#36 The Truth About Racism In Prison, In Wisconsin
by Nate A. Lindell P.O. Box 9900 Boscobel, WI 53805

You're thinking of infamous prison gangs like the "Aryan Brotherhood" or "skinheads," maybe free-world groups like the "Ku Klux Klan." This is what comes to the average person's mind when the topic of "racism" is raised, because it's always the white racists that get the media attention or star in movies. Yes, all of those groups exist, or prisoners exist who claim to be in those groups, even in Wisconsin's criminally disorganized prison system. But those groups are nothing like those portrayed in American Me and similarly toned prison movies, at least not in Wisconsin. The majority of racists in Wisconsin's prisons are, by far, not white, nor do white racist groups "run" anything.

Years ago my prison's chief gang investigator asked me why racism flourished in prison. His question went unanswered, but much thought about. To help you realize the answer, please consider this fair cross sample of characters I've known from my time in this prison (i.e. the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility - W.S.P.F.), prisoners who are typically abnormal:

Prisoner #1 - A middle-aged, single white male, short, physically fit, crudely tattooed, proud dope-fiend, toothless, convicted of multiple murders while in prison, fairly indifferent to non-whites (not hate orientated), not a pansy but in no way productive. Prison cunning, book stupid.
Prisoner #2 - A middle-aged, single black male, tall, physically fit, drug free, but willing to deal drugs (at least to whites), convicted of a single murder, obsessed with a desire to exterminate superior whites so the remnants can be enslaved, implicated in several conspiracies to kill white staff + prisoners. He's highly intelligent, a smooth talker, + very manipulative.
Prisoner #3 - A middle-aged, single hispanic (mestizo - he'd hate that word) male, tall, skinny, out of shape, willing to use + sell drugs, wearing some crude tattoos, convicted of at least one murder, obsessed with a desire to re-establish the Aztec empire (by which he means all of the Americas), implicated in several gang conspiracies, tried to stab a black prisoner to death. He's highly intelligent, a good talker, + very manipulative.
Prisoner #4 A thirty-something, single white male, average height, slim, physically fit, willing to sell drugs, sporting the remnants of tattoos representing the hispanic gang he once was in (now mostly covered up with Iron crosses + other Germanic symbols), convicted of stabbing a woman to death, tried to kill a black inmate, then was implicated in a conspiracy to kill other black prisoners, and stabbed two guards. With other "former" members of non-white gangs (they all retain their old ties) he help create a truly neo nazi group.

The extra prisoners in this play include a narcissistic black rapist, a sheisty white pedophile, a loud-mouthed black crackhead, a white coke-fiend biker, a Puerto Rican nationalist, one white + one black Bible fanatics, several black Islamists, a bi-sexual and tri-racial kid who screams slurs against whites (his mom's straight Norwegian), several black street gang members, two American Indian radicals/addicts, one slithery snitch (half of these guys will snitch, but this guy will openly + looks like he'll snitch), two cranks who're always arguing with anyone they can.

Et voila, you have the typical ingredients for a tier/range in my prison. You must consider who's stirring the stew. Consider this sample shift of C.O.s working on the unit containing the forenoted tier/range, along with three other tiers/ranges of 24-26 cells:

C.O. #1 - A middle-aged, single white female, unattractive, bitter at mankind for failing to fulfill her knight-in-shining-armor fantasy, bitter at time for stealing once-tolerable looks, bitter at the government for cutting her retirement benefits, bitter at her grown children for forgetting about her, suffering from alcoholism, disgusted at prisoners for being so downtrodden + broken, disgusted at herself for relying on the attention of desperate, caged men to artificially inflate her self-esteem, uneducated... It's all bad.
C.O. #2 - A middle-aged, married (supposedly) white male, sloppy fat, suffering from seg-psychosis, intellectually undeveloped, a sadist in sadist heaven, a pathological liar who creates senseless conflicts with captives, a homosexual trapped in a marriage he unconsciously despises, with poor hygiene... All bad too.

Here the extras include several more slovenly, emotionally disturbed, mental midgets, social misfits, most of whom who find their employment as prison guards to be salvation from their own miserable lives. If they had more balls they could easily wind up in prison themselves, + some eventually do wind up imprisoned.

Isn't it absurd that those supposed to be correcting prisoners need correction themselves? C'est vrai!

There are no heroes within the prison system. Both prisoners and prison staff are typically (not always) the product of broken, abusive, addiction - plagued + otherwise agued families. The sick are in charge of healing the sick, or at least paid to pretend to attempt to heal the sick.

Prison staff often fall into the delusion that the role they're playing is real, that their uniform or rank has wiped away all their flaws. Prisoners often react against this overdegradation of the system by rejecting all criticism for their mistakes. In both cases personality flaws are left to grow.

Institutions like prisons strip both staff and inmate of much of their individual identity, forcing them into unnatural, uniform roles. And both staff + inmates, more or less, have a yearning to be their full selves, a full personality, as Carl Jung put it, to achieve "individuation." The more superior the person, the more they'll feel impelled to achieve individuation, which threatens any institution, as institutions require conformity/uniformity. The oppression of personality fuels racial extremism in various ways:

*blacks (some) perceive it as a continuation of the oppression inflicted on their ancestors by white slaveowners, continued by a mostly white prison system;
*some whites perceive it as the result of a Jew-ran government conspiring to destroy the white race + promote minorities;
*some American Indians perceive it as more oppression from European invaders

But, as with any empire, this American empire can't satisfy all of the various groups it rules over + will tend to alienate them all. Every ethnic, religious, or cultural group will find groups to believe this empire is conspiring against them (unfortunately often the wrong conspiracy theory is believed), because fate is mollywhopping them. I believe that, for prisoners, the boondoggle that is dehumanizing us is the result of a short-sighted, greedy press incensing a gullible public with sensationalized crime stories, whom sheisty +/or ignorant politicians try to appease in order to get elected, ultimately to make a few people rich + powerful.

The one thing that can't be stripped from prisoners nor from staff is their skin. Cultural history, traditions, + beliefs are difficult to erase. These components of personality take on greater importance in prison's dehumanizing environment; they are easily blown out of proportion (out of proportion to the more superficial, faster, freer outside society, but normal within confined society of prison). Oppressed people can + often do grasp at their ethnic or religious or political/gang (same thing) identity more freely than someone who doesn't feel they're drowning. Fanaticism can flourish within such people, who often lack real love + rightly disregard criticism from those who don't care for them.

So many prisoners + prison staff suffer from a profound sense of meaninglessness + abandonment (by society, their families, and their friends), and hopelessness that it's surprising more don't lap up ideologies that tell them they're superior, have a purpose, are part of something + have hope for an escape from their fate due to their illustrious ancestry. Thus the following racist beliefs proliferate in prisons:

*The Nation of Islam's (N.O.I.'s) belief that white people, particularly blond-haired + blue-eyed people, are evil spirit creatures.
*The Christian Identity (C.I.) belief that non-white people are the descendants of Cain or otherwise cursed by God.
*The Moorish Science Temple of America's (M.S.T.A.'s) theory (one of many) that black people came from Mars to enlighten the white race.
*The Five Percenters' belief that white people were invented in test tubes by black people.
*The belief of Aztec revivalists that humans must be sacrificed to appease their Gods + all non-natives should be wiped from the Americas.

The more insecure a person is, the more they feel they have something to prove or live down, the tighter will be their compensatory embrace of some ideology, racism or another ism. Thus some of the most intense racists I've met have been sex offenders, dope fiends, those with low intelligence, those once in gangs of another ethnic group, those with mental problems. And, of course, those who find themselves under attack for their ethnicity. You should now see why each of the sample prisoners noted earlier are vulnerable to developing racially hateful or paranoid beliefs, amongst other fanaticisms.

It is a myth, at least in Wisconsin, that white supremacists (or separatists - there is a difference) "run" the prison system - ruthless capitalists do, and very few have sympathy for white prisoners, particularly racially conscious whites. I should know, as I've been labelled a member of the white separatist group named the Aryan Circle (A.C.), which is the major reason I've been held in Administrative Confinement in this prison for almost 11 years now. But, no, I'm not about hating other races, just helping mine (no one else is).

Feel free + disagree or say more. My next postings will include an essay titled "The Struggle We're in As White Convicts," which covers the types of anti-white racism I've encountered in prison.

Best regards to ya,
Nate