Three, what better way to cover up or camouflage the existence of political prisoners than to make them wear a mask – a one-size mask meant to fit all of them – “criminalization.” They are not political since they are “criminals.” Or rather, protest and dissension are criminalized.

Instances abound: Fred Hampton? They did it to themselves, as all those Black gangs do. Mumia Abu-Jamal? COINTELPRO could not find a criminal record for him (they admit as much), so words Mumia said after returning from Fred Hampton’s crime scene were taken out of context to carry a criminal intent.

Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt? The typical invisible man – he was made out to be on the scene of a crime where he was not. Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin? Another man confessed, but that messed up the prosecution’s scenario. The young eco-defenders in Weelaunee Forest? They are charged with “domestic terrorism” because, let’s see, their clothes were muddy.

My father, Richard Wright, had a maternal grandfather who was a runaway slave. I am in an ongoing conversation with Sister Dr. Janine Jones about political prisoners and slavery. We both agree that the first political prisoners in the United States were the runaway slaves who dared think outside the box of the plantation and who acted on it: if they were caught, they were criminalized for robbing their masters of the property their bodies represented.

(Emphasis original.)