Newspapers / Elizabeth City State University … / Dec. 1, 1972, edition 1 / Page 9
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THE COMPASS...December, luiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiu I Within/Without | I BY Wilbert White | The following poem was written on August 29th while I was confined to the sick room at the De partment of Corrections at Maury, North Carol ina. The title is “With in/Without." The poem describes the atmos phere of the room at the time I wrote it. From listening to the Brothers rap to each other, I could tell that their minds were in a state of worry even though they cracked a joke and laughed occasionally. The poem also expresses my emotions at that par ticular time. Not only my emotions, but the emo tions of the Brothers are here too. Not many people may understand this poem un less they understand that a “third eye" does exist in every human being. This “third eye” whidi I speak of is the “men tal eye” or the “mind.” But then you might ask: How can you see without a pupil? To see doesn’t necessarily mean to see visibly ONLY. But it means to understand. That’s what the third eye is for; to see not just the surface of people but to see within them. I have not quite overcome the uneasy feeling that I us ually get when I’m am ong strangers. But from listening to these Bro thers rap, the uneasy feeling has a tendency to fade away because I find that these strangers andl have something in com mon. “Within/Without” Confined within Confined without Within a cell Without a shout Of “what’s happening brother” What’s happening sis ter. And with a clean head No mind twister. Confined within Confined without Within the mind There is no doubt A worried state The depressive kind That twist the thoughts And plays on the mind. Confined within Confined without Within the walls of re pression Without a name Without a profession Within the mind Is deep depression Without a life Except that of oppres sion. Within the cell is joking And laughter Within the mind there is no happiness. Without a teacher no les son is taught Without the mind There is no thought. Within the face There is expression. And with a tear But without trace. Within the face Within the heart There is a tear That will not part. Within a thought Within the mind Within the face A tear is shed. Visible yet invisible. Visible only to the th ird eye of man The invisible eye The mental eye. Brother stranger. You’re not a com plete stranger. Stranger only In the visible sense. But I see you within The third eye. The mental eye. Without this mental eye. Brother, You are blind With the two that Are visible. Within this invisible eye. Nothing is without; Without a reason Without a thought Without an action. Use your third eye And Reason And Think And Act!!! And Reason And Think And Act!!! They Took IMy Name The following article was written on Tuesday September 5, 1972. The title is “They Took My Name and Gave Me a New.” It took me a few days to get used to be ing called by my new name. I got into a lit tle argument one day with one of the guards about this name they gave me. But that didn’t do any good. I’m still answer ing to their name and not my own. I don’t know what gave them the au dacity to change my na me. If any name is to be changed, it’s the name “Department of Correc tions.” You’ll see what I mean when you read this article. “THEY TOOK MY NA ME AND GAVE ME A NEW” You know, it’s really a shame how the people at Central Prison mess over the names of inma tes. Believe it or not, my nickname and my middle name have been combined to give me a new last name. My actual last name is now my middle name. Let me explain this. The name that was gi ven to me at birth was Wilbur Lee White. Dur ing high school and the years I’ve spent in col lege, my friends all cal led me TIP. Now TIP and my actual middle na me, White, is now my middle name. Oh, yea, not to forget that my first name is now WILBERT instead of WILBUR. Now my new full name is Wil bert White Tiplee. Isn t that a big change? It s a big mess-up, too. Where in the hell did the name “Department of Correc tions” come from? Seems to me it should be De partment of Changing. Now I am really get ting to see how law en forcers work their repre ssive tactics. First, they give you the crimes to commit; set you up to committing them; bust you; claim your life; send you to their Department of Corrections; change your name a little; then classify you as Grade “A” slave, “B” slave or “C” slave. It’s really “legalized slavery.” We learn in geometry that the “whole” is not greater than the sum of its parts. This is true when speaking of geome tric figures. But when we are speaking of people, human beings, this law cannot be applied. But you know. I’m inclined to be lieve that racist white Amerikkka and author itative people use this law when speaking of us pri soners; Black prisoners in particular. It is not true that the mind is a part of the human “Wh ole?” Well, then, this means that the human wii- ole is greater than the sum of its physical parts. It seems that authorita tive people fail to see that we oppressed people have a “mind” too. Just be cause they confine us in cages doesn’t mean that they have the human wh ole. They have only the custody of the physical whole. I guess they’re still working on capturing the minds of prisoners. That is something they’ll never do. They can lock up the human body, but they can never lock up the human mind. Who or What? The following article was written Friday, Sept ember 14, 1972; one day after I was transferred from Raleigh’s Central Prison to the Department of Corrections at Cres- well. North Carolina. 1 had just begun to serve a three- to five-year sen tence for my first crim inal offense of distribu ting heroin. Repression, racism and prejudicism is “wide open” at cor rectional institutions; as they are rediculously cal led. Correction is un heard of at correctional institutions. Think they rehabilitate prisoners? Nah. Read this and see what I mean. Who Or What Is To Be Corrected At Cor rectional Institutions The question I often ask myself, is “Who or what is being corrected? Are prisoners to be cor rected or are the atti tudes of prisoners to be corrected? If prisoners are to be corrected, the authorities can stop their efforts of trying to cor rect them, if they remak ing any efforts. How can “humans” be corrected? Not even the “attitudes of humans can be corr ected. Attitudes can only be changed. If the auth orities think that they can change the attitudes of prisoners toward society, they can get that thought out of their minds. This statement may be a little confusing^fo persons who are not familiar with what goes on at correctional institutions such as pri son units, mental hospi tals, etc. Nevertheless, I shall attempt to explain what I mean. There are exactly five (5) whites here in this cell block now and app roximately 35 Blacl^. There is no doubt in my mind that these Blacks have been given unjust sentences. I say this be cause I iiave rapped with some of them and the time they received for the lit tle ten-cent crimes they committed is definitely unjust punishment. Some of them, like myself, had no previous criminal re cords. One of the \^^tes that I rapped to was con victed for the same crime that I was convicted of and received a shorter sentence. This is what our prejudiced, racist, judges call “justice.’ This is enough to give any prisoner a “set ne gative attitude” against the authorities at these so-called “correctional institutions.” I know damn well they don’t th ink they can change those attitudes. 1 was under the impre ssion that “correctional institutions” and “reha bilitation centers” were set up to rehabilitate pri soners and/or mental pa tients. How can they change attitudes or reha bilitate prisoners when they don’t know the “rea son” for them commit ting the crime? Authori ties “think” they know because other persons have committed the same crimes, so they take for granted that the next per son who commits this cr ime, committed it for the same reason. Therefore, they say he should be sent to prison and treated the same way as the previous person was. From what I have seen, correctional institutions can do nothing for me or for anyone else. There is nothing here that can pre pare us for a better future life. What future is there in a bush axe or a sho vel? Maybe they don’t have any intentions of re habilitating us anyway. It seems to me that they only sent us here to decrease over population in society and so white Amer ikkka can keep in prac tice their repressive tac tics. Prisoners are sent to Central Prison in Ral eigh, North Carolina for the purpose of classifica tion. At CP (Central Pri son), prisoners are given physical examinations and written tests such as I.Q. and aptitude tests. But when they are class ified, the written tests aren t used. They only 1972...Page 9 look at the physical re-’ port. If the physical re port shows good health, then the prisoners qual ifies to be a “legal sl ave.” They use the writ ten tests ratings only to talk about your mental capacities and other cap abilities. JUST TALK. They tell you that job assignments will be based on those capabilities. They also tell you that they will TRY to assign you to a job that cor relates with your occu pation. All that is bull . There are men here with such occupa tions as carpentry, me chanics, construction workers, brick masons, etc. But all of them are swinging bush axes or pushin’ shovels. They call this fitting them into th eir occupations? If people only knew how prisoners are being deprived of th eir “human rights.” If they think the crimes we committed are disgrace ful to humanity or to soc iety, they should see how prison authorities mess over human beings. Pri soners ARE HUMAN you know. Authorities don’t seem to think of us as human beings, but we are. We are as human as they are. Maybe 1 should men tion something about ed ucational facilities. Here atCreswell’s Department of Corrections, THERE ARE NONE. There isn’t anything here that per tains to educational med ia. Unfortunately, I have not completed my college education. But even though I won’t be able to complete it for a while, I still want to read and study and learn things that will be beneficial to me once I’m free again. One thing I can say about the inmates here is that they are quite skillful in arts and crafts. This is the only thing that is educa tional to me in particu lar. You see. I’m an art major or was an art ma jor, and these guys have skills in crafts that I do not have. I can definitely learn some of those skills from them. Other than that, educational facili ties are nowhere to be found here. Oh, yea, there is a book rack just outside the cell block that has approximately forty-five (45) books. It’s a collec tion of mostly fiction, kid stories and westerns. Now, what would-be big, grown, rusty men look like reading a damn kid story or even a western book. Today (September 15) an inmate, who is ob viously mentally distur bed, walked outside an open gate and onto the highway, was shot at by one of the guards. The guard that shot either knew that the inmate is mentally disturbed (so missed purposely) or he just can’t shoot straight anyway. The inmate kept walking. Three of the gu ards then got into a van wagon and went after him and brought him back. O- ther inmates had told the guards that he was men tally distrubed, so no bru tality was performed to (Continued on Page 10)
Elizabeth City State University Student Newspaper
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Dec. 1, 1972, edition 1
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