45% of Americans have or had a family member incarcerated. With this in mind, it is not unreasonable to believe some student in my class could relate personally to these prisoner writings. It is likely someone, contrary to the student’s claim, could say what it’s like. Of course, this may not be true, and it would be unethical to force a student to speak about an experience they are not inclined to share.
What the moment did teach me though, was as a teacher listening to students fret about unfamiliarity, the best I could do was redirect them to the poetry and writing. Politics, visual media, literature, and other art have shaped how these students are supposed to think about prison and what prison life is like. They may not know what prison life is like, but they do have an idea. So, I asked them to name as many artworks featuring incarceration they could. A list was developed quick and fast: The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight, Law and Order, Orange is the New Black, and more. After, I asked a question: how did these works characterize those locked up? Was it positive, negative, neutral? Were we supposed to sympathize with them? Did we know if they were guilty of some crime? They compiled their answers. After, it was time to go back to Michael Isaac Bethel. He deserved the last word.
He writes that “there is a form of entertainment” which “softens the heart and clears / the perception of those who would normally stigmatize / or show bias towards others.” Did the entertainment around them do such a thing? Did it stigmatize these incarcerated? Is this perhaps a potential fear holding them back? What the repercussions to their answers? Finally, what art would they present to Michael Isaac Bethel to accomplish this goal?
Works Cited
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/01/16/percent-incarcerated/
Add Comment