by Missy aka Infinite Mentality, San Mateo County
Concept: The abolition of the criminal injustice system is at the root of designing this mural.
Now more than ever the deep wound inflicted upon the oppressed is showing face in a magnitude of ways. The prison industrial complex is the beating heart embedded deep within the mechanisms of these systems of oppression rooted in white supremacist politics.
As the University community returns to school this Fall 2020 it is my intention with this mural to spark a deep reflection into an experience many in this community never have come to live themselves.
This work is a compilation of pieces of my “jacket”, my file, my criminal history, it is my
adolescence growing up institutionalized all on record. A tangible history of being a child enduring the horrors of the criminal injustice system. Atop my record is a screaming statement to dismantle the system. A system which statistically keeps the oppressed disenfranchised from generation to generation evolving with the times.
We are living in a pivotal moment in history, one in which the masses are becoming increasingly aware of the discrepancies between a system that claims it is just while keeping Black and Brown bodies at the mercy of unimaginable atrocities while the privileged continue to benefit from such systems.
A system which thrives off the criminalization and imprisonment of children who grow up to become broken adults; bodies to fuel the prison industrial complex.
I implore you to allow the unmasking of such oppressive systems to move you to develop a critical consciousness so that you may not be neutral in times of injustice. Let this piece move you to action, to stand up for our Black and Brown community, and if nothing else let this piece move you to no longer be complicit to a system which thrives off the pain and misery of the most vulnerable, the marginalized, the forgotten.
Even if you have never experienced these atrocities yourself you have the power to manifest transformational change. It begins within yourself when you make the decision to consciously do so.