Capital-“X” gave an impassioned lecture about “the prison-industrial system” to a crowd of about 40 students at Nyumburu last night.
Capital-“X” has been in and out of the prison system since he was 17. He’s been on the inside, and now, he travels the world exposing the brutality and injustice he says exists in the American prison system.
Last night in the Nyumburu Cultural Center, Capital-“X,” a rapper and activist who was repeatedly incarcerated for drug-related offenses, told stories to a crowd of students about the prison industrial complex — all organizations involved in constructing, operating and promoting correctional facilities — and the parallels he sees between it and slavery.
“They stripped me of my name and gave me a number; they made me work. So now, who are the overseers? The prison guards. Who are the masters? The wardens. And who are the plantation owners? The corporations and the government,” Capital-“X” said. “It’s all about the money.”
Solomon Comissiong, the assistant director of student involvement and public relations for Nyumburu Cultural Center, said he brought Capital-“X” to the university as a way to heighten understanding of the issues in the prison system. The speech drew about 40 students, all of whom seemed to largely agree with the theories presented. Although a Q-and-A session was held following his lecture, no student challenged Capital-“X” to defend his ideals, despite their highly controversial nature.
“So many people have no idea what the prison industrial complex is — you have companies involved in the stock market and privatized prisons that make people a lot of money,” Comissiong said.
Throughout his two hour lecture, Capital-“X” criticized the treatment of prisoners and the lack of educational services provided inside prison walls.
“I went in a scared kid and came out a criminal,” he said. “In many European countries, they treat the prisoners like human beings, and in return, the prisoners act human. Here, they treat you like an animal, and that’s exactly what you become.”
Capital-“X” called for rehabilitation, not incarceration, for inmates. He said the prisoners need to be given inspirational stories and books that will push them to see their lives and potential on the outside in a positive light.
“Every single day, you have to work to better yourself and get ready for your release,” Capital-“X” said. “The revolution I’m fighting here is an informational revolution, because you’ve all been lied to [about the prison system].”
In the United States, he said, it’s the responsibility of the prisoners, not just the rehabilitation centers, to seek information, read books and learn. He cited countries such as Norway and Sweden as having an inherently different structure in their prison systems, comparing their prisons to repair shops and American prisons to warehouses.
Capital-“X” also stressed that many people don’t think about the amount of money being exchanged during the creation and maintenance of a prison: the construction, the employees, the administration, the businesses that distribute prison supplies, and the list goes on and on, he said.
He explained the prison industry as a multibillion-dollar operation second only to the military industry. He said if profits go down in prisons, the government creates new laws and finds new criminals.
“What does military do when business is slow?” he asked. “You start a war. … There’s so much money to be made there.”
After Capital-“X” concluded his talk, Comissiong used drug addicts as an example to illustrate the issues facing U.S. prisoners.
“You can’t take someone addicted to crack and expect them to be cured by incarceration,” Comissiong said.
farrell@umdbk.com
