I don't know what most white people in this country feel,

but I can only include what they feel from the state of their institutions.

Now, this is the evidence.

You want me to make an act of faith, risking myself, my wife, my woman, my sister, my children, on some idealism which you assure me

in America, which I have never seen.

Welcome back to Black History for White People, a podcast where we educate, resource, and

challenge white people about black history. I'm Brad, and on today's show are my co-host,

Katina and Garan. Today's topic is mass incarceration. We begin our series on the topic by setting up

some helpful information you'll want to refer to in future episodes. We discuss some statistics

regarding our criminal justice system, compare our efforts with those of other countries in regards

to criminal justice, and begin the conversation of some steps we can take to help our country's systems. We hope you enjoy the discussion.

Okay, today we're going to be talking about mass incarceration. Geryn, let's jump right into it.

What is mass incarceration? Mass incarceration is the systematic locking up of a massive number of Americans,

most especially people of color.

It is largely driven by the war on drugs.

They're not completely synonymous.

The war on drugs is probably the largest component of mass incarceration

that we're going to be spending time talking about,

but it's bigger than just the war on drugs. There's a lot to it. There are these reels that

sometimes I'll watch on Instagram where people will splash paint up against a canvas. At first,

it just looks chaotic, and you don't quite know what picture is emerging and then as you

watch a picture starts to emerge and by the end it starts to make sense and it feels like that's a

...