2-4-10+--++SSDP+to+Boot+Camp

SSDP traveled to 26th and Rockwell to tour the Cook County Boot Camp (CCBC). This was a particularly emotional experience for the students -- moreso than for previous SSDP chapters in past years -- why? The set-up was a little different. In graderoom the day before, we watched excerpts from "War on the Family", a film Shanti's group was interested in -- this film made explicit connections between the drug war and the Jim Crow era, which all the juniors are studying right now in their "Legacy of Reconstruction" units in U.S. History. I thought it was really, really good. I don't think we've gone to Boot Camp during the Legacy of Reconstruction unit before, and it was like watching the history come alive. This trip should ALWAYS juxtapose with this unit. Watching the young men -- almost exclusively young men of color -- marching in formation to the all-white drill sergeants' commands, it was hard to miss the connection. One kid in the group (Gabe) is vocally in doubt of this notion that Jim Crow and the drug war are connected, whereas most of the others are very curious about what they see as a legitimate connection. Several kids asked to leave the boot camp in the middle of the tour -- not because they were physically sick, but because they felt so uncomfortable watching the men as though they were zoo animals that they felt guilty for what they say as a voyeuristic role.

The trip there was informative -- we took just two buses (the #22 to the #60), and got incredibly lucky with short waiting times, but it still took well over an hour, and everyone ended up in a part of Chicago they had never seen. The ease with which Chicagoans could live their lives and NEVER witness the stark realities of Boot Camp was not lost on them.

Very interested in meeting with the group again tomorrow to hear their reactions, 6 days later. I remain in the dark about how to turn this into an action project -- how do you address criminal justice??? Shanti's group seems much more attuned to the particularities of reform legislation -- need to talk to her about how SSDP could get involved with something like that, if that's what they want to do.