Transcript
Soliloquy of Racism and Favoritism at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex in West Virginia By: Ricky Pendleton c/o: #41024-0iie Mountainside Way Mount Olive Correctional Complex Mount Olive, WV 25185 Soliloquy of Racism and Favoritism at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex in West Virginia For me to bear witness to the most disturbing kind of racism and not going off does show me that I have discipline. I have been in Mount olive Correctional Complex since February of2007. Now, it is March of 2013 and it is even more disturbing. I see the fake smiles and hellos from these racist and bigots which are really not authentic. What I am experiencing in this prison is like this, the majority of the population is caucasian inmates. This is a shock to me coming from a Federal prison and they are the minority. I noticed that the administration here has a high tolerance level when it comes to a troubled Caucasian inmate. On numerous occasions I have seen caucasian inmates who would get into trouble just get a slap on the hand and then they go about their way. This is different if it were a black inmate. The favoritism that the administration shows these caucasian inmates is so obvious, and the perception is like this: "they just made the wrong decision in life, " they are not trouble makers, " etc. However, they perceive the Blackman as "deviants, " "liars, " "cannot be trusted, " etc. This negative perception is spread like it is still the 1920's lies and propaganda of the black man. They even treat the black employees in a disrespectful way. There seems to be hidden protocol when it concerns black inmates, we are watched more closely than any other inmates on the complex. The administration is lacking when it comes to disciplining a caucasian inmates who get into trouble, but they are overly zealous toward black inmates getting into trouble even when a prison rule violation is a lower level violation. They are very open at being this way. I can see the racist intent in their actions. Staff members claim to be open minded but their action which contradict those words that they express. It seems that these staff members haven't ever interacted therewith a black person before, because they don't know how to communicate with us to be sociable. I see them talking heavily with a caucasian inmate like they enjoy the conversation. However, they get edgy while speaking with a black inmate. They don't have social skills when it concerns a black inmate. I remember having this situation where I am writing a book about my experience in Prison. I needed a little assistance on punctuation, so I had asked the grammar teacher for help and she had advised me to talk to an English teacher there. I was attempting to go talk to the English teacher, but he was on vacation at the time. The next day I was called to the lead teachers office, the grammar teacher had reported that I was harassing her and I only had two interactions with this teacher, one was for this punctuation and several months earlier. I think she fell into the stereotype of black people. She didn't know how to take me, a black man coming to her, she probably thought that I was going to rob her. All of the known stereotypes are alive and well in this prison. I also noticed that the staff members in the position to hire inmates don't hire as many black inmates they do caucasian inmates because they are not comfortable being around us and/or they are active in their racial tension. If a teacher is afraid of being around black inmates then how are we supposed to learn in here to better ourselves? This grammar teacher only teaches caucasian inmates, and I see her enjoying being around them but very uptight if around black inmates. This is very disturbing to me. There were this female employee who were showing every imnates her tattoos on her body. She also had shown me this and then started volunteered personal information concerning her exhusband. I was written up for compromising an employee because she was assuming that I wanted her to close the closet door with me and her inside. From the comment I had made, in which I stated that while she was venting about her ex-husband, I interrupted her and said, "you must have a lot of free time, cause it seems like you really wanted to talk." She didn't understand it and reported me. This does show me that they really do know how to communicate properly with black people in general. It is like we are from two different worlds. They don't really want to try and develop either. Racism is still alive and active all the time. People live solely on the negative propaganda about black people even when it isn't true, the administration has used this as their foundation for judgement against the black inmates. Now, I am being 'black balled,' which means by personal, or racial, etc., views they will not hire me and make it difficult for a black inmate to acquire a job assignment. They would even try to write us up for petty things in retaliation or for blatant not liking us. The administration does show more favoritism toward the Caucasian inmates than the black inmates regardless of how many times he gets into trouble. Many times I have witness the staff member holding their job after the inmate goes to lock-up for a certain time frame upon a prison rule violation. They would look out for them. When it happens to the black inmates they would hire some one else to take his place. The job assignment rules states that if you go to lock-up from a violation of a prison rule, you have to reapply for a job assignment. They would use this excuse to the black inmates. But hire a caucasian inmate soon after he is release from lock-up and back in general population. I had reapplied with the job coordinator for the following jobs: law library, laundry, gymnasium, and for Food Service etc. after I was released back to general population. A caucasian inmate was release to general population from lock-up a month after I was back in the general population for several months and he was hired in the laundry. Another episode was a caucasian inmate was hired back in the law library. Another scenarios was four caucasian inmates was on lock-up and the staff had held their jobs in the gymnasium until they were released. I had reapplied before all of them, tell me if this isn't fair. They would not hire me in the Food Service department because of the compromising an employee write-up. There were caucasian inmates that were actually involved with female staff members but still are not treated as bad as how the black inmates are being treated. After their lock-up time they would get jobs assignments working at restricted areas around even more female staff members. In other words, the caucasian inmates who get caught compromising an employee are not punished as great, even actually involved with a female staff member. However, a black inmate ask how a staff member is doing, he gets punished so excessively. A caucasian inmate had punched a male staff member in the face and he had gotten a job and I was out in general population way before he was and had reapplied before him for a job assignment. Tliere is no accountability with this administration that is why they will continue to do this prejudicial approach against the black inmates. I must say this, that no matter how grief the black inmates are under and how we are being prejudice against. We will prevail and overcome the administration's racist approach and unfair practices through out the prison. We Are Still Standing!
