Image by Justin Norman via Flickr
with Chris Hedges
Originally on RT America on Oct 16, 2021
The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel on Jul 1, 2022
On the show, part two of a two-part interview, journalist Hugh Hamilton discusses the saga of trauma and transformation in an American prison as chronicled in journalist Chris Hedges’ new book Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison.
The pipeline that fuels our system of mass incarceration runs through the intersection of race and poverty in all too many of our neglected and marginalized urban centers. In his new book, Our Class, author Chris Hedges describes the impact of this debilitating poverty that pervades many of our cities and towns.
He writes: “The social hell of urban America is the great destroyer of dreams. It batters and assaults the children of the poor. It teaches them that their dreams, and finally they themselves, are worthless. They go to bed hungry. They live with fear. They lose their fathers, brothers and sisters to mass incarceration – and, at times, their mothers.
“This social hell is relentless. It wears them down. It makes them angry and bitter. It drives them to hopelessness and despair. The message sent to them by the dysfunctional schools, the decrepit housing projects, the mercenary financial institutions, gang violence, instability, and ever-present police abuse, is that they are human refuse.”
See also:
Chris Hedges: God “Caged” in Jersey
From the archives:
Chris Hedges: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison, Part 1
David Swanson and Carissa Byrne Hessick: Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal
Chris Hedges: The Prison-Industrial Complex
Abby Martin: Tortured and Enslaved: Enter the World’s Biggest Prison
Chris Hedges: Prison State America: Corporations Use Inmates Like Slaves
Dandelion Salad 
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When did human evolution stop?
When did our ability for self realisation stop?
When did we become so enamoured and attached to materialism that we stopped Loving?
Were these simple joys suffocated and stomped on by religions, fear, capitalism or the struggle to survive under the brutal, bloody hands of exploitation?
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